Ethics & Professionalism CPD Courses for Midwives in New Zealand

The Code of Conduct was published in December 2010 and reprinted in February 2021. It begins with principles of accountability and then sets out expectations in three areas. Each maps to one or both courses.

The Code's confidentiality section allows disclosure where there is a risk of imminent serious harm or where the law requires it. That is a narrow exception, and the ethics course works through when it applies and how to record your reasoning.

The New Zealand College of Midwives publishes its own Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. These are professional, not regulatory, documents and the courses refer to them as context only.

• A woman declines a recommended transfer in labour. Her right to make an informed choice and to refuse (Right 7 of the Code of Rights), your duty to give impartial and complete information, consultation with a colleague, and careful notes of every conversation.
• A partner who wants to become a friend. The Code rules out sexual or emotional relationships with a woman in your care, her partner or family. The course looks at how friendships begin in long continuity relationships, and how to keep warmth without crossing a line.
• Disagreement with an obstetric plan. Advocating for the woman while working respectfully with colleagues, and what to record when you do not agree.
• A conscientious objection. Since the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, a practitioner who objects must tell the person promptly and how to find the contact details of the closest provider, and emergency duties still apply.
• Notes completed after a long birth. When late entries are acceptable, how to mark them honestly, and why maternity records are central to any review.
• Promoting a product or service. The Code expects information to be factual and verifiable and commercial benefits never to be covert.

For many whānau, pregnancy and birth carry cultural meaning that shapes every decision, from who is present at the birth to what happens to the whenua. Ethical midwifery practice in Aotearoa means recognising that the woman's values and her whānau are part of the decision, not an obstacle to it.

Both core courses treat cultural safety as part of everyday practice rather than a separate topic. The ethics course looks at how your own culture and assumptions affect the information you give and the choices you expect a woman to make. The professional standards course looks at how cultural safety appears in your recertification, your notes and your relationships with other services. For deeper learning, add the Cultural Safety and Health Equity course, which covers Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and inequities in health outcomes across the system.

The Council's 2025 guide, Your competence review, describes the process as educative and supportive. A review follows Terms of Reference, is carried out by a panel of experienced midwives and may include an objective structured clinical examination. The report is produced within 20 working days. While under review a midwife must stop mentoring and precepting, Midwifery Standards Review reviewer work and locum work.

Outcomes can include a competence programme, conditions on scope of practice, an examination or assessment, supervision and, in serious cases, suspension. Learning you have done on your own initiative does not replace any of these, but it can show reflection and engagement. The professional standards course explains the process step by step. If a review has started, see our remediation courses for midwives and the competence review guide, and take advice from the College of Midwives, your union or a lawyer.

The Council's recertification programme runs over a rolling three-year cycle and is declared when you apply for your annual practising certificate. It includes at least 8 hours of continuing midwifery education and 8 hours of professional activities each year, emergency skills, a Midwifery Standards Review once every three years, and cultural safety education. Selected midwives are audited and provide short reflective statements.

• Record a course as continuing education where it is relevant to midwifery practice; your certificate shows the hours and date.
• Use the course reflection to draft a focused statement of around 100 words: the trigger, one learning point, one change in practice.
• Bring a case from the course to your Midwifery Standards Review discussion or development plan.

Informed choice is the centre of midwifery partnership. These courses go deeper on information-sharing, consent, decision-making capacity and culturally safe communication with whānau.

Maternity notes are read by other clinicians, reviewers and sometimes the HDC. Health information must generally be kept for at least 10 years after the last service, and the Health Information Privacy Code governs who can see it.

Continuity of care builds close relationships, which is its strength and its risk. Social media contact after a birth is a common grey area.

Claims for maternity services, APC declarations, references and records all depend on accurate information.

Recognising deterioration, safe medicines practice and protecting babies and vulnerable adults are recurring themes in reviews of maternity care.

If a woman or family complains, or the Council contacts you, these courses help you respond, reflect and show learning. The HDC's open disclosure guidance applies when care goes wrong.

• Lead maternity carer midwives in self-employed continuity practice.
• Core midwives in hospital maternity units and birthing centres.
• Rural midwives who often make decisions without on-site specialist support.
• New graduates and midwives returning to practice.
• Internationally qualified midwives learning New Zealand's partnership model and the Code of Rights.
• Midwives preparing for a Midwifery Standards Review or an audit of recertification evidence.

On-call work makes planned study difficult, so both courses are fully online and save your progress automatically. Start the moment you enrol, work through the sections and short knowledge checks, then complete the 20-question final assessment. Sixteen correct answers (80%) is a pass. Your certificate records the estimated learning time, and the structured reflective account gives you a draft you can shorten into an audit statement.

Choose Ethics for Midwives or Professional Standards for Midwives, and add one supporting course that fits your next Standards Review or development goal. Browse the course catalogue or see all professions.