The number of Pasifika midwives serving the Wellington region has hit a record high.
Wellington used to be served by just one “very lonely” Pasifika midwife. It’s now up to eight, after three Pasifika midwifery students recently graduated.
Growing numbers meant “more Pacific families can access care that is culturally grounded and linguistically accessible”, Health New Zealand Pacific workforce lead Pauline Fuimaono Sanders said.
Between June 2023 and June 2024, 10.7% of babies born in New Zealand were of Pasifika descent. However, Pasifika midwives only make up 4% of the national midwifery workforce.
The 2023 Census showed more than 442,000 New Zealanders identified as Pasifika, about 9% of New Zealand’s population.
By 2033, that number was projected to rise as high as 600,000 Pasifika New Zealanders.
New graduate Rachel Perese was present for the births of 10 babies before becoming a midwife.
The “penny dropped” and she realised she should train in midwifery after helping her sister-in-law deliver her baby on the side of the road, halfway to the hospital.
Perese, 45, has three children herself and experienced first-hand the benefits of having a culturally aware midwife.
She had a “horrible experience” when she gave birth to her first child, which resulted in an emergency caesarean section.
During her second and third pregnancies, she had a Māori midwife who “changed her perspective on what care should look like”.
Despite not being Pasifika, Perese’s midwife understood her culture, her family, supported her decisions about her pregnancy and made her feel “safe”.
That included her not judging Perese’s decision to take care of her brother, who was experiencing drug-induced psychosis, while she was pregnant.
As a new midwife, she said it was gratifying to meet Pasifika families and see their faces “light up” when they realised she looked like them.
“They know that you’re going to do the best possible thing to get them the best outcome.”
Penina Fitisemanu has been a midwife for 30 years and was the only Pasifika community lead maternity carer in central Wellington for several years.
Fitisemanu said her background meant she did not judge Pasifika mothers for the situations they were in and did not “work off a script” to speed through appointments.
She said when she walked into the home of a pregnant Pasifika woman, she knew she needed to spend meaningful time connecting with her whole family in order to give her the healthcare she needed.
That could mean sitting down to share a cup of tea, observing family dynamics and devoting time to translating medical jargon.
Fitisemanu said she had recently cared for a pregnant mum who had just moved from Samoa to New Zealand and struggled with English.
She took time to explain how the healthcare system worked in Samoan, spent an hour helping her fill out online forms and continued to visit her when she had post-partum complications.
“I think a non-Pasifika person would struggle in that situation ... I’m not sure if anyone else would have the patience to do it.”
She said the family were “mindblown” by the care they received and kept trying to give her gifts and food to show their appreciation.
Fitisemanu said the slow growth of Pasifika midwifery in the Wellington region brought “hope and joy” because it gave Pasifika mothers more choices over their healthcare.
There are currently 20 Pasifika students enrolled in midwifery and Health NZ was experiencing an increase in Pasifika students applying for scholarships, Sanders said.
“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but now we are seeing that the strategy we have set is contributing to making a difference,” she said.
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.