Birth Resources for a friend in Melbourne

[chandasz]

One of my best friends is expecting their first and lives in Melbourne.

I want to help by looking for good recommendations for good natural birth friendly caregivers and any la leche or breastfeeding support groups.

Any places (hospitals/caregivers) they should avoid?

What is your C-section rate in Australia now? What is the birth climate there?

I am a Bradley Method Teacher so I want to be proactive!

Thanks

[natural mum]

Melbourne Pregnancy!

You might want to tell your friend about a service that has started for pregnant women to help them connect with their baby and the mother they already are in advance of the baby's birth. It is a group format and runs in Melbourne and in London.
www.advancemothering.com
Good luck to you and your friend!

[katelove]

A friend of mine had her baby at a birth centre called Birralea in Melbourne and was very happy with it. They also provided all her antenatal care.

The c/s rate varies a lot from place to place of course but the national average is about 30%

As far as I know La Leche League is not active in Australia but I guess the equivalent would be the Australian Breastfeeding Association. They have a website which talks about the resources they provide including a phone helpline which is staffed by breastfeeding mothers.

The birthing climate in Australia at the moment is highly politically charged and there is a fairly big divide between medicine and midwfery. However, one of the things we have going for us, IMO is that all maternity units are staffed almost exclusively by midwives (and I say "almost" only because sometimes, in cases of shortstaffing etc RNs or ENs are seconded to assist. A birthing woman will always have a midwife attending her and, in most circumstances it will be one-on-one).

If she wants a natural birth I would strongly advice her not to see a private OB or plan to birth at a private hospital. The public system (overall) is much more natural birth friendly if she opts to go the hospital route. The hospital where I did my midwifery (a large teaching hospital in a regional city) and where I am having my babe just released a policy on how to support women choosing to have a lotus birth for example.

On the downside, if she chooses to go with an independent midwife she will have to pay for it herself as there is no medicare rebate for homebirth and, as far as I know, none of the private insurers will cover it either. The flipside of this is, if she goes through the public system, she won't pay a cent (if she is medicare eligible). I'm pretty sure birth centres are all fully covered by medicare as well.

www.homebirthaustralia.org would probably be the place to start looking for an independent midwife if that is they way she wants to go.

If I can help with any more info/resouces etc pleasee feel free to PM me.

Regards
Kate

ETA - the major issue with independent midwives in Australia is that, as far as I know, none of them will have professional indeminity insurance.

[MujerMamaMismo]

If she isn't after a home birth, then the pp is right, she should definitely go for a public hospital. I had my DS at the Family Birth Centre in the Mercy Hospital. It was fully covered by Medicare (thus free) and I loved the midwife led, birth centre experience. Be warned though, the hospital has WAY TOO MUCH say over the birth centre and if you're not extremely low risk, you'll be risked out in a flash...for pretty unconvincing reasons. I'll be having a homebirth next time because I spent too much of my pregnancy stressed and fighting with the hospital to stay in the birth centre.

There's loads of wonderful birth educators and birth attendants/doulas around Melbourne.

I can recommend my own doula and a handful of others if your friend is interested. Similarly, I'm happy to point your friend to some great birth educators.

Let me know.

eta: forgot to mention Fertile Ground which is a natural health practice that has every aspect of pre-conception, pregnancy, birth and post birth covered. I had labour induction acupuncture there and my babe was born 10 hours later. My doula also works out of there. They also have massage, naturopathy, counselling, osteopathy and loads more.