Midwife vs regular nursing in Aus

[NurseJewels]

Hi Everyone! Potential Aussie import here: I'm wondering if someone could clarify this for me:

Here in the states we have nurses who work on Labor and Delivery floors whereas a certified Midwife requires an Advanced Practice Masters degree.

I was wondering how this works in Australia: are midwifes bachelor's prepared nurses who are qualified to delivery babies? Do other nurses work on Labor and Delivery floors such as in the states, or is this simply restricted to midwifery nurses. Are international nurses with L&D experience restricted from working on these floors without the midwife degree when working in Australia?

Any answers to any questions would be of great help. Thanks so much!!

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Labour and delivery is the province of qualified midwives however you could work in a maternity hospital - just not labour and delivery but here you only need get a post graduate diploma to become a midwife.

[NurseJewels]

thanks for that :) I LOVE my experience in L&D right now, so I'm thinking I want to do my New Graduate Nurse program in L&D when I start working in June, but with my future plans being in OZ I'm worried I'll be forfeiting some very valuable skills and a lot of time and effort being trained on an L&D floor only to give it up later. Oh well, plenty of time to figure it all out :)