"Midwives Group Practice Broome"

I've recently had my fourth baby. My first three were delivered in hospitals in Perth, WA. All four were in the public system, however this was my first experience with the MGP (Midwifery Group Practice).

I quite enjoyed my experience with the MGP. I did have a primary midwife, however she was away for a lot of the appointments, so the continuous care with one person wasn't within my experience. However, it was nice getting to know a core group of midwives. It meant that I knew the people in the room when it came time to deliver my baby. In my previous experiences in the public system, I never knew who the midwives were in the delivery room. I just had to trust that the hospital administration had done their due diligence and the midwives attending to me knew what they were doing. With the MGP, I got to know the 5-6 midwives in the program, so my confidence was based on this as well. It made me feel more relaxed and confident leading up to delivery, especially as this time round, I was experiencing complications.

I experienced a second trimester bleed that lasted for 6 weeks. The level of care that I received from the MGP was excellent. Whilst in the beginning of the bleed, I was understandably freaked out, I fairly quickly calmed down. I came to two conclusions:

1). If they weren't worried, I wasn't going to worry. I was only able to apply this because I had been given the opportunity to get to know the midwives.

2). Knowing that my patient information was shared among this core group, meant that I didn't have to update whoever I was seeing at each appointment. I didn't have to constantly revise/review the complications with each person; they already knew what was happening.

My baby's delivery was quite traumatic with an emergency c-section. Every single midwife in the room with me was someone I knew. This definitely helped keep me calm and less panicked as they prepped me for surgery. My primary midwife has remarked to me several times that I appeared to be very calm, and not overly panicked during this time. I believe it all came down to knowing the people in the room with me.

The aftercare I received from the MGP was above and beyond. My secondary midwife came to my home several times during the 10 days post birth. My primary midwife took time to see me at 3 weeks and at 9 weeks. At 3 weeks, she came to check on both bub and I, physically as well as checking in with me emotionally. At 9 weeks, she just wanted to catch up to make sure I was coping ok after physically recovering from everything and getting into a routine. She also wanted to make sure that I was coping emotionally. Given that the MGP only receive funding for 10 days post birth, I thought this was amazing. We're not just another patient. The MGP midwives care about their "ladies" as they have gotten to know us as we have them.