Private Midwifery Services: Personalised, Continuity-of-Care Midwifery and Breastfeeding Support
“Ask the woman, she will tell you everything you need to know.”
Ina May Gaskin
Your Whole Journey
Pregnancy labour birth and postpartum care
Care throughout your entire childbearing journey. Certainty and comfort of your own and known midwife, available in-person, on the phone and by text (if appropriate). Every antenatal visit with your private practice midwife in a relaxed, unrushed setting. All your pregnancy labour, birth, and postnatal care needs to 7 weeks postpartum including midwifery care, any pathology tests, ultrasounds, and prescribing needs. Inclusive of anyone you deem important in your childbearing experience.
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• Appointments that are scheduled to meet your needs, usually monthly early on, then more frequently towards the end of your pregnancy, fortnightly from about 28 weeks and then weekly from 36 weeks.
• Every antenatal visit with your private practice midwife in a relaxed, unrushed setting.
• Reflecting together on you and your baby’s wellbeing at each visit.
• Exploration of your hopes and expectations for your birth and matrescence.
• Extensive preparation and planning for labour and birth.
• Know what respectful maternity care looks, feels, and sounds like.
• Decision making that’s right for you, respecting your right to bodily autonomy and protecting your free, full, and informed consent at every decision point.
• Development of mutual trust and respect that is the core of continuity of midwifery care.
• Having the certainty and comfort of your own and known midwife, available in-person, on the phone and by text (if appropriate).
• All your pregnancy labour, birth, and postnatal care needs to 7 weeks postpartum including midwifery care, any pathology tests, ultrasounds, and prescribing needs.
• Inclusive of anyone you deem important in your childbearing experience.
• Referral (if you consent) to other providers as indicated as your needs change.
Pregnancy Care
Bespoke antenatal care
Individualised pregnancy care to meet your needs when planning to birth with a different care provider but wanting midwifery support during pregnancy and in preparation for labour, birth, early postpartum, breastfeeding and early days of parenting.
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
Breastfeeding Support
As a very experienced IBCLC I provide opportunities to plan and prepare for breastfeeding prior to the birth of your baby and then continue to support you through the early days and weeks of your new role as a breastfeeding mother. I help you prepare for and avoid the common challenges in your feeding journey. My niche expertise in lactation and breastfeeding support is infant oral anatomy and function, through the challenge of oral restriction assessment, treatment, and recovery from frenotomy (release of oral ties). I have extensive experience in supporting induced lactation, re-lactation, and low supply.
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• Knowing and having confidence in your ability to feed your baby.
• How to prepare for breastfeeding.
• Knowing what to buy now, what can wait, what not to buy.
• How to hand express colostrum before your birth.
• Supporting the first breastfeed and first days of breastfeeding.
• Baby led attachment and skin to skin.
• Your experience of the first week.
• What’s normal, common, challenging and how to navigate it all.
• When to ask for further support.
• Who to ask for that support throughout your breastfeeding journey.
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• Supporting the first breastfeed and first days of breastfeeding.
• Baby led attachment and skin to skin.
• Your experience of the first week.
• Overcoming early challenges.
• When to ask for further support.
• Who to ask for that support throughout your breastfeeding journey.
Mother and Baby Care
Bespoke postnatal care
Flexible and available in-person or on the phone. Continue to have quality postpartum care when you’ve birthed with another care provider. Your needs may extend beyond the scope of practice of your care provider, or your care with them has ended.
It’s not unusual to need midwifery support beyond the hospital stay or when your public midwife is no longer available. Early postpartum, breastfeeding, and early days of parenting are supported to avoid or navigate the common challenges.
Workshops: Individual or Group
Labour, birth and breastfeeding preparation deserve your focussed attention during pregnancy.
Workshops provide a dedicated opportunity in either an individual or group setting to intensively address these important topics.
Preparation for labour and birth:
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• Preparing your birth space – home and hospital.
• After you’ve birthed bag/Transfer/Hospital Bag.
• End of pregnancy experience.
• Your mucous plug, releasing of waters, on and off early labour.
• Signs of early labour.
• When to call your midwife, doula or when to go to hospital.
• The unfolding of labour (stages and phases)
• Comfort measures in labour, including water immersion.
• Early labour strategies – home & hospital Food and Fluids Induction of labour - Decisions - Options
• Process Pharmacological pain management options
• Caesarian section & assisted vaginal birth Protecting your perineum – pregnancy preparation and while birthing.
• Placental birth options Optimal cord clamping
• What to do with your placenta
• Skin to skin Early breastfeeding
•Neonatal decisions Hep B Vit K NNST HH
Preparation for your breastfeeding journey:
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• Knowing and having confidence in your ability to feed your baby.
• How to prepare for breastfeeding.
• What to buy.
• How to express colostrum before your birth.
• Supporting the first breastfeed and first days of breastfeeding
• Baby led attachment and skin to skin
• Your experience of the first week.
• Overcoming early challenges.
• When to ask for further support.
• Finding reliable information online and social media.
• Who to ask for that support throughout your entire breastfeeding journey.
