Regional Team

NZCOM trio

Our team is passionate about our region and supporting our members.

Our regional chair is our representative and voice on a national level. We are always open to questions or suggestions of how we can communicate with and support our members.

Office bearers are voted in at the Annual General Meeting held in August.

If you are interested in a leadership role in the region please email us!

Sheena Ross

Sheena Ross

Regional Chair

chairnzcom.cantwest@gmail.com

I am honoured to be the Chairperson for this amazing, large, beautiful, diverse region. I have taken on the role after a period of immense pressure where midwives again stepped up and provided essential community services and hospital care throughout the pandemic. Our workforce quietly got on with life saving and life enhancing work with minimal positive recognition and, as ever, inequitable resources.

I am so proud of midwives and our midwifery system and am excited to be part of a group determined to move forward, change and challenge these inequities and generally make life better for everyone. We were all born – it is one huge connection our increasingly polarized world has. I am an LMC working in Otautahi and have also worked for 4 years as a core midwife at Christchurch Women’s and Burwood Birth Unit. I still feel sad about it being closed and would love to see a new unit in the east of our city. Anyway, you may have gathered that I am passionate about midwifery, birth and whanau. I am a 3rd generation (mum and grandma) midwife, tauiwi, my parents were Irish and Scottish.

I grew up and trained in an urban, poor diverse part of the UK called Dudley – it is where Peaky Blinders is filmed. I am proud of my working class heritage and people and even more honoured to live here in this beautiful country, I am so grateful that you let me and my family (including the dog – most important and more expensive to fly over than the children) in! Thank you!

Ko Amanda Small tōku ingoa.
Kei te noho au ki Ōtautahi.
I live by the beach and feel very blessed to live in this paradise I call home. I work as a locum midwife and I get to travel for work and meet lots of different midwives, health professionals and whānau around New Zealand.
I have been a midwife since 2007, I trained in a Bachelor of Midwifery at Massey University, Wellington. I have worked as a Lead Maternity Carer and a core midwife in various regions. Secretarial work is new to me…it is a fresh challenge I accepted as I believe that this is my season for giving back to my midwifery community. I have been a busy single Mum and couldn’t have imagined carving out the time to keep up with the secretarial duties until recently. I find my midwifery passion directed towards advocating for my colleagues these days, while I still hold great pride in my advocacy for whānau and birthing people, I see a need to awhi my colleagues more and being part of the NZCOM Canterbury West Coast regional team is a great way to do that.
Becky Bangma Profile

Becky Bangma

Vice Regional Chair

vicechairnzcom.cantwest@gmail.com

 

As Vice-chair I support the Regional Chair in her responsibilities to the region and act as proxy if she is unable to attend meetings.

carlene

Carlene Farnhil

Treasurer

treasurernzcom.cantwest@gmail.com

Kia ora!

I am honoured to be the Treasurer for the Canterbury/ West Coast region of NZCOM. I have been a midwife now for 11 years. During this time, I have been fortunate to work across NZ and parts of Australia. I am a mum to two amazing human’s, Olivia and Archie, who keep me busy outside of work! I am currently the Clinical Research Midwife for University of Otago and also work on Birthing Suite as a core midwife. I enjoy working in all areas of midwifery, and enjoy new roles and challenges. I look forward to working alongside the amazing group of midwives in this region and of course the current office holders!

Sonya Gray

Sonya Gray

LMC Liaison

liaisonnzcom.cantwest@gmail.com

Hi

I am the current LMC Liaison for the Canterbury West Coast region of the College.

I have been a midwife for 18 yrs and the majority of that time has been as an LMC with a short amount of time being employed by the CDHB as a core midwife.

I am a regular attendee at College meetings and have been an MSR reviewer and a Mentor through the MFYP program. I am currently a caseloading midwife primarily based in North Canterbury.

I have always believed strongly in good communication between the CDHB and the LMC Community and working in this role is my way of contributing to this.

Please feel free to contact me on the LMC liaison email address, as this is the best way to get hold of me, if you have anything you would like to discuss. I am always happy to meet.

 

Ali Woodhouse

Regional NZCOM Breastfeeding Representative

breastfeedingnzcom.cantwest@gmail.com

Kirsty Wilkinson

Regional Website Administrator

homebirthkirsty@gmail.com

Kia ora, for those who don’t know me I am Kirsty, I have been a midwife 3 years both within LMC and core midwifery spaces. I am also currently involved in teaching antenatal and parenting education alongside learning a few things about website administration!

I am always open to feedback and suggestions on how this web space can be improved so feel free to drop me an email if you have any ideas or spy anything that needs correcting!

 

Mariko Carding

Te Pukenga Ara Student Representative