Well it’s taken me a few weeks (and quite a few attempts) to actually sit down and write our story so I hope I haven’t forgotten too much… first chance I’ve had when not breastfeeding my little cherub, entertaining an increasingly busy 2yo, and actually able to sit (the length of recovery surprised me).
Midwives Naturally is a Melbourne based midwifery group practice offering a range of services such as pregnancy care, birth attendance, birth education, post baby care and lactation consultancy. Please take a look around our website and contact us if you have any queries.
Email Us:
To view our fee schedule and download items for homebirth, please click here
To tub hire please click on the link above and call Ros on (03) 9844 5218 or mobile 0417 154 541
New fee schedule: Due to the new regulation requirements, Midwives Naturally and all privately practicing midwives have to ensure that we have PII for antenatal and postnatal care. Labour and Birth insurance is still unavailable and an exemption is in place until 2012. The cost of this is yet to be determined, however, it is likely to be thousands of dollars for each midwife. After careful consideration, we have relunctantly decided to increase our fees after 3 years. The fee will apply to clients birthing from January 2011. Midwives Naturally are committed to applying for medicare and PBS so we hope that this will offset some of the cost incurred. Medicare rebates will not be available until October 2010.
Please contact your midwife with any queries regarding the above changes
Nicola, Jennie, Clare & Helen attend ICM conference in Scotland
The conference reinforced that the philosophy underpinning our practice, was backed up by evidence.
That homebirth is a safe & viable option that should be available to women & their families.
That midwives are best placed to support & promote normal birth.
Facilitation of normal birth for women who have had a previous caesarean should be led by midwives through a one to one midwifery model of care.
Private Midwifery Services under threat! .
Nicola Roxon, the federal health minister, announced a 2 year reprieve on midwives having PII insurance to practice as a requirement for registration. In order to provide a private midwifery service, it has deemed necessary to adhere to some registration requirements within a quality and safety framework. Midwives Naturally has critically appraised this framework and we believe that our practice already fulfills the criteria.
Information regarding the requirements that Midwives need to meet to be able to be registered will be outlined in more detail shortly but we have been verbally informed that women and their families will still be able to access private midwifery. However, we are waiting to have this in writing. So the future of private midwifery remains uncertain.
Unfortunately, midwives have not been able to access PII since 2002 and have continued to support women & their families to birth at home and in hospital. Privately practicing midwives have provided the community with a safe and alternative choice grounded in a wellness philosophy.
It is internationally recognised that having a known and trusted person support women & their families throughout the childbirth continuum equates to reduced intervention rates, high normal physiological birth rates & fantastic outcomes for mother and baby. This model of care also increases long term breast feeding rates and supports the whole family emotionally so that postnatal depression is less likely to occur.
Two Melbourne hospitals have recently begun to offer a publicly funded homebirth service. However, feedback from clients have stated that the strict criteria has meant that many women wanting to birth at home have been rejected. The pilot projects also have a limited number of available spots so it is only open to a few women, therefore women wanting to homebirth within the public health system are likely to be denied the opportunity to do so.
We urge visitors to our website to contact your federal minister http://www.aec.gov.au/ to highlight your concerns.
Homebirth Australia http://www.homebirthaustralia.org/ articulate the issues very well and offer consumers strategies that will assist you to understand what is at stake and what can be done about it.
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The Canberra rally was a huge success. Tracy Bartram was MC and despite the rain, over 2000 women & their families, proponents of choice and midwives attended. It was a fantastic event and continued pressure needs to be applied to local and federal MP's to ensure that midwives naturally and other MIPP's will be able to provide this valuable service to the community.
Photos of the day
Also, midwives in private practice (MIPP) have a regularly updated blog http://midwivesvictoria.blogspot.com/ that you are invited to view & keep up with the latest information at this critical time.
Above all, feel free to contact any of the midwives in our team as we are determined to provide choice and access to the services that you want.
Autumn Picnic 2009 held at Lilydale Lake - huge success!
Midwives Naturally invited past clients to the second picnic on Sunday 7th April. Despite the overcast and windy day, we were joined by many women & their families who we have had the privilege to share their birthing journey with.
Please ring Mal Morieson on 0408 363 802 to book these sessions, as spaces may be limited.
Please note Midwives Naturally, like all independent midwives world-wide, are unable to obtain indemnity insurance. Not because of anything we have done, midwives are simply too small in number to create a pool of funds to cover any potential payout.
