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Many expectant mothers in the wheatbelt will soon be able to give birth closer to home, following the announcement of a new midwife birthing service at the Northam Hospital.
Women with low-risk pregnancies will be able to give birth under the guidance of an experienced midwife.
This initiative comes after unsuccessful attempts at hiring a full time obstetrician in Northam, following Dr Colin Smythe’s retirement in July 2015.
Dr Smythe was a long-serving obstetrician of Northam District Hospital for 35 years, and up until his retirement in July 2015, delivered an average 50 babies a year.
The need for wheatbelt birthing options was highlighted in the Avon Valley and Wheatbelt Advocate last October, when a York mother was forced to deliver her fourth child on the side of the road, after she didn’t make it in time to the St John of God public hospital in Midland.
WA Country Health Service (WACHS) wheatbelt regional director Sean Conlan said the Midwifery Group Practice (MGP) model had been adopted as a sustainable birthing option for a small town with good links to specialist obstetric hospitals in Midland and Perth.
The midwife services are a good place to start
- Dr Marie Fox
“We believe the Wheatbelt Midwifery Group Program is a very good solution and will benefit many women who would prefer to give birth in Northam,” he said.
He said the first midwives will start in November.
Under the MGP model, women receive continuity of care by being matched with a midwife who will meet regularly with them during their pregnancy and support them through labour.
The service was introduced in WA over 10 years ago to country practices already operating in Bunbury and Broome.
Northam GP Marie Fox said the changes are exciting. “The current situation is there are no planned births in Northam,” she said.
“The midwife services are a good place to start.”
“Women will have one midwife all the way through their birth, similar to the way it used to be with GP’s,” she said.
Dr Fox said she hopes the community will take part in the initiative.
“I am hoping women will be encouraged to enrol in the antenatal care and develop a relationship with the midwife,” she said.
Wheatbelt MGP project manager, Marie Hill, has been employed by WACHS to set up the midwifery led service.
Ms Hill said the midwife model was an excellent alternative to traditional obstetric-led care for low-risk women.
“Recent research by Australian maternal health expert Professor Lesley Barclay shows that normal births are very well supported by midwives working closer to people’s homes,” she said. “The statistics for low-risk births at small rural birthing units are as good if not better than those from big maternity units.”
Although only women with low-risk births – meaning no complications for the mother or baby – could birth through the WMGP, the practice would also provide shared care for women with complications who were booked to birth at metropolitan hospitals, Ms Hill said.
If any problems developed during labour, women would be transferred from Northam Hospital to St John of God Midland Public Hospital.
The WMGP was developed as a joint venture between the Maternal Health Improvement Project of the Southern Inland Health Initiative and WACHS Wheatbelt.
Women who would like to know more about the program can email Wheatbelt.MidwiferyGroupPractice@health.wa.gov.au or phone 9690 1633.
