On July 25, 2013, the union formally changed its name from the ANF to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) to acknowledge the valuable skills and knowledge of midwife members.
History was made after the union’s then Federal Secretary, Lee Thomas, and late Senior Federal Industrial Officer Nick Blake, put the case forward at a Fair Work Commission (FWC) hearing held in Sydney. After a short deliberation, the name change was accomplished – the federal office, along with all state and territory branches, would now include midwifery (M) in their names.
The change aligned the federal office with South Australia, and NSW, who changed their names to the (ANMF SA Branch) and NSWNMA in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
Ms Thomas labelled the judgment a historic moment in the Federation’s history.
“This name change signifies the unification of midwives and nurses under the Federation. It’s absolutely the right thing to do, particularly since national registration recognised midwifery as a separate profession in the register,” she said, in the ANMJ, at the time.
“Incorporating midwifery into the union’s name has been a work in progress for many years. It wasn’t until the membership across the country agreed to the name change that we could move forward.”
To mark the new chapter, the Australian Nursing Journal (ANJ) changed its name to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal (ANMJ) and rolled out a new format featuring regular favourites and new additions.
Writing in the ANMJ earlier this year, Federal Professional Officer Jasmine Kirk recounted attending a national conferenced in 2023 and bumping into a midwifery professor who had taught her during her Bachelor of Midwifery degree. As they discussed Ms Kirk’s journey since graduating, including now working for the union, the professor remarked – “I didn’t know there was a midwife at the ANMF”.
It perhaps shows that there is still much work to do in championing the voice of midwives.
These days, most state and territory branches employ at least one professional officer with a midwifery background who leads a midwifery portfolio. The ANMF Federal Office currently employs two professional officers as registered midwives.
Every month, these professional officers come together to discuss issues facing midwives around the country, including advocating for workforce retention strategies such as midwifery-led models of care and public hospital ratios which are separate to nursing ratios and count the babies, and contributing to national policy submissions on various matters.
“As a midwife and member, how can you get involved in the midwifery-related work of the ANMF?” Ms Kirk posed in her column.
“Midwives can become local branch members, promoting active membership participation, and facilitating two-way communication between ANMF members and officials.
“Midwives can be valuable union organisers and delegates, ensuring that midwifery-led care models and local midwifery-specific priorities are adequately addressed in enterprise bargaining agreements.”
