A few women choose to have their own midwife for their pregnancy, labour, birth and/or postnatal care. Independent midwives work in private practise and often provide care for women who plan to give birth at home. However, some independent midwives are also accredited to public (and a few private) hospitals, meaning they are able to provide labour and birth care for women who choose to give birth in a birth centre or delivery suite. Independent midwives generally limit their practise and can book up quite quickly. Ideally a single midwife should have no more than 5 women due per month, although they may take on more if they work in partnership with another midwife (i.e. 5 women per month per midwife, or 10 per month for 2 midwives). Your choice of midwife may be limited to who is available and willing to travel to you, in some rural areas no one may be available.
NOTE:With the insurance crisis as it is in Australia at the moment, independent midwives providing private services are presently uninsured. This has made their availability scarce and in many areas non-existent. Independent midwives have also temporarily lost their visiting rights to hospitals because of being uninsured, limiting their services to just homebirth (if they continue to practise). It is hoped that this situation will be resolved in the near future, to facilitate this choice for women and their families. However, check in your local area because there are some rare cases of independent midwives working as part of a government-funded Medicare service. We know of one midwife who works in this way in the Peel region of south-west Western Australia.
The concept of having your own midwife is to provide a woman with total continuity of care.