Midwife
Provide care during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period in hospital, community and home settings.
Registration: AHPRA registration as Midwife
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Midwives (2541) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $2387 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
| Graduate starting salary | $75,100 | QILT (2026-08-31) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Midwife (254111), the closest official match for midwife, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 19,700
- Future demand
- Strong
- Work full-time
- 48%
- Average full-time hours
- 41 a week
- Women
- 99%
- Median age
- 42
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 30.8% |
| VIC | 21.4% |
| QLD | 19.2% |
| WA | 14.2% |
| SA | 9% |
| TAS | 2.3% |
| ACT | 1.5% |
| NT | 1.5% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 29.2% |
| Bachelor degree | 65.2% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 3.2% |
| Certificate I-IV | 0.2% |
| Year 12 | 0.8% |
| Below Year 12 | 0.1% |
What a midwife actually does
Midwives work across antenatal clinics, birth suites, postnatal wards and the community. A shift in a birth suite is unpredictable: you might spend hours supporting one woman through a long induction, or have two babies arrive within the same hour. Antenatal clinic days are more structured, working through scheduled appointments, ordering scans, running screening conversations and triaging concerns. Postnatal shifts are heavy on feeding support, newborn checks, mental-health screening and discharge planning. Continuity-of-care midwives follow a small caseload through pregnancy, labour and the first six weeks postpartum, with on-call shifts that can mean a 2am call for a labour. Most hospital midwives work an average of 38 hours a week on rotating rosters covering 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Emotional load is high: there are joyful births, but also stillbirths, neonatal complications and complex family situations.
Typical tasks
- Assess and monitor pregnant women through antenatal visits.
- Provide labour and birth care, including emergency response.
- Support new parents with newborn care and postnatal recovery.
Skills you'll use
- Antenatal assessment and screening
- Continuous fetal monitoring interpretation
- Labour support including pain-relief options
- Conduct of normal birth and immediate newborn care
- Recognising and escalating obstetric emergencies
- Breastfeeding support and lactation troubleshooting
- Mental-health screening for perinatal anxiety and depression
- Counselling families through pregnancy loss
How to become one
- 1Finish Year 12 with English (and ideally Biology) at the level required by your chosen midwifery programme
- 2Choose between a 3-year direct-entry Bachelor of Midwifery, or a Bachelor of Nursing followed by a Graduate Diploma of Midwifery
- 3Complete the clinical placement hours required by the Nursing and Midwifery Board, including a set number of continuity-of-care experiences
- 4Apply for AHPRA registration as a midwife during your final semester
- 5Apply for a midwifery graduate programme at a public maternity hospital
- 6Consider specialty pathways after 2-3 years, such as endorsed midwife (privately practising), lactation consultant or perinatal mental-health
Where you can work
- Public maternity hospitals
- Private maternity hospitals and birth centres
- Midwifery group practice and caseload models
- Community-based antenatal and postnatal services
- Aboriginal community-controlled health services
- Rural and remote maternity units
- Private practice as an endorsed midwife
Career progression
Typical stages and roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- New graduate0-1 yearsTypical roles: Graduate midwife, Hospital midwife on rotation
- Midwife1-5 yearsTypical roles: Birth-suite midwife, Antenatal clinic midwife, Caseload midwife
- Clinical midwife specialist or educator5-10 yearsTypical roles: Clinical midwife specialist, Clinical midwife educator, Continuity-of-care midwife
- Midwifery manager or endorsed midwife10+ yearsTypical roles: Midwifery unit manager, Endorsed (privately practising) midwife, Director of midwifery
Is this for you?
You might love this if
- You're drawn to one of the most emotionally significant moments in a family's life
- You can stay calm during obstetric emergencies and code calls
- You can hold space for grief as well as joy
- You're happy with shift work including on-call weekends
- You can advocate for a labouring woman even when busy clinicians want to move fast
This might not suit you if
- You can't handle the possibility of stillbirth or serious neonatal complications
- You want a strictly weekday daytime job
- You don't cope well with extended periods of high emotional intensity
- You want to avoid blood, body fluids or invasive procedures
Ways in
Uni and TAFE routes for midwife. We only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
No direct TAFE pathway to this career.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.