International Day of the Midwife: LGH midwives gather at City Park

The walk around City Park was to recognise and raise awareness for the midwifery profession, and many turned up in their colorful scrubs and smiling faces.

Australian College of Midwives Tasmania chairwoman Dawn Reid said the walk was a huge thank you to the incredible work of midwives in Tasmania.

"We are all here to celebrate midwives, and the passion that they have. And just to say, thank you for everything that they do," Ms Reid said.

"We're experiencing rates of staff shortages that we've never seen before.

"We need to be able to provide more education and qualifications within Tasmania, for midwives."

Ms Reid said the path to becoming a midwife is unnecessarily difficult and has contributed to the shortage.

"At the moment...you need to be a nurse first, and then you qualify as a midwife," she said.

"We're trying to negotiate around getting a direct entry qualification for midwives.

"Being short staffed, midwives are then required to pick up extras or do double shifts, so that attributes to burnout for the midwives."

With the autumn sun shining, Ms Reid said it was great to see so many midwives, children and families gathered for a great cause.

"We had cupcakes, chocolate, midwifery socks and we had lots of talking - which midwives are really good at - and wonderful weather."

International Day of the Midwife is on Sunday, May 5.