Programme

Early bird registration
closing prior to:

Friday 18 July 2025

Wednesday 27 August
Pre-conference workshops

These workshops are available for conference delegates at an additional cost and subject to availaibility. For further details on the workshops, including costs please click here.

9.00am – 1.00pm

A | Tūranga Kaupapa
Ngā Māia

This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives, and only open to College members.

  • This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives.

    This workshop session, brought to you by Ngā Māia Māori Midwives o Aotearoa, enables midwives to explore cultural safety and reflect on Tūranga Kaupapa in practice. The Midwifery Council require that within the 2024-2027 recertification cycle all midwives in Aotearoa must complete 8 hours of Tūranga Kaupapa cultural safety education, and Ngā Māia are their accredited provider. This is a great opportunity to meet your recertification requirements while attending conference and immerse yourself in a wonderfully crafted, immersive education experience. Ngā Māia and the College have partnered to bring you this opportunity at a significantly discounted price – a conference super special!

9.00am – 12.00pm 

B | Aromatherapy essentials for maternity
Sarah Ballard

  • Aromaternity workshops offer practical evidence-informed aromatherapy education to enable safe use of essential oils during pregnancy, labour and birth, and beyond.

    This in-depth workshop designed to be fun and interactive!  Participants learn what essential oils are and how they exert physiological and psychological effects on the body.  An exploration of six specifically chosen essential oils will provide education and confidence for their use within pregnancy, labour and/or birth.   

    A content booklet is provided, and participants will also make a bespoke essential oil birth blend bottled in a 10ml roll-on vessel to take away.

9.00am – 12.00pm 

C | Enhancing pelvic health: Practical tools for midwives
Melissa Davidson

This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives.

  • Pregnancy and childbirth bring about remarkable changes to a woman's body, encompassing physiological, physical, hormonal, and psychological transformations. While some women navigate these changes with ease, many others experience significant pelvic health challenges. These can include urinary incontinence (affecting 40-65% during pregnancy and 30% post-partum), perineal tears (up to 85%), levator ani avulsions (15-52%), withdrawal from social and physical activities (50%), and sexual dysfunction (over 15%). These issues can have a lasting impact on a woman's life.

    In this workshop, we will explore simple and effective tools that pelvic health physiotherapists use, which midwives can seamlessly integrate into their practice to enhance patient care throughout the childbearing year. We will also discuss easy-to-implement prevention strategies to ensure the best long-term outcomes for your patients and address common misconceptions about pelvic floor muscles and health.

9.00am – 10.30am 

D | Navigating equitable and best practice for the management of iron-deficiency anaemia in pregnancy and postpartum: What is the evidence, and where are the gaps
Calje Esther

10.30am – 12.00pm

E | Topical issues for employed midwives
Caroline Conroy, MERAS

This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives.

  • The health sector is in a period of change. This workshop will provide an opportunity to update and discuss with employed midwives the topical changes that are occurring and their impact on employed midwives.

    Current work that is underway for MERAS that impacts on employed midwives includes:

    • The pay equity claim for those midwives working in the maternity funded sector in primary maternity units or as caseload midwives

    • The senior midwife working party and job evaluation process that commenced in 2024 with Health NZ

    • The MERAS & Health NZ Collective negotiations with a new Collective to be ratified this year.

    • Discussions on the changing skill mix within our maternity services as more new graduate midwives join the workforce and the impact on new graduates and the experienced midwives supporting them.

    • Care capacity demand management (CCDM) and the changes occurring this year and how does this support the work midwives.

    As well as the current work listed above there may well be new issues and opportunities emerging and this workshop will provide a great opportunity for employed midwives to discuss those.

    This will be an interactive, flexible workshop with lots of opportunity for discussion and sharing of ideas.

1.00pm – 4.00pm

F | Perineal protection – translating evidence into midwifery practice
Robin Cronin

This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives.

1.00pm – 2.30pm

G | The culture of deprivation
Isabella Smart

1.00pm – 2.30pm

I | Tukukura: Exploring practical strategies to help calm the birth space and yourself
Deb Peters

3.00pm – 4.30pm

J | The app is where it is at
Karen Palmer, Kristina Maconaghie

3.00pm – 4.30pm

K | Perinatal pathological investigations after baby loss: Answering all your questions
Kay Jones

This workshop is specifically designed for registered midwives.

5.15pm – 7.15pm

New Zealand College of Midwives Annual General Meeting

Thursday 28 August

Our conference begins at 9.45am, giving you the flexibility to travel in the morning and only requiring one night’s accommodation.
For your convenience, there is plenty of onsite parking available at Claudelands.
The exhibition will open at 8.30am, with tea and coffee available to welcome you as you arrive.

9.45am

Mihi whakatau and opening comments

10.30am

Morning Tea amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

11.00am

Keynote presentation 
Prof Saraswathi Vedam

11.45am

Birth in Aotearoa: panel discussion
This panel discussion brings together a dynamic group of expert speakers who will explore the reality of giving birth in Aotearoa in 2025. This will cover a broad range of topics including outcomes, experiences, the rise of medicalisation of birth, whānau choosing to opt out of the maternity care system, the influence of screening and guidelines, and midwifery responsibility when navigating this landscape. Our experts will also reflect on how giving birth in Aotearoa today compares with an international context.

12.30pm

Setting the Scene: A New Zealand College of Midwives welcome and update

12.45pm

lunch amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

1.45pm

Concurrent Session A

Abstract submissions close on Friday 23 May. We invite you to submit an abstract to be included within the conference programme, sharing your research, practice knowledge and experiences. 

3.45pm

afternoon Tea amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

4.15pm

Keynote presentation 
Dr Ihirangi Heke

5.00pm

Lightning Talks  
Enjoy dynamic 5-minute Lighting talks, delivering insightful and engaging bursts of knowledge on a range of compelling topics.

5.40pm

MIDWIVES MINGLE: Kai, laughter and good times!

Friday 29 August

8.30am

Welcome to our final day

8.35am

Joan Donley Memorial Address

8.55am

Inaugural Māori Midwifery Oration

9.15am

Keynote presentation 
Supporting wellbeing: Strengthening the future of midwifery
Prof Caroline Homer

10.00am

Morning Tea amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

10.30am

Concurrent Session B

Abstract submissions close on Friday 23 May. We invite you to submit an abstract to be included within the conference programme, sharing your research, practice knowledge and experiences. 

12.00pm

Lunch amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

New Zealand College of Midwives – College connection Informal drop in lunchtime session, where you can connect with College representatives, stay informed, and hear the latest updates, including a Class Action update.

1.00pm

Keynote presentation 
Dr Tina Ngata

1.45pm

The next generation of Midwives: Reflections on learning and future contributions

Students from each undergraduate school have been invited to reflect on what they have learnt during their undergraduate programme and what they will bring to midwifery as the new generation of midwives to join our profession.

2.30pm

afternoon Tea amongst the exhibitors, alongside poster presentations

3.00pm

Midwifery continuity of care: panel discussion
This panel discussion brings together a fantastic group of speakers who will consider what continuity of midwifery care means in Aotearoa in 2025. Panellists will explore the evolution of our midwifery-led model of care to support both whānau and midwives, and will answer the question of whether continuity of care is still achievable, and whether it still matters

3.45pm

Humans vs Robots: Who is in charge?
Don’t miss this humorous debate in which teams of unforgettably funny and thought-provoking speakers will spark reflection and consideration of the role of technologies in contemporary midwifery practice.

4.30pm

Reflections and Conference Summary

4.45pm

Conference concludes