Goulburn midwife and CWA provide information to reduce fear around childbirth

The support of her midwife helped her bear the pain.

"I found when she wasn't there, the pain was more intense," Ms Staines said.

"She just seemed to help settle things and it was a much better experience while she was there supporting me."

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After returning from maternity leave, Ms Staines took up an offer to become a midwife at Goulburn Base Hospital herself. She had been working part-time in paediatrics but was looking to move to full-time hours.

"It was the best decision I've ever made," she said.

However, since starting as a midwife in 2007 Ms Staines said she had witnessed staff levels tighten and an increasing need to attract experienced midwives back to the industry.

"We seem to be scratching every week to have enough staff," she said.

In a submission to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into rural and regional health, Dr Simon Holliday wrote according to the Rural Doctors Association of Australia 50 per cent of all rural maternity units had closed around the nation over the last decade.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association echoed these concerns in its submission, flagging insufficient staffing as a major concern.

Ms Staines said colleagues had left the industry to have their own children but had not received adequate support to be able to return.

She was also concerned about the rate senior staff were retiring, leaving the hospital with eager junior staff but no one to guide them.

"I think that's where we're running into the problem, we don't have too many [midwives] that are my age," she said.

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The 51-year-old said she felt her personal experiences with childbirth helped her connect to her patients.

"I had a miscarriage before I had the boys and that was at 15 weeks," she said.

"Being able to look after those women that come in with miscarriages or some sort of pregnancy loss, I think that helped me to be able to care for them."

This year, the Country Women's Association of NSW has partnered with the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association and the Gidget Foundation Australia to help raise awareness about the lack of adequate maternity services in rural NSW.

President of the CWA of NSW, Joy Beames, said having a baby should be a wonderful time for parents and families.

"Instead we're looking at a situation where mothers are having to endure stress and uncertainty, and even fear for their lives and the life of their baby," she said.

To help provide more education locally three Goulburn CWA branches in partnership with the Marulan branch are putting together a week-long display at Goulburn Mulwaree Library.

To launch the display an afternoon tea will be held including presentations from a variety of speakers about maternity and associated services in the Goulburn district. The afternoon tea will take place on Monday, September 19 from 3pm to 4pm and information will be available at any time during the rest of the week.

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Ms Staines said education was vital to remove stigmas or unnecessary fears around childbirth, as was having the appropriate facilities and staffing levels.

"Everyone loves to share a horror story and a lot will say they've been in labour for days and days," Ms Staines said.

"They actually class established labour as four centimetres dilated so you can have these niggly pains for days until you actually kick into established labour.

"If you look at that time, generally [labour] is around six to ten hours, it's not as scary."

The midwife acknowledged that some women did have negative birthing experiences and it was important to have support systems in place for such cases.

"If they do feel they've had a horrific childbirth... it can last with them till the next pregnancy or it can be what stops them going and having a bigger family," she said.

Ms Staines said the first step to improving the situation was to fix staffing levels but wanted women to know they should never feel alone after giving birth.

"A lot of women think labour is the hard part but I think establishing breastfeeding and all of that sort of stuff [after birth] can be just as difficult," she said.

"They just have to give us a call and we're all happy to be there at the drop of a hat."

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