South Auckland Midwife Honoured With Award

A twenty-year career, birthing babies will be acknowledged tomorrow with a special award from the National Council of Women.

As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations around the country, Manya (pronounced Ma Nee Ya) Lynch will receive the award with other women who work in South Auckland communities.

“It’s a really lovely recognition of midwifery, and especially of midwifery in South Auckland,” she says. “Midwives both in the community and in the hospital work incredibly hard for our women and whānau so this is nice recognition of that,” says Manya.

She has been a community-based Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) for two decades, has four children of her own (aged 23, 19, 16, 10), and a mokopuna who has just turned one. Over the years practicing in South Auckland, Manya has noticed significant changes to her midwifery caseload. Although she primarily cares for Māori and Pasifika wāhine and whānau, she has most certainly seen an increase in the number of women from all over the world, who now call South Auckland home.

Women from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and the African nations are all a part of the diverse community of women for whom she cares.

“They bring a great richness in birthing tradition (tikanga) birthing history and stories which have been a great privilege to be a part of. Once relationships of trust and understanding have been established I am often in a position of caring for all of the wāhine in that whānau.

One of my greatest gifts is that although we may be from very different cultures faith and backgrounds there are many things that make us the same.

College of Midwives Chief Executive, Alison Eddy, says Manya is one of many midwives working with women from a range of ethnic backgrounds, which brings its own challenges, and she is pleased her work is being recognised tomorrow.

“All of our midwives work very hard. Working in an ethnically diverse community while stimulating and rewarding can also bring challenges and complexity, adding to a midwife’s workload,” says Ms Eddy.

A report published this week from the NZ Institute of Economic Research recognised that midwives are working 17%-26% of the time for no pay.

Manya says as well as the challenges, there are great rewards.

“The reality is these women come from such dynamic communities. They share, I share – it makes our relationship so much stronger.”

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