midwives in Australia

[zareenawifey]

My sister in law is newly pregnant and not originally from Australia. I am a new zealander so don't know much about Australian birth care. But are midwives used?? Or do you see the doctor? She is An Australian permanent resident. Here in NZ is it simple, you just contact a midwife and go from there. Is it that simple in Australia?

[lousie_1986]

Totally recommend a caseload midwife program if hospital is her choice of birth place, and a nearby hospital offers it... Birth works better when you know and trust your health care provider! (According to research, not just my opinion ;)

[lousie_1986]

They offer homebirth in a few public programs, depending on where you live (none near enough to me) plus there are different midwife programs - if you book in early enough (and at the right public hospital) you can get a caseload midwife, who will look after you the whole pregnancy with a 2nd back up midwife too. But if you book into the regular public system you just see whichever midwife is on shift at the time. If you're high risk you might be assigned to an ob. And if you want to go private, you can hire a midwife or an ob/gyn to look after you.

[zareenawifey]

Ok thanks.  It sounds similar to NZ. :) which is good.

[Yarelis29]

I only saw midwifes during my first pregnancy and while I was in labour I had 2 midwifes with me all the way through till the baby was about to come out then an obst came in to do the  delivery.

[phenana]

Yep, our model of care is similar. However they don't offer home birth (very political here) but its all midwife run, you see an obst maybe twice in your pregnancy