Rhiarna Bell

“I loved my time at Monash. I found the more you put in, the more you got out of the course. The education team was so inspiring and fuelled my passion for nursing and midwifery each and every day. I was also incredibly lucky to make some lifelong friends to share all the memories with, which I will be forever grateful for.”

Thanks to a supportive education team and three years of undergraduate employment experience, Rhiarna had a relatively smooth transition from studying to working. Her role as a Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing gave Rhiarna valuable insight into the role she’d be undertaking in her professional life.

Since having graduated from Monash, Rhiarna now works as a caseload midwife within a midwifery group practice at Peninsula Health’s Frankston Hospital. There, two teams of six midwives provide careful, continuous care to women and their families through pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Being a midwife can be many things, but boring is not one of them, as Rhiarna explains.

“No one day is the same! I work on call many days at a time, I see women in the antenatal clinic for appointments, attend to labour care, provide postnatal care on the ward, and visit them in their homes prior to discharging them to the maternal child health nurse.”

Though it’s a demanding job, Rhiarna finds the rewards far outweighs the challenges.

“The most rewarding part of the job is when you feel you have positively contributed to a woman emerging from childbirth feeling safe, respected, empowered as a mother, and in awe of her profound physical and emotional strength. When they look at you after the birth and tell you they couldn’t have done it without you, and you immediately remind them it was within them all along, that she is the powerful one and her baby is so lucky to have her as a mother.”

Rhiarna recently received the Midwifery Graduate of the Year Award to commemorate her extraordinary contributions across the year. Looking ahead, Rhiarna hopes to help drive future improvements in healthcare for birthing women and their families.

“I would love to be involved in the expansion of publicly funded home birth. I feel strongly women deserve the option to birth where to where they feel the safest with trained care providers.”

To those looking to leap head-first into an incredible career in midwifery, Rhiarna has the following advice.

“Midwifery is more than just a job; it changes the way you think about the world. While this can be rewarding, at times it can be emotionally taxing. To care for women during such a huge life milestone each day requires great ability to care for your own physical and mental health first. Develop your self-care strategies and surround yourself with like-minded and supportive friends, family and mentors.”

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Learn about our Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwfiery (Hons) course