Recently retired midwife Dennie Hardie on the ups and downs of her 42-year career on the Beaches.
Dennie Hardie had no intention of becoming a midwife when she went into nursing after school at Royal North Shore Hospital. She then picked it up as a handy extra skill to have and grew to love the process of bringing life into the world.
Dennie has helped deliver over 1,300 babies on the Northern Beaches, sometimes even delivering the child of those babies once they had grown up.
One of the things Dennie loved most about midwifery was the connections she built with new mums. She kept this connection going after they were discharged by setting up an early discharge program in July 1993.
“Back then, if you went home in less than a week, people thought you were a bit mad,” Dennie says. “Rather than keep women who were physically well, who just needed support and education, we could provide this through home visiting,” says Dennie.
Now called Midwifery in Home, Dennie is proud to have been a driving force for the program.
“I like to think that I’ve had a bit of say in how much support’s been provided. We would provide a minimum of two and up to five visits. And I feel that I’ve had some responsibility in driving that here on the Beaches.”
As well as new mums and bubs, Dennie enjoyed meeting all the family.
Dennie delivered Jess – and then her baby too.
“I found that I really enjoyed providing that support. You get to meet the whole family. And the grandmas were often saying, ‘I wish we’d had this when I had children’.”
In 2003, Dennie added another notch to her belt and trained as a certified lactation consultant.
“Breastfeeding was a major challenge for a lot of women. So to support them through home visiting and phone consultations was very rewarding,” she says.
Dennie has seen much improvement in maternity services over the years.
Back then, partners weren’t as involved in the birth. She said there was a couple of doctors who’d allow partners in, but they’d be asked to leave before the birth. Mums and families weren’t involved in decision making.
“They were told ‘this is what we’re going to do’. Risks weren’t discussed. Consent wasn’t sought. So that’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen,” Dennie says.
She says it was important to be non-judgemental visiting new mums at home and take people as they are – clothed or not.
“We never minded if the women weren’t dressed, as we have to look at everything anyway, but it was always a bit of a shock if the husband was running around with no clothes on!” Denny says.
She says there was even a pet snake curled up asleep in the bathroom in one home she visited.
Her career has seen many upheavals. When Mona Vale maternity closed in 2009, they were merged with Manly and Dennie says it was very stressful. The new Northern Beaches Hospital brought more challenges in 2018.
“We got closed down again and moved to the Northern Beaches Hospital. I had to negotiate working in a private establishment instead of a public hospital,” Dennie says.
She says the managerial staff didn’t know a postnatal home visiting service existed.
“Because it’s a private hospital, which also accepts public patients, the managerial staff were coming from a private hospital mindset,” Dennie says.
But Dennie was determined.
“To transition something that was commonplace in the public health system, but barely ever even considered in the private system, was one of my primary goals,” Dennie says.
Initially (they) wouldn’t allow home visits to private patients, but now private patients enjoy the same support as public thanks to Dennie.
When asked how partners cope in the birthing suite, Dennie has another tale about a new dad turning a funny colour.
“I had just delivered a baby, and as I was delivering the placenta, I saw the husband start to sway and turn a funny colour,” says Dennie.
“So I just leaned across, put my knee up, and he fell onto me and slid down gently onto the floor. This is multitasking at its best”
Dennie says she will miss the camaraderie and her work colleagues, but isn’t ready to quite the midwifery cord yet and will continue as a private lactation consultant.