Team midwifery is a relatively new type of maternity service in Australia that has become more available over the last few years. Team midwifery involves a group of 6 to 8 midwives who work together at a hospital in rostered shifts to provide total pregnancy, labour and birth care (and daily postnatal visits if the woman chooses to go home early from the hospital after the birth). A midwifery team will limit the amount of women they care for (ranging from 40 to 90 per month, depending on how many midwives are on the team). This means they can book up relatively quickly.
Essentially, team midwifery is available to women who have no pre-existing health conditions (such as
diabetes) and whose pregnancies are progressing relatively normally with one baby (no
twins or more), with the midwives seeking advice from an obstetric registrar or consultant if there are health concerns or if complications arise. If complications do arise (such as
high blood pressure,
bleeding during pregnancy, labour starting
prematurely - before 37 weeks, or the baby being in a
breech position) then the woman's care will most likely be transferred from the team midwives to the doctors at the hospital's antenatal clinic. Policies and guidelines for what is acceptable for team midwives' to manage will vary from hospital to hospital. Ask your midwife.
The idea of team midwifery is that the woman meets all (or most) of the midwives on the team during her pregnancy and has one of them with her during the labour and birth. However, this is not always possible and you may have a midwife from the team that you have never met before caring for you during the labour and birth.
Another concept of a team midwifery program is 'caseloads'. This is where 2 or 3 midwives share the pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal care of a smaller number of women (up to 20 or 30), taking turns to be on call for their labours and births.