Have Your Say About Maternity Care in Australia!
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) is reviewing an outdated regulation that creates a major barrier to private midwifery care. If this doesn't change, fewer midwives will be available, costs will rise, and some families will be left without safe, supported birth options.
We need as many submissions as possible before the deadline. It takes 5 minutes, anyone can respond, and your voice matters.
Hours required for private midwifery endorsement, equivalent to nearly 3 years of full-time work after already qualifying as a midwife.
Women in Australia who say they would choose a known midwife model if it were more accessible and available to them.
Days until consultation closes. Submissions close 5 June 2026, act now to make your voice count.
You can directly influence this decision
The NMBA is currently accepting public submissions. Here's how to make yours count.
Visit the NMBA Consultation Page
Go to the NMBA website and select "Review of the Registration Standard: Endorsement for Scheduled Medicines for Midwives" (the second consultation listed).
Answer 8 Short Questions
Use our guided responses below to help you answer each question. Most only need a YES or NO plus a short comment.
Submit Your Response
Hit submit before 5 June 2026. Then share this page with a friend. Every submission counts!
If this doesn't change, families will lose access to care
From December 2026, the removal of insurance exemptions means only endorsed midwives can practise privately. Combined with the 5,000-hour barrier, this is what happens.
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Fewer midwives available
Some midwives currently providing private midwifery and homebirth care will no longer be able to.
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Increased cost, reduced access
Fewer endorsed midwives means less access to Medicare-rebatable, affordable midwifery-led care.
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Rural and remote communities hit hardest
Families in regional areas already have the fewest options. This regulation makes it worse.
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Families left without safe options
Where midwifery care becomes unavailable, more women may birth without any registered professional present.
Why the 5,000-hour rule doesn't stand up
The requirement has no evidence base, no international precedent, and disproportionately affects women. Here's what the research says.
Not Evidence-Based
The 5,000-hour threshold is arbitrary with no published evidence that it produces safer practice. Midwifery education already provides ~4,800 hours of training.
No International Precedent
Midwives in the UK, the Netherlands and New Zealand can provide full-scope care from graduation. Australia is the outlier.
Better Outcomes
Private midwifery achieves better outcomes for mothers and babies than any other model of care, and is protective against birth trauma (Leinweber et al., 2025).
Gender Inequity
97-98% of midwives are women. Many can't meet the threshold within 6 years due to parental leave and caring responsibilities.
Safety Is Already Protected
Midwives complete rigorous undergraduate training plus a postgraduate prescribing diploma. The hours add burden without adding safety.
Guided Responses
Recommended answers to help you complete the NMBA submission. Click each question to see suggested responses you can use or adapt in your own words.
Is the updated content of the proposed revised Registration standard helpful, clear and relevant?
The revised standard is clearly written, removes an unsupported threshold, and better reflects contemporary midwifery practice.
The proposed changes address a structural barrier that has no evidence base and is inconsistent with international regulatory frameworks for midwives. The revised standard is relevant to the current workforce context, particularly given the impending removal of the PII exemption for homebirth midwives in December 2026.
Do you support removal of the 5,000-hour clinical hours requirement?
This is the most important question in the form. There is no published evidence that 5,000 hours makes care safer.
By the time a midwife is registered, they have completed approximately 4,800 hours of integrated clinical and theoretical training. To apply for endorsement, midwives must then complete an additional postgraduate diploma in prescribing. It is this qualification that provides the specific skills needed, not the accumulation of post-registration hours.
Internationally, no comparable country requires midwives to accumulate postgraduate clinical hours to provide full-scope care. Midwives in the UK, Netherlands, and New Zealand can practise in this capacity from graduation.
Do you support removal of the context of practice requirement?
Midwives are qualified across all stages of care: antenatal, birth and postnatal. They are registered to provide care across these contexts. Requiring hours to be accumulated in a specific context is overly prescriptive and does not reflect the reality of contemporary midwifery practice.
Do you support a 12-month window to apply after completing the prescribing qualification?
This is a reasonable timeframe that keeps skills current. A 12-month window is a proportionate and sensible requirement for ensuring currency of prescribing knowledge.
Would the proposed changes cause negative impacts on people accessing healthcare?
More endorsed midwives means better access and safer care for families. The proposed updates will increase the number of endorsed midwives available, improving access to Medicare-rebatable, midwife-led continuity of care, particularly for families in rural, remote and regional areas.
Would the changes cause negative impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples?
Removing this barrier improves access to midwifery care for all Australians, particularly in remote and regional communities where a large proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples live. It is the maintenance of the current barriers, not their removal, that is more likely to result in adverse effects.
Would the changes cause negative impacts on currently endorsed midwives?
Already endorsed midwives are not affected by this change. Their endorsement and practice rights remain unchanged. A larger endorsed workforce strengthens the profession, supports better availability of second midwives for homebirth, and builds a more sustainable private midwifery sector.
Please provide any other feedback (open text box)
This is your chance to share your own story in your own words. You could mention:
• What it was like trying to find a midwife for your birth
• How limited your choices were, especially if you live regionally or rurally
• Whether you or someone you know felt pressured to consider birthing without professional support (e.g. freebirth)
• Why having a trusted, known midwife matters to you and your family
• Any concerns about the December 2026 insurance changes and what that means for homebirth availability
Your personal experience is powerful. The NMBA needs to hear the real-world impact of this standard.
Every submission counts.
This decision will shape the future of maternity care in Australia. Take 5 minutes and make your voice heard.
Submissions close 5 June 2026, don't wait!
Submitted? Tell us, every count matters.
We're tracking every submission so we can report back to the collective on how many voices are being heard. It takes 5 seconds to register, and it helps us see where momentum is building.