BACKGROUND:
Australia is experiencing chronic midwifery workforce shortages primarily due to high attrition and retirement. Retaining midwives is critical to sustaining a skilled workforce, yet longitudinal evidence on workforce trends and specific work factors which predict and/or prevent midwives exiting the profession is sparse.

OBJECTIVES:
To investigate midwives’ retention and attrition in a midwifery cohort over a five-year period; and the factors linked to exiting from or remaining in the profession.

METHODS:
An online longitudinal cohort study has been conducted with 259 midwives in Victoria since 2021 (baseline) with the fifth and final annual survey in October 2025. All midwives were followed up including those who may have left the profession during the study. We explored employment factors, intentions to leave, and work-related wellbeing (including validated scales for satisfaction and burnout).

RESULTS:
Forty-four midwives (17%, 44/259) left the profession between baseline and 2024, nearly half (43%) in their first 5 years of practice. Data were compared between the ‘remaining-in cohort’ (n=215 who stayed employed throughout), and ‘left the profession cohort’ (n=44 who exited between 2021-2024). At baseline, burnout levels were higher in those that eventually left midwifery (personal: 84% vs. 67%, work: 77% vs. 64%, client: 32% vs. 13%), and they felt less supported (26% vs. 38%), acknowledged (19% vs. 37%), and satisfied with their job (29% vs. 67%) compared to those that remained in midwifery throughout.

CONCLUSIONS:
Early-career midwives made up almost half of those who had left the profession, with burnout, poor support, lack of acknowledgement, and low job satisfaction emerging as key drivers of attrition.

KEY MESSAGE:
Prevention of burnout and providing adequate support, acknowledgement and job satisfaction may be critical to retaining midwives in the profession. Poster session 4 (Group B)