Midwifery Group Practice
Midwifery Group Practice is a continuity of care model where your care is provided by a small team of midwives who are on call for you throughout your pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period. You will have a primary midwife who you will see for the majority of your care but will also meet the other midwives in the group along the way. MGP offers birth place choice between Birth Unit, Birth Centre or in the home. Midwifery continuity of care is the evidence-based, gold standard of care for mothers and babies.
In 2023 RHW MGP had a 67% normal vaginal birth rate, compared with the national average of 50.7% (NSW Mother and Babies Report, 2023)
- Women are more likely to have a normal birth.
- Women are less likely to experience unnecessary intervention.
- Babies are more likely to be born healthy and at term.
- Women are more likely to breastfeed successfully. -
- Women are more likely to have a positive experience of labour and birth and to be satisfied with the experience.
As part of the MGP you will have the opportunity to choose a publicly funded homebirth if you meet the criteria. This is a fantastic option for lots of women and families which is only available in six other hospitals in NSW. Large systematic reviews have confirmed the safety of homebirth for healthy women, even if having their first baby (Scarf et al, 2018). Planning a homebirth is associated with a 95.2% chance of having a spontaneous vaginal birth and lower rates of all interventions including caesarean section, instrumental birth, and episiotomy (Hutton et al, 2019). Please talk to your primary midwife about this if you would like more information.
Although the Royal Hospital for Woman offers the largest number of MGP places in Australia, places are still limited. For this reason, we will only recruit women in the RHW area and prioritise women who wish to have homebirth or low-intervention birth. If any complications arise in your pregnancy MGP midwives work with a number of specialists within the hospital to support your pregnancy. As you receive care in your home after your baby is born, early discharge home from hospital is expected if appropriate.
If you are assigned to a midwife within MGP you will be contacted before you are 10 weeks to confirm and ensure you are appropriate for the program.