Labour and Birth Care
If your midwife is self-employed, they will attend your labour and birth. In the event that they are away or busy, they will have arranged a back-up midwife to be available instead. Make sure you know who the back-up is and how to contact them.
If your midwife is a hospital-based community midwife, your labour and birth care will be provided by a hospital-based midwife. Please ensure you know the correct number to call for both your community midwife and the hospital birthing suite directly.
Make sure you understand the signs of labour and when to call your midwife. Every labour and birth is different and not all go according to plan. Make sure you understand what can happen and be prepared to change your birth plan. Your midwife will talk to you about what may happen and also about what strategies you can use to manage labour pain.
Some midwives provide care for women who have been given an epidural by an anaesthetist, have an oxytocin drip and abnormal fetal heart trace, others do not. Please check to see if the midwife you choose offers these services.
Franklin Midwives provide continuity of care and will try hard to be with you for the labour and birth of your baby.
Times when one of the midwives may not be available would be
- If we have provided many hours of care and your baby has yet to arrive - this is usually if a labour is slower than anticipated and your care needs the involvement of the obstetrician at Middlemore. In this situation having a very tired midwife provide your care is not ideal and we would hand over to a well rested midwife.
- If you have a complication which makes having an employed midwife more familiar with the level of care you require. We will try to provide support in such cases.
- If you are having an elective caesarean section - we will try to attend if you would like that but women in labour must take priority
- If you need to birth at Middlemore due to complications or an induction of labour and there are women birthing who have no complications.
A lead maternity carer midwife must prioritise primary care (normal and straightforward) while secondary care can be provided by the employed midwives. If there is a woman having a primary birth, we must provide care as there is no one else to do so. If you have higher needs then the employed midwives can provide an excellent standard of care. It is important that you understand that we also support home birth and each home birth needs two midwives to be present.