"Pregnancy care and birth with MGP5"

I was fortunate to be accepted once again on the MGP program. I can't express how awesome I feel this program is and how wonderful the midwives are. For a low risk, simple and straightforward pregnancy like mine, it was just perfect. Having a single point of contact for any questions or concerns without having to repeat yourself about everything everytime, I found, makes the pregnancy journey much easier and less stressful. You're not dealing with a different point of view each time. 

I had a breezy pregnancy overall and a simple water birth with no complications. Unfortunately, my primary midwife, Jascinta, was in isolation due to covid when I went into labour, so another midwife from the MGP5 team, Rebecca, was with me through the labour and birth. I cannot praise Rebecca enough. I felt she was brilliant. I did not feel uncomfortable even for a moment. I never once felt that I was dealing with a midwife that I hadn't dealt with before. She was so supportive and gentle. I believe you could see that she had plenty of knowledge and experience. You could feel how much she loved being a midwife and being a part of the birthing of a newborn. Rebecca had been at work since morning that day and was going strong by my side until I was discharged the same day at midnight. Not even a hint of complaint about her long day or being tired. She made sure that the senior midwife and doctor were consulted with regarding a couple of concerns she had about me following the birth. I believe this further demonstrated her dedication to her work as she didn't just dismiss these concerns as irrelevant, so she could clock off for the day. 

The days after the birth, Jascinta was still not back at work, so Eden from MGP5 was visiting me at home to check in on how me and the newborn were going. Eden was also a lovely midwife. I had previously met her a couple of times for my pregnancy appointments while Jascinta was on leave. So there was already a level of comfort with her. I felt she took over from Rebecca seamlessly and handled most of the post birth visits very well. 

I can't forget to mention what a brilliant midwife Jascinta has been throughout the pregnancy. She has been approachable and comfortable to converse with and raise any questions or concerns. I feel she is knowledgeable and genuine and has ensured I've received the relevant attention when required such as when I was concerned about the baby's movements. 

All in all, I believe the MGP program is an excellent program at KEMH and should be available across all WA hospitals that provide maternity services. I feel the continuity of care that this program offers pregnant women helps to alleviate a lot of the anxiety and stress that pregnant women can experience from having to deal with a different midwife at each appointment. A lot of time, I understand women opt for going private only for continuity and nothing else and it seems often it's women who are not necessarily well off to afford private comfortably. From what I've heard from friends and women on pregnancy and mum groups on social media, I believe having the same midwife at most appointments and the birth also keeps the midwife accountable for the information and advice she provides.

If there is one area of improvement at KEMH, I feel it is with the physio department. I fail to understand why there's only 1 pregnancy exercise class in a week and that too is located in an area of very high peak hour traffic and is timed to finish during the peak traffic hour. I believe it is impossible for working women to attend this class as in my experience, you'd need to leave work by 2pm. And if you work in the city, then I feel it's a nightmare to get there by public transport and even worse getting home using public transport. In addition, it is an aqua aerobics class, which I believe is not ideal for a lot of women. I feel not all pregnant women are comfortable getting into bathers or getting into public swimming pools. It's not like the whole pool is reserved for the class. I recall I've seen men staring at the pregnant women and it is not a nice feeling. Also, I feel swimming is not an exercise that you can quickly head off after the class, as you need to shower and get changed. I had tried it for a day and by the time I got to pick up my child from day care, I was pretty much the last parent. 

Another Hospital, on the other hand, I feel provides a much better option of pregnancy exercise classes run by their pregnancy physiotherapist. The classes are run at 2 respectable times at the hospital. And best of all, it's only pregnant women who are in the room, so I believe everyone is in the same boat and it is a comfortable environment. But even here, when the physiotherapist went on leave, the classes were cancelled. Was there apparently not a maternity physiotherapist in the hospital for the 8 weeks that they were gone? 

In my opinion, maternity hospitals should provide suitable pregnancy exercise classes as I believe a lot of pregnant women are not comfortable to continue going to the gym while pregnant due to a lack of knowledge about pregnancy-safe workouts. Joining pregnancy-specific yoga or pilates classes is generally the alternative option, however, I believe these often affect self-esteem as the bulk of the class is women who were already doing yoga or pilates before pregnancy. I had considered it, but then a friend advised against it as they had joined a class and dropped out after 3 classes as they felt out of place because they'd never done yoga before, so their flexibility was nowhere near most of the women and they kept losing their balance, etc and felt embarrassed.