Riverland Mallee Coorong midwifery team wins excellence award
A new model of care at the Murray Bridge hospital is producing shorter hospital stays and healthy mums and babies.
If you’ve given birth in the Murraylands in the past year, you might already know this, but: the local midwifery team is the best.
Now it’s official.
The Riverland Mallee Coorong’s midwifery model of care team won an excellence in practice award at the 2023 South Australian Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards on Friday.
They were described as “a passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic team … committed to providing women, babies and families with the best care possible”.
The adoption of a midwife-led model of care at Murray Bridge Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital had led to a surge in bookings and reductions in the length new mothers needed to stay in hospital after giving birth.
Together with GP-obstetricians, midwives care for women from the beginning of their pregnancy until six weeks after they give birth.
Midwife and project leader Vanessa Drummond put the team’s success down to its willingness to learn, face challenges and be creative.
“Excellence in practice … results in well women, well babies and well and functioning families,” she said.
It also meant respecting women and making sure they felt cared for, no matter their birth outcome, midwife and lactation consultant Victoria Sutton added.
State Health and Wellbeing Minister Chris Picton congratulated them and all the other winners.
“Nurses and midwives go above and beyond in their dedication to caring for patients, their families and their communities, delivering outstanding care to all South Australians,” he said.
“I’m so pleased to be able to celebrate these outstanding people.”
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