Chelsea Anderson, Clinical Midwife Consultant: I always wanted to be a midwife when I was a child. I vividly remember being fascinated by a growing, pregnant belly.
Hi, I’m Chelsea Anderson. I’m the Clinical Midwifery Consultant at Broken Hill Health Service.
I act as a link between the executive and the clinicians on the floor, as well as working closely with the Maternity Unit Manager, and the other line managers in the area, as well as provide some clinical support when needed.
Some of them don’t work on small syringes, though.
I think the influence that you can have upon a maternity service, particularly a small rural service, in a CMC role is really valuable.
I also think it’s really special to look after the staff that look after the women.
It’s a chance for you guys to debrief about something.
I like to see my role as nurturing and looking after and ensuring that my staff are safe and happy and like to come to work, so that they can pass that care onto the women.
Did someone mention that Shae and I went to preschool together?
Colleague: And primary school. And primary school, that’s right.
Chelsea Anderson, Clinical Midwife Consultant: Living in Broken Hill, we are a small population so you will run into women who you’ve looked after, and I really love that. I really love being able to maintain that connection with the women.
I remember saying to Kate, I was like ‘Okay, so lots of people are going to come in, in a minute’.
She had all types of stuff going on, didn’t she?
I think Broken Hill Maternity is very lucky to be able to have the core and the MGP teams, they work together to be able to provide that holistic care for women, whether that’s pre-labour, during the labour and during their time at the hospital, as well as when they go home.
If I’m getting called in the middle of the night, say you’re calling me in the middle of the night, I know I’m coming to work for someone I know and especially if you’re going to have a baby, it’s the best thing to be coming into work for.
I really want to make sure that I’m involved in the community. The Central Football Club in Broken Hill, it has a really great community sense.
This year I became the secretary of the footy club board, and that’s a role that I’ve never done before.
Getting kids out and about, and starting a healthy lifestyle early is really important, as we know.
Football Coach: I feel like in the past, that we’ve just been waiting for a little bit of energy to come through again, so I’m really looking forward to it. Yeah.
Chelsea Anderson, Clinical Midwife Consultant: Great.
Can you include Tim on that, because I was like Ally’s come up with this brilliant plan.
I’m proud to be a midwife because I have influence and I can help shape the experience of women and their babies from my position, giving a family and the child a really good start to life, that starts even before they’re born, is essential for growth and health and a really good outcome as their life goes on.
The relationship that you form with women when you caseload women is why we become midwives.
Working with women and working with families during pregnancy and birth and those first six weeks is really important, and really special, and if I can help the staff help the women do that in a small way, then I’m really happy with that.