MAMA is a collective of private midwives and allied health practitioners who are all focused on pregnancy, birth and postnatal care.
The midwife team at MAMA believe that continuity of care and individualised support provided by midwives from prenatal through to postnatal stages improves physical and emotional outcomes for mothers. We believe that these outcomes are crucial to the wider wellbeing of families and communities.
Our midwives emphasise personalised care and informed choice.
MAMA midwives work with the other team members to provide 24 hour individualised care. Our carefully selected midwife team all share similar philosophies in patient care. During your pregnancy you may get the opportunity to meet all of the midwives in the group.
You will have a primary midwife managing your pregnancy. We share a rostered system after hours, thus avoiding any problems arising from midwife fatigue. Any after hour management of labour or emergencies would therefore be taken by the midwife on call that has been involved in your care.
We can work with you as your primary carer, or in collaboration with your GP Obstetrician or Obstetrician (Public or Private).
We are a fully accredited Midwifery Practice according to the standards set by the Australian College of Midwives www.midwives.org.au and Medicare Australia www.medicareaustralia.gov.au
MAMA Centre in Kensington is open Monday to Saturday by appointment. The MAMA Hampton clinic has appointments Monday through Thursday, and alternate Saturdays.
Home visits and 24 hour on call services are available.
Individualised and Personalised Care
At MAMA we offer care to suit your individual needs. Antenatal and Postnatal appointments are typically one hour long, as this allows us time to get to know you and your needs.
Usual visit schedule & what to expect
Initial Booking Visit
At this visit we may
- Get to know you and your partner
- Fill in the Victorian Maternity Record (VMR)
- Do a ‘check-up’ which involves feeling your uterus, doing your blood pressure and after 12 weeks listening to the baby’s heartbeat (if you would like to)
- Take (or review) the routine blood tests of early pregnancy
- Refer you for any ultrasounds you may wish to have (the routine points to have ultrasounds are at 12 and 20 weeks).
Up to 28 weeks of pregnancy
Visits will usually occur once every three to four weeks. At these visits we are getting to know you, doing bits of education about your pregnancy and discussing anything that comes up for you.
A 26-28 week visit will also be scheduled to recheck blood tests; including your iron and your glucose tolerance.
We will also complete a Maternity Care Plan at one of these visits, which is a requirement for our insurance and Medicare, to be completed once in each pregnancy. It outlines how we are involved in your care, our insurance status, and our guidelines and scope of practice.
We will recommend you see our physiotherapist during this time, to assess your pelvic floor function and ensure you are activating your pelvic floor correctly during your exercises.
From 28 weeks to 36 weeks of pregnancy
Visits will usually occur every two to four weeks. At 36 weeks we will discuss the GBS swab, and will do a birth plan meeting at your home, to discuss the intentions for birth.
From 36 weeks to 40 weeks of pregnancy
Visits will usually occur weekly. We are on call for you 24 hours a day from the payment of your booking/on call fee until six weeks after the birth of your baby.
From 40 weeks to the birth of your baby
Visits usually occur weekly but may be more, as much as you require. We will recommend some monitoring of your baby from a hospital or private provider between 41 and 42 weeks.
After the birth of your baby
We will visit you most days of the first week. During these visits we will be checking on the wellbeing of both you and your baby. We will be available over the phone in between visits.
We strongly recommend you see our paediatrician for a ‘well baby check’ in the first two weeks after birth. The purpose of this check-up is to look over your baby with experienced eyes, to ensure your baby has no detectable abnormalities. We usually book you in for this appointment on the Wednesday after your baby is born, when our paediatrician is in the clinic.
After the first week of home visits, we encourage you to book in weekly at the centre for check-ups until the baby is 6 weeks old. At these visits we will check on you to ensure you are healing well after birth, and your baby to ensure it is reaching physical and developmental milestones.
At 6 weeks we will complete a ‘6 week check’ of you and your baby. At this point we have reached the completion of the Medicare rebatable care. We will send a letter to your GP and collaborating doctor signifying the end of the collaboration period.
Hospital Birth Clients
If you are doing shared care, the visit schedule will be given to you by the hospital. In the shared care model, Hospitals typically like to see you for a booking visit, a 28 week visit, a 36 week visit and a 41 week visit. They like the shared care provider (MAMA) to see you in between these visits, in a similar schedule to the schedule above. Below are a list of hospitals that we provide shared care with, and information about their shared care programs.
We prefer to do most of your antenatal and postnatal care at one of our clinics, as we see this to be a lovely way for you to meet other parents. We can do home visits in the late antenatal period or the early postnatal period, as organised with your Midwife.