HEN HER TOWN’S PRIVATE hospital maternity unit closed, Tamworth midwife Edwina Sharrock realised the impact it would have on local women. A self-confessed Type-A personality, she threw herself into research. “I discovered 44 per cent of maternity units in Australia had closed in the last 15 years – all were in rural, regional and remote areas,” Edwina, 41, says. “Small towns thrive and survive when young families move – or return – there, and choose to grow their families there. to live in these towns. And, I thought, while I can’t build maternity units, I help pregnant women who are feeling isolated to feel well-supported, informed and empowered going through birth.”
