The launch of a new government initiative today will see New Zealand's five midwifery education providers work together to address the shortage of Māori and Pasifika midwives in the country.
The Te Ara ō Hine for Māori and Tapu Ora for Pasifika will be developed by Māori and Pacific midwifery
educators, students, new graduates, and stakeholders from Auckland University of Technology, Victoria University of Wellington, Otago Polytechnic, Ara Institute of Canterbury and Waikato Institute of Technology.
Less than 10 percent of midwives identify Māori as their first, second, or third ethnicity and less than three percent as Pasifika.
However, figures from the New Zealand College of Midwives shows 25 percent of Aotearoa's birthing population in 2018 identified as Māori, and 10 percent as Pasifika.
RNZ Pacific's Sela Jane Hopgood reports.
Photo: newborn baby
