Jay and Dani’s Story
Like most Māori midwives, Jay Waretini-Beaumont (Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Uenuku, Ngāti Apa) wears many pōtae. In addition to her role as chairperson of Māori Midwives ki Tahu (MMKT), Jay is the treasurer of Ngā Māia Trust, a Māori liaison in the midwifery department at Ara, and in July 2023 started a new role as a Māori midwifery advisor for the New Zealand College of Midwives.
Having grown up in Ōtautahi, Jay has been a registered midwife for 10 years and since graduating, has worked as an LMC midwife in Ōtautahi and Kaikoura, as well as working shifts on a casual basis at Christchurch Women’s Hospital, where she focused largely on supporting tauira Māori as they made their way through their midwifery education.
Jay has always had a particular passion for supporting tauira Māori and Māori new graduate midwives, so her portfolio in her most recently acquired role as a Māori midwifery advisor for the New Zealand College of Midwives is a perfect fit. Tasked with reviewing the Midwifery First Year of Practice (MFYP) programme, Jay is now uniquely positioned to influence not only how the programme is structured, but how it’s addressing workforce inequities. “Because MFYP focuses on sustaining tauira and new graduates, which in turn will fix the profession, it aligns beautifully with what I want to be doing,” Jay explains.
Jay’s post-graduate study has also shaped her perceptions. “My Master’s in Māori and Indigenous Leadership has prepared me for working my way up the ladder and being a creative cog of systemic change in our profession. My dissertation was on what sustains me as a Māori midwife, so I see my new role as an opportunity to work together with the College, to be more culturally responsive to the needs of its Māori members, and to make MFYP a safer place for the increased number of Māori and Pasifika midwives coming through, thanks to Te Ara Ō Hine. The other hats I wear - Māori Midwives ki Tahu and Ngā Māia – in combination with this new role, will work to increase whānaungatanga, which can only be a good thing.”
Jay juggles all of this mahi with māmātanga, guiding her three daughters through their various stages of life. When asked how and why she does it, Jay says “I do it because it has to be a better place out there for all of us – for the whānau we serve. But in order to reach whānau, we’ve got to fix the workforce, sustain it and make it safe. And the time is now. So I’m doing my bit, playing my role in order to open the doors for others to follow behind me.”
“And how do I do it?” she laughs, “two merged calendars, 15 to-do lists and a little bit of passion and drive thrown in.”
Dani Gibbs (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāti Apa, Te Āti Awa ki Te Tau Ihu, Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) has been a midwife for six years and like Jay, has worked in a number of roles and continues to wear various hats to improve hauoratanga for whānau Māori in Waitaha.
Dani’s career thus far has included community-based work as an LMC with Rātā Midwives, shift work at Christchurch Women’s Hospital, as well as a clinical coach role which saw her supporting midwives as they either transitioned into the tertiary hospital environment, or upskilled to provide more complex care.
“I really like teaching and I like working with students,” Dani explains. “Having been both a hospital midwife and an LMC I felt I could identify a lot of gaps as a clinical coach - where better support could be provided and we could achieve higher retention of new staff. I also saw it as an opportunity for there to be some more collegiality within the DHB as well. At the time I was the only person that identified as Māori within the leadership team.”
While working as a clinical coach Dani discovered she was hapū with her first baby, so these days her mahi is carried out a bit closer to home, as she performs one of her most challenging but rewarding roles yet; being a full-time māmā to one of MMKT’s most loved members, her beautiful daughter Kahurangi.
Balancing māmāhood with her other roles as 2IC for MMKT, Ngā Māia trustee, NZ College of Midwives board representative for Te Wai Pounamu and administration/website management work for Ōtautahi’s Midwifery Resource Centre keeps Dani incredibly busy, but the mahi is rewarding.
“I’m passionate about it because I didn’t get much support myself as a student midwife. We talk a lot about there being a difference between a midwife who is Māori and a Māori midwife, and I think that’s largely based on the support around you. Until the last couple of years, I would have identified as a midwife who was Māori, but my practice didn’t reflect that.”
Moving to Ōtautahi after completing her midwifery education at Otago Polytechnic gave Dani the opportunity to find support in other Māori midwives like Jay, and it wasn’t long before she joined MMKT. Her motivation to keep the rōpu alive and strong is largely due to recognising what would have been helpful when she was a student. “We have so many Māori students coming through and we haven’t always had the supports in place. If we didn’t have MMKT they’d all graduate, but with no cultural support. So I do it because I didn’t get any of that tautoko myself and it probably wasn’t until I met Jay that I felt comfortable to go on my own journey of exploration.”
