Midwifery Group Practice (MGP) provides of midwifery carer to women and their families throughout pregnancy, birth and the first 2 weeks at home with a new baby. Pregnancy care will be mostly provided in the community, providing opportunity to become familiar with local resources.
In response to consumer demand and government policy, Barwon Health and a growing number of hospitals nationally and internationally are establishing models of maternity care that provide continuity of carer as a means of improving womens' experiences of maternity care.
MGP provides care to well women by midwives in their local community. The MGP midwife will be available and on call for labour and birth and will be supported by a small group of midwives when she is unavailable.
MGP midwives will maintain relationships with medical staff and a variety of multidisciplinary health providers who will provide collaborative care as necessary.
A thorough evaluation is an essential component of the MGP model of care and is currently underway as part of Barwon Health's commitment to quality and safety. Research to date has concluded that continuity of midwifery care was associated with lower intervention rates and increased satisfaction (1).
(1) Waldenstrom U & Turnbull D (1998) A systematic review of comparing continuity of midwifery care with standard maternity services, BJOG Nov. 1998, vol. 105, pp. 1160-1170.
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