About me

A little herstory

My Great-great-grandmother, Joanne Morrison, and her daughter, Margaret Hill, worked as lay midwives when they lived in the Clifden area of Southland. Joanne, so the story goes, once fell in the water during a river crossing on her way to assist a birthing mother, while another time she broke her arm when she fell off a horse. She also missed one of Margaret’s births when she was busy helping someone else. Assisting women was perhaps more physically treacherous then than now, but I am honoured to follow in my ancestress’ shoes.

My maternal aunt, retired Captain Ethne Flintoff, also worked as a Salvation Army missionary, nurse and midwife in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for most of her working life, including establishing maternity care and midwifery training.

My pathway to midwifery included the births and breastfeeding journeys of my own three children, which led to involvement in local and national consumer advocacy groups, and support roles at friends’ births in the late 1990’s and 2001. In 2010 I heard a clear calling (literally a voice in my head while lying in the bath) to become a midwife, thus, here I am: a midwife. I’m also pretty nutty-passionate about breastfeeding, and am embarking on specialised education on this.

My goal, in working with women and their families, is to enable informed decision making, so that women can say “I chose…” rather than “I had to…”. This requires partnership, which includes lots of information sharing, where both midwife and mother are experts of their own field. My expertise includes my midwifery knowledge and experiences; a mother’s expertise includes her self and her baby.

Coverage

In 2015 I moved from Dunedin, where I lived for almost 26 years, to Riverton, Southland, where I established a midwifery practice as a self-employed, independent Lead Maternity Carer (LMC). I practiced there for about 5 years. In 2021 I moved to the West Coast, and started midwifery again in 2024. The areas I cover include Greymouth and the surrounding areas. If you live more than half an hour from Greymouth, I am happy to discuss potential arrangements. I can support you to birth at home or at the maternity centre at Te Nikau Hospital, Greymouth. I also have access to Te Rau KawaKawa at Buller Health Centre in Westport, but have no plans to work there at this time.

While I work as an “independent” midwife, no midwife is an island – we have whole networks of knowledge bearers to draw upon! I will be working with Te Koha Russo-Greig, with additional support available from other midwives, the medical obstetric and paediatric teams at Te Nikau and Christchurch Women’s Hospitals, and the New Zealand College of Midwives. 

Mihi

Tēnā koutou kātoa. Ko Takitimu me Spylaw Hill kā mauka. Ko Aparima te awa. Ko Ōtautau te papatūwhenua. Ko uruuru whenua Otago te turaka waewae. Kei te noho au kei Maawhera inaianei, i raro i te maru o Kai Tahu. Ko Kati Pākehā te Iwi. Ko Kōtarani rātua ko Ikaraki ko Airihi ko Wīwī kā hapū. Ko Hill rātou ko Coster, ko Flintoff kā whānau. O te taha tō hākoro, ko Jean rāua ko Rowland kā tupuna mātua. O te taha tō hākui, ko Ruth rāua ko Gordon kā tupuna mātua. Ko Catherine rāua ko
Ken kā mātua. Ko Mike Stevenson te hākoro o āku tamariki. Kā mahi tamariki māua, ko Nikita rātau ko Morris, ko Lester. Ko Petal raua ko Sootie, ko Cookie kā kuri, ko Sabrina te ngeru. Ko au tēnei: ko Vivienne Hill tōhoku ikoa. No reira tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Greetings, everyone. Spylaw Hill is my mountain. The Aparima is my river. I was born in Otautau. West Otago is my stomping ground. I live in Greymouth now, under the mantle of Kai Tahu. I am Pakeha, of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and French descent. Hill, Coster and Flintoff are some of the families I come from. Jean and Rowland Hill were my father’s parents. Ruth and Gordon Flintoff were my mother’s parents. Catherine is my mother, and Ken was my father. Mike Stevenson is the father of our children. We are parents to Nikita, Morris and Lester. Petal, Sootie and Cookie are my dogs, Sabrina is my cat. This is me: Vivienne Hill is my name. Therefore, greetings, greetings, greetings to you all.