The ANMF (Vic Branch) welcomes the appointment of Chief Midwife Elisa McDonald. McDonald is the first Chief Midwife appointed in Victoria. She previously worked as Senior Maternity Adviser, Safer Care Victoria, and as a midwife at Western Health and is a true advocate for the midwifery profession, for women and birthing people and for equitable access to maternity, sexual and reproductive health care.
‘ANMF represents nearly 8,000 Victorian midwives and has long advocated for this position. This appointment is wonderful news for the profession as a Chief Midwife will ensure that midwives will be represented at the highest level by a clinical leader who understands the maternity system and the unique challenges faced by midwives,’ said ANMF (Vic Branch) Assistant Secretary and former ANMF maternity services officer Nicole Allan.
‘We look forward to working with the Chief Midwife to drive reform and strengthen maternity care for our members, who want to work in a system that provides access, choice and flexibility to them and the families in their care.’
Midwives, nurses, mums and babies will also benefit from the Allan Government’s decision to extend the neonatal postnatal support nurse pilot underway at University Hospital Geelong, Werribee Mercy Hospital and Western Health Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital Sunshine since late 2024. The new role will be introduced at Royal Women’s Hospital, Monash Medical Centre (Clayton) and Mercy Hospital for Women (Heidelberg).
ANMF called for the new role in postnatal wards to help keep more newborns with additional needs and their mothers together instead of sending unwell neonates to the special care nursery. The new role was also designed to increase the number of midwives in Victoria by providing registered nurses who had limited exposure to maternity settings an opportunity to work on a postnatal ward before committing to postgraduate midwifery studies.
‘Midwives who were cautious at first are now saying they don’t know how they managed without these nurses and we’re also seeing experienced nurses decide to take on the post-graduate employment model, which is a faster way to increase the midwifery workforce,’ said Ms Allan.
By 1 July these six hospitals will also see the full implementation of increased nightshift postnatal nurse-to-baby ratios from 1:6 to 1:4, plus a neonatal postnatal support nurse on every shift.
‘This means midwives and nurses will be working together to provide care and to keep more mums and babies together and that means better health outcomes and a better start to life,’ Ms Allan said.
Both these measures are part of the Allan Government’s broader commitment to strengthening healthcare for women and babies.
The appointment of a Chief Midwife was a key recommendation of the Maternity Taskforce Report, released in 2025 by the Victorian Maternity Taskforce.
ANMF (Vic Branch) is a member of the Victorian Maternity Taskforce, formed in 2024 to strengthen maternity care by addressing workforce challenges and improving service delivery, with a focus on regional Victoria.
Other recommendations of the report include improving access and models of care, establishing a maternity and newborn workforce plan and database to guide workforce planning. The Chief Midwife will lead the implementation of the taskforce recommendations relating to maternity services.
About us:
The ANMF (Vic Branch) has over 111,000 members – nurses, midwives and aged care personal care workers – across the Victorian health and aged care sectors.
Contact details:
Media contact: Liz Ascroft 0498 556 231
