Before your baby arrives
Pregnancy support services, at your own table
Support in pregnancy does not have to mean another clinic appointment. This is what an endorsed midwife can offer you at home in the months before the birth, and how to work out which parts of it you actually want.
The gap it fills
Your appointments are checking the pregnancy, not preparing you for it
Antenatal appointments are built to monitor: blood pressure, growth, results, next appointment. They do that job well, and there is rarely room in them for the questions that keep you awake. Our pregnancy support services make that room, with an endorsed midwife at home in the months before the birth. This page sets out what that support involves and which parts of it suit which families.
This support is the other half: time to understand what is coming, rehearse the parts that frighten you, and get your household ready for a newborn. It is preparation rather than surveillance, and it happens at your own table.
None of this replaces your maternity care. Your GP, hospital midwife or obstetrician continues to look after your pregnancy exactly as before. Between appointments, the government-funded pregnancy support services at Pregnancy, Birth and Baby include a free helpline on 1800 882 436.
Working out what you need
Which pregnancy support services suit which family
Most families want one or two of these pregnancy support services rather than all of them. Some come looking for a pregnancy support midwife for one conversation, others for antenatal education they can plan the birth around. A rough guide to who books what.
If you want to understand something
- A result, a scan or a recommendation you did not fully follow: a prenatal consultation
- What labour and birth will actually be like: labour and birth preparation
- The whole picture in one session: private antenatal classes
If you want to be ready for something
- A partner who does not know what to do on the day: birth partner preparation
- The first fortnight at home with a newborn: preparing for parenthood
- Colostrum collected in advance, if it has been suggested: antenatal expressing
The third trimester suits most of it
Late enough that it stays with you, early enough that you are not cramming it into the final fortnight alongside everything else. Around thirty weeks is where most families land.
Bring it forward if you are expecting twins, if you have been told to prepare for an earlier arrival, or if you simply want longer to sit with the information.
The person who prepares you can be the person who visits
If you book with the midwife you plan to see after the birth, the person at your door in those first foggy weeks already knows you, your history and what you were hoping for. That is continuity of care, and it saves telling the story again at the worst possible moment.
Fees and Medicare
Each midwife sets her own fees, and because all four are endorsed a Medicare rebate may apply for eligible families. What comes back depends on your own Medicare position, so ask the midwife you contact to set out her fee and the likely rebate together before you book.
Arrange your support
Book directly with the midwife you choose
Every midwife takes her own bookings and can tell you what she offers before the birth, how long a session runs and what it costs.