Call the midwife! - A CYCLONE DOESN'T STOP CORRINA

Rural deliveries can push the limits, but even more so in a weather event

- Kasia Jillings

When I look back over my career, I've come to the realisation that from the moment I was born, my life's path was midwifery.

I found the calling when I accidentally caught my first pēpi [baby] - my niece Tamzyn - at home. That was more than 20 years ago now, but it sparked my desire to support homebirth.

There was a bias from others when I started my training in 1997 that as a young mother, 'Isn't my place at home and how could I leave my children to work?' But that only gave me more determination to follow my goals.

I have five tamariki [children] four sons and a daughter and nine mokopuna [grandchildren], with two more arriving this year. I have felt very privileged to be invited in to be the midwife or involved in all the births of my mokopuna.

As the only midwife for the entire East Cape region, at any given time Corrina Parata is looking after 50-plus pregnant women and their babies.

After more than two decades of delivering babies, Corrina tells us in her own words about her career, life as a rural midwife and her experience of Cyclone Gabrielle. The powerful February weather event ripped through Ngāti Porou communities, leaving them without power, running water or means of communication.

But babies and birth don't wait, so Corrina found herself hiking through landslips and washed-out roads to check on high-risk pregnant women, making sure they were safe and prepared to ride out the aftermath...

My main goal as a midwife is to understand, preserve and promote practices that enhance the health of wahine and their whānau during this very significant phase of life.

As midwives, we have to be able to think quickly on our feet, be calm and confident in our skills, and make the right call, at the right time, without projecting any fear to the whānau.