How To Work Together
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Reach Out
Reach out via my contact form and book a discovery call. This is usually a 10 minute phone call
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Discovery
We can have a chat about your unique situation. We can decide on the next step and what your needs are
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Let’s Meet
Meet with me either in my space, online if you live remotely or in your home if that is what suits you.
Big Decisions Take Time
After our initial meeting you may want to take some time, think and discuss with your partner. Choosing a care provider for your pregnancy is an important decision.
This is a great podcast to help you in this:
Frequently Asked Questions
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Depending on when your guessdate is I may or may not be available. I plan on caring for one or two families per month for birth at home. Sometimes I’ll agree to a third as I hate to turn families away.
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Let’s just say I get a lot of pictures of positive pregnancy tests!Contact me as soon as possible as I do book out quickly. Having said that, if your care needs change during pregnancy and you find yourself looking for private midwifery care, it’s never too late to reach out.
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I live near Townsville and travel to support birthing families.
Anywhere from Mission Beach in the north to Home Hill in the south.
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I can absolutely support a birth at home if that’s what is right for you.
This is a fabulous podcast that lays out all your birth options in terms of caregiver and place of birth.
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My goal is always to support families wherever your pregnancy journey takes you. So, if a birth at home is your goal we will work towards that. But if you need to go to hospital I will journey with you. I am in the process of asking for visiting rights at TUH which means I will eventually care for women in hospital as their midwife, if that’s appropriate.
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I can provide all your pregnancy labour birth and postnatal care needs to 7 weeks postpartum including midwifery care, any pathology tests, ultrasounds and prescribing needs
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Rarely is this an issue, but the most common reason is not an emergency, but the
woman needing something that home can’t provide, like pharmacological pain relief.
Sometimes the labouring woman (not very often at all) gets very tired with a long
labour and needs hospital pain relief to get her the rest and relaxation she needs for
her labour to progress.
In situations where transfer is advised we discuss the situation, my concerns, and
recommendations. You always have the right to bodily autonomy. That means any
and every decision is yours to make. Nothing will be done unless you have provided full, free, and informed consent. I made a plan to keep everyone as safe as possible while also respecting the woman’s decisions.
Most transfers to hospital are not emergencies and we travel by private car having phoned the hospital ahead of time. Only twice have I needed to call the ambulance and neither situation was an outright emergency.
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Care with me entails your birth fee of $6500. A $2000 non-refundable Booking Confirmation Fee is paid early in pregnancy. The balance of $4500 is due at 36 weeks gestation.
Medicare will pay for your antenatal and postnatal care if you provide written consent for me to bulk bill these visits. I pay a second midwife out of the included birth fee.
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The magic of continuity of midwifery care lies in the mutual relationship of trust that develops between and woman and her midwife through pregnancy. Usually, we will see each other monthly. Appointments are long and unrushed. There’s plenty of time to chat and get to know each other.
After about 28 weeks gestation we will start meeting fortnightly. That’s when the intense birth planning/mapping begins. We will have conversations about labour and birth at every visit from then until you birth. All your questions and my midwifery preparation will finally be complete around 36 – 37 weeks.
From 36 weeks we will meet weekly until baby decides to come esrthside.
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A second midwife is a regulatory requirement to support you and your baby’s safety around the time of birth. I have a number of very capable midwives available to support homebirth.
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Yes, both myself and all second midwives have neonatal resuscitation skills. In fact, Iand one of my preferred second midwives were responsible for teaching neonatal resuscitation at the public hospital where we worked together for over ten years. She and I have a beautiful synchronous way of working together, even in emergencies.
I bring to your house equipment to help us use our skills if needed, although it’s almost never needed because spontaneous labour and birth at home is about as safe as life gets.
I have on hand:
• Oxygen
• Suction for clearing baby’s airway
• Bag and mask resuscitator – for helping a baby who isn’t breathing
• Neonatal stethoscope – for listening to baby’s heart and breath sounds
• Oxygen saturation probe – for measuring baby’s heart rate and oxygen saturation levels
• Thermometer
We like babies to be “warm, sweet and pink”; meaning a normal temperature, good blood glucose levels and well oxygenated. The important thing about helping baby be as well as possible is to have a spontaneous undisturbed labour and birth with immediate and uninterrupted skin to skin and first breast feed.
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Yes. I have a doppler (actually 2) and a pinards stethoscope. I also encourage you to be aware of baby’s movements and develop an intuitive understanding of how you and baby are.
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Labour and birth at home is very different to labour and birth in hospital. As a result, women meet the challenge of labour with a trust in their innate abilities and the support of their loved ones and midwife. I have heaps of comfort measure strategies up my sleeve to help. I am a huge fan of labour and birth in water, which research has shown provides better outcomes for women both in hospital and home. Women who access water immersion in labour have shorter labours and have fewer pharmacological pain-relieving interventions. I also have sterile water injections available for backache in labour.
I can access Nitrous Oxide gas if you want. No-one has ever hired gas and air for birth at home to date. But it’s ok if you want that option, it’s available.
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The environment that births a baby safely also births your placenta safely; quiet, dark, calm and warm – with patience. Again I have a bunch of midwifery skills to help you birth your placenta safely, including emergency skills and drugs to help if needed. You have lots of choices about what to do with your placenta but it doesn’t need special disposal.