words byYolande Schefe
Ambition is an oft-admired trait, but one that can be
associated with the selfish pursuit of personal gain. What
happens, though, if ambition is channelled into endeavours
aimed at improving the lives of hundreds of people?
Stephanie Bethel is as ambitious as they come, but she is
not a ladder-climber, nor does she look outwardly like the
type to push relentlessly for her goals. She’s got a warmth
and loveliness to her that has, in fact, helped her achieve her
goals but she has been motivated, patient and dogged about
achieving them.
She’s a midwife at the Mareeba Maternity unit and one of the
pioneers of its Midwifery Group Practise (MGP) which offers
expectant mothers continuous care before, during and after
birth with one or two midwives. This is vastly different to the
kind of care you would expect in a regular hospital.
“When you book in, you meet the midwife that’s going to
look after you for the whole experience. So, they look after
you antenatally, for the birth and postnatally,” she says. “It
gives [mothers] good support. If they have any concerns or
they’re worried, they know that they can text their midwife
straight away and get some reassurance or some advice. You
build a relationship...so when you go into that birth you have
a trust between the two and the midwife knows what it is
that you are wanting to experience for that birth.”
initially. It was all a bit scrappy in the beginning but in 2009
we started proper MGP.”
Bethel began her career in the 1980s, training first in the
Atherton District Memorial Hospital. She also spent time in
an Infectious Diseases hospital unit in Melbourne and at the
Royal Women’s Hospital in Brisbane. She then returned to her
home in Atherton where she worked at its hospital for some
years before coming across to Mareeba. The relationship
between the two hospitals could have once been described
as competitive but Bethel says the maternity units are now
working together with a culture of sharing knowledge and
improving the maternity experience.
In her decades-long career Bethel says she has lost count of
the number of babies she has brought into the world and
speaks of the births she has attended with reverence and joy.
“It’s lovely. It’s awesome. And sometimes they say that we
[midwives] get a hit of the oxytocin and everything that’s in
the room and I think that’s true, because sometimes you can
be on a high for the rest of the day if you’ve had a beautiful
birth.”
Bethel is passionate about the rights of mothers and families,
which is a sentiment echoed by the midwifery staff at
Mareeba Maternity. Under their care, countless women have
become mothers in a calm, woman-centred environment
designed for minimum intrusion and maximum connection
between mother and child. A mother of three and grandmother of six, Bethel knows the
maternal journey personally and professionally. But she also
understands that biological motherhood does not come to
all women. “I definitely think that you can certainly be one
part of that village and help with those babies. You don’t
have to be a mother. For me, I can’t imagine not being a
mother but I do know some wonderful women that are not
mothers that are very wonderful to other women and their
children.”
“It is definitely woman-based and woman-centred care. I
think the big thing with other places, and especially the
bigger places, is that there’s no continuity. No-one really
takes that person and guides them through it." Bethel
explains. “The women get so much out of it and we
[midwives] get so much out of it so it’s sad that it hasn’t really
been embraced.” No matter where she might be standing in the world, Bethel
exists within a maternal space. In her personal life, her
children and grandchildren keep her busy while her work-
self is its own kind of maternal; she is a source of support
and calm for expectant and new mothers. There’s also the
motherly guidance she knows is needed in a workplace
comprised of midwives with a range of levels of experience.
The Mareeba experience is in the minority, with an
overwhelming majority of hospitals still not providing
continuity of care. Bethel began to think about delivering a
different kind of maternity care while working in Atherton
but her hopes were realised when she took the role in
Mareeba. She says the MGP at Mareeba was started flying
blind. “There weren’t really any other models around so we
kind of had to do it a bit…flying by the seat of our pants, The MGP program at Mareeba celebrates its 10th year this
May. Stephanie Bethel will be celebrating this milestone as
one of the program’s mothers and a proud example of what
happens when you have a bit of ambition and a
whole lot of care.
18 What’s On & Where To Go May 2019
Yolande Schefe is a writer, celebrant and mother
whose son was born at Mareeba Maternity.