Cassandra Nest

Birthing stories

Bachelor of Midwifery

Cassandra is a proud Ngunnawal woman who grew up on the Yugembeh and Bundjalung Country on the Gold Coast and Northern NSW.

Her interest in midwifery was sparked from stories about birthing, reproduction and woman’s business which were passed down to her from her grandmother. However, it wasn't until her own pregnancy and birthing experience that her passion for midwifery and culturally safe birthing environments truly formed, motivating her to begin her studies in midwifery at Griffith University.

A consistently high performing student, Cassandra was awarded an Indigenous Midwifery Cadetship, an Indigenous Rotary Health Scholarship and Griffith University Academic Achievement awards for two consecutive years.

In early 2018, Ms Nest accepted an innovative joint appointment that was created via a partnership between Midwifery@Griffith and the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH).  Of note, this established Ms Nest as the first Aboriginal Academic within the Midwifery@Griffith Team.

In this dream role for Cassandra, she is now at the forefront of building a culturally safe midwifery workforce and birthing environments for First Peoples women. Her role allows her to work alongside numerous current Bachelor of Midwifery students to inspire and support them to continue with their studies when university study can become overwhelming. Each year she mentors First Peoples midwifery students in a practical setting, to ensure they are both receiving, promoting and providing culturally safe care for First Peoples women, babies, families and their community.

Since her appointment at GCUH, the First Peoples community engagement has grown from 3 women to 57 women, a total of 30% of the First Peoples women and families accessing their service.

A notable and recent career highlight for Cassandra was receiving the 2018 First Peoples NAIDOC Award 'Because of her we can', for being an inspiring First Peoples woman and leader in the health service and community.