Stasha D’Souza was not sure which career path she wanted to pursue until her school careers advisor said: “midwives are the happiest of all hospital workers”. In that instant, her mind was made up.
Stasha applied to study nursing and midwifery at Deakin University, and now is in the final months of completing her graduate year at Werribee Mercy Hospital.
Before Stasha entered her chosen profession she had experience in a very different type of nursing — palliative care. As a student, Stasha worked in the community for Mercy Palliative Care. While the two areas of nursing may appear to sit at opposite ends of the nursing spectrum, there are many beautiful similarities, Stasha says.
Stasha takes a break in the sunshine from her shift in the Werribee Maternity Hospital Birth Suites.
“Watching people leave this earth is so special,” she says. “Those warm feelings you get watching a baby’s birth, they are still there during palliative care, just in a different way.
“During a birth, a woman deals with the worst pain they’ve experienced in their lives, but in an instant, the mood changes when the baby is born.
Time stands still and it’s really beautiful. When it comes to palliative care, we prepare our patients before they pass away, and we prepare our patients once they have passed. For me, that is a very special thing to do — to clean and prepare my patient. I’m glad I can do that for my patients and their families. I would then spend time listening to families talk about their loved ones and, again, those warm feelings are there as you listen to their stories. Time stands still again.”
Time stands still and it’s really beautiful.
Stasha believes having experience in palliative care has made her a better nurse, and even more than that — a better person.
“It was a difficult role, not only because it was my first foot in the door in healthcare, but in palliative care, you are having conversations and dealing with very sensitive topics,” Stasha says. “I thought I’d have to learn to compartmentalise, but once I’d worked there a while, I realised I didn’t have to do that at all and that passing away was part of life itself.
Stasha and baby Freya
“It took me a little time to get there, and it taught me a lot very early in my career, but now I can see that it’s made me a good and very empathetic nurse. I feel like listening to people share their stories as they near the end of their lives has not only made me a better nurse and midwife, but it’s made me a better person, too.”
While Stasha can see herself moving back into palliative care sometime in the distant future — particularly given the nurses she worked with at Mercy Palliative Care “have had such rich careers” — for now, she is excited about her future years as a midwife.
“I’m really enjoying it,” she says. “I love the midwifery staff and I feel very supported in everything I do here. “I find working in the birth suites very exciting and am looking forward to doing clinics and going back into the community to do midwifery in the home.”
And are midwives the happiest people working in a hospital?
“I can’t answer that, but they’re definitely very happy in maternity,” Stasha laughs.
Last reviewed October 29, 2021.