A note about Continuity of Midwifery Care
Talkingbirth acknowledges the research that supports the contribution of continuity of care to high quality maternity care for women and the improved outcomes for mothers and babies.
A substantial body of evidence now exists showing that care provided by midwives in a continuity of midwifery model of care contributes to improved outcomes for women and babies.
Continuity of midwifery care sometimes called ‘caseload midwifery’, is where women have a known midwife care for them throughout their pregnancy, labour, birth and in the early postnatal period.
A Cochrane review of 15 trials involving 17,674 women who received continuity of midwifery care found this was associated with significant benefits for mothers and babies.
They were less likely to experience interventions and more likely to have an unassisted vaginal birth.
They are more likely to be satisfied with their care, more likely to breastfeed and their babies are more likely to be born healthy and at term.
Despite the evidence, only approx. 10% of Australian women have access to continuity of midwifery care for pregnancy care.
Furthermore these care models are typically available to women with pregnancies that are ‘low risk’, but strong evidence supports the benefits of these models of care for women from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups and first Nations families.
A La Trobe University’s study in 2022, reflected that although the model is associated with substantially better health outcomes, very few First Nations women currently have access continuity of midwifery care. Their study showed women with access to midwife-led continuity of care, compared with standard maternity care, were less likely to experience birth before 37 weeks, a low birthweight baby or infant loss.
Talkingbirth was designed by two Midwives as an adjunct to clinical care.
While we would hope that one day all women would have access to a known Midwife this is not the reality of our current maternity system in Australia.
The content of this app is designed to walk alongside women to provide evidence informed information each step of the way.
No matter what model of care a women is engaged with they are able to access information relevant to their stage of pregnancy.
Resources
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(22)00145-6/fulltext
Sandall, J., Soltani, H., Gates, S., Shennan, A., Devane, D. (2016). Midwife-led continuity models versus other models of care for childbearing women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD004667
Koblinsky, M., Moyer, C., Calvert, C., Campbell, J., Campbell, O., Feigl, A., Graham, W., Hatt, L. Hodgins, S., Matthews, Z., McDougall, L., Moran, A., Nandakumar, A., Langer, A. (2016). Quality maternity care for every woman everywhere: a call to action. Lancet, 388, 2307-2320.
