ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said midwifery staffing was at its highest level in "a long time" last week, following months of shortages.
The Centenary Hospital was forced to declare a "code yellow" for the maternity unit last month due to staffing pressures. This was in place for nearly a month and is activated when "internal emergencies affect service delivery standards".
Bosses at the hospital were warned of these pressures in a letter from senior midwives which was sent in March.
The letter said "chronic roster shortfalls" had contributed to delayed care, patient dissatisfaction and could contribute to poor outcomes.
The midwives also said there had been a "massive exodus" of birthing midwives which had affected the birth suite.
"Birth suite midwives self-report feeling exhausted and burnt out," the letter said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said a lot of work had been done in an attempt to address shortages and in the past week rosters were able to be filled.
"I'm advised that last week for the first week in a long time Canberra Hospital had all of its midwifery in green across the board every day at the daily huddle," she said.
"[This indicated] they actually had enough staff to fill all the rosters which is a fantastic achievement in terms of recruitment, retention, but also the engagement of some agency staff for longer term contracts."
Ms Stephen-Smith said Canberra Health Services needed to be competitive in order to attract more staff.
"We know we're facing a very competitive environment with national and international shortages of nurses, midwives, and a range of doctors specialities as well," she said.
