"Antenatal & Birth Care"

I was allocated to the Midwifery Group Practice 4 team for antenatal care ahead of the birth of my son at King Edward Memorial Hospital a few weeks ago. This meant visits to the hospital campus prior to the birth (although no hospital tour due to COVID, though I don't think this mattered much on the day). I saw two different midwives during my pregnancy (due to staffing changeovers) and attended a series of telehealth-style group antenatal classes run by the MGP4/5. 

The guidance and care I received from the MGP and KEMH was really clear and concise all the way through. The printed material they gave me was likewise a good amount - not an overload of information but all the key things I needed to know. I am a medical student myself and have had some general training around labour but needed this information to understand how that fit in with the hospital I would actually be at and of course with my own specific needs throughout pregnancy. 

I also had a really strong bond with my GP, with whom I had all of my pre-booking appointments and scans, and the MGP team made sure she was kept in the loop with a 'shared care' arrangement.

On the day of the birth, my midwife's buddy took me through the first half of labour and then was relieved for the remainder of the labour and birth by a colleague who I hadn't met before but really felt comfortable with. The two midwives and other staff who attended my labour and birth worked really well as a team and had slightly different approaches which worked really well for us. We came away feeling like we'd been given the opportunity to work through the labour in a sort of DIY, wait-and-see way with one midwife, and then after we'd spent some time pursuing this approach, the second midwife guided us through some minor interventions to bring us close to the delivery of our son. We came away feeling like we had done things as naturally as possible while being safe and making strategic but minor use of the medical assistance to get us to the finish line.

I don't feel particularly strongly about the notion of 'continuity of care' personally, as I feel very comfortable in a medical/institutional setting and because I knew that seeing the same midwife prior didn't guarantee their presence on the day (which is what happened for us and caused us no alarm or disappointment), however there is real value in consistent engagement with the MGP team, tailored to each stage of pregnancy, so that I felt informed and prepared when it came to the day of the birth. 

The only negative to this experience was the frustrating technical issues that got in the way of my attending all the online antenatal classes and meant that my midwife and I had to do a bit of troubleshooting around our appointments as they were partly conducted by phone/telehealth. Some helpful recommendations for alternative resources from the MGP staff meant that this did not cause a big hole in our knowledge, but I feel there are some kinks to iron out there if we are to continue with COVID restrictions and a greater amount of virtual medical care.