[ozmidwifery] From Claudia.

[Anglodutch NTL Account]

Hi all.   My name is Claudia and I work as a midwife in the UK. However, I am searching for jobs in Australia and hoping to move to Oz by the end of this year. I have a husband and 2 children who are coming with me and our preferred places to live would be either Western Australia or Queensland, providing we can find any midwifery jobs in either state. As I am a direct entry midwife without nursing qualifications, it's proving a bit tricky to find jobs in the areas we are interested in.   If there are any midwives out there, in WA or Queensland who would like to tell me a bit more about what midwifery is like overthere, I would love to receive some feedback. I currently work in a caseload system, doing antenatal and postnatal care in the community, and delivering most of our clients in hospital, although we do homebirths as well. I work in London, in a very multicultural area, and the majority of our women would seem to be high risk! I sometimes wonder what's happened to normal birth....   I gather that I won't have much of a chance of doing community midwifery in Australia - perhaps even less in Queensland than in WA. How family friendly is the midwifery profession? I have seen quite a few advertisements for self rostering/flexible shift hours, etc. but is that universal or does it only exist in isolated pockets? What sort of a mix of high/low risk women do you get in various areas?   And if there's anybody out there with children, please tell me what you think of the education system. I have a 12 year old and a 10 year old (both boys). We are hoping to get to Australia by January next year at the latest so that my oldest can start secondary school at the beginning of the school year. Having completed a year in secondary school in England already, his favourite subjects appear to be Science, Maths and French!   If there any midwives reading this who have moved to Australia themselves recently (particularly if you moved from England), I would love to hear of your migration experiences.   Look forward to hearing from you!   Claudia.