Shay-Lee Spargo has been named New To Practice Midwife of the Year at the region's 2024 Nursing and Midwifery Awards.
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The Lachlan Health Service midwife says she couldn't help but fall in love with her work, which sees her journey with mums through pregnancy, birth and into motherhood.
"Midwifery is a forever growing career with countless pathways and so much joy," she said.
"There are particular parts of the job that I have connected with including continuity of care, being a part of what's mostly the happiest time in people's lives, having the opportunity to become an autonomous health care practitioner especially being in a rural setting out here in western NSW, being able to work with women in terms of education and assisting them to make empowered informed decisions around their care and journey, as well as just continuously learning every day."
Lachlan Health Service Midwifery Unit Manager Nicole White said Shay thoroughly deserved the recognition.
"She is compassionate, caring, hard-working and above all passionate about providing outstanding care for mothers and babies in our community," Mrs White said.
"We are incredibly proud to have Shay as part of our team, and I'm really excited to see how far she can go in her career."
Shay-Lee started her career as a core midwifery staff member at Forbes hospital last year, and recently joined the midwifery group practice in Parkes.
In this role, Shay-Lee is on call for the women in her care 24 hours a day when she is rostered on.
She works with expecting mums, has the honour of sharing labour and birth with women and their support people, then follows up with those postnatal checks - usually at home - offering breastfeeding support, emotional support and education.
"Midwives with MGP get to work in a small group setting with each midwife having a caseload of women who they are the primary care provider of," Shay-Lee explained.
"We focus on women's individual needs and being woman-centred at all times empowering and educating women to make informed evidence based decisions for their care."
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