Frequently Asked Questions
Choosing your maternity care is a big decision, and I believe you should understand not only what I offer, but how I practise before deciding whether I am the right midwife for you.
My care is built around continuity, informed decision-making, clinical safety and genuine partnership. You remain the decision-maker in your care. My role is to provide you with evidence-based information, clinical recommendations, options and support, including having honest conversations when circumstances change.
Below are some of the questions I am commonly asked.
About My Care
I provide private midwifery care across Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast through several models of care, including shared care with a private obstetrician at Mater Mothers’ Private Hospital and continuity of midwifery care through Matrescence Birthing Centres on the Gold Coast.
While the setting and clinical responsibilities differ between models, my approach remains the same: individualised, evidence-based midwifery care that considers the whole woman.
I blend contemporary clinical midwifery with complementary approaches where appropriate, while recognising when medical consultation, investigation or treatment is needed.
Generally, no.
My maternity care is intentionally offered as a continuity package because knowing you throughout pregnancy allows me to understand your clinical history, preferences, circumstances and evolving needs.
Continuity isn’t simply about seeing the same familiar face. It allows for ongoing clinical assessment, relationship-building and more meaningful informed decision-making.
Some individual services may be available outside my maternity packages where specifically advertised.
You are welcome to enquire early in pregnancy and bookings are generally accepted prior to 24 weeks.
I intentionally maintain a small caseload so I can provide genuine continuity and availability. For this reason, some months fill quickly.
I primarily provide care to women and families across Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast, depending on the model of care you choose.
Birth Centre care is provided through Matrescence Birthing Centres on the Gold Coast.
Partnership & Informed Choice
It means exactly that: your body, your baby and your decision.
My role is not to make decisions for you. My responsibility is to ensure that you have meaningful information about your options, including the potential benefits, risks, alternatives and consequences of choosing, or declining particular care.
Sometimes that information is reassuring. Sometimes it involves conversations you may not have expected or hoped to have.
Woman-centred care does not mean withholding clinical concerns or simply agreeing with every decision. I have a professional responsibility to tell you when I am concerned, explain why, make appropriate recommendations and document our discussions.
You then make an informed decision about your care.
Absolutely! But advocacy may look different from what people sometimes expect.
I will support you to understand your options, ask questions, communicate your wishes and have your voice heard. I can help you navigate maternity services and support you during conversations with other healthcare professionals.
Advocacy does not mean fighting other clinicians on your behalf, speaking over you, or automatically agreeing with every decision you make.
My aim is to help you remain at the centre of your care while supporting respectful communication between everyone involved.
I support informed decision-making.
There can be situations where your preferences differ from hospital policy, routine practice or an individual clinician’s recommendation. When this happens, we can explore why the recommendation has been made, what the evidence and clinical circumstances tell us, and what reasonable alternatives may be available.
Hospital policy and individual clinical circumstances are not necessarily the same thing, and these conversations deserve nuance.
However, where I identify a genuine clinical concern, I will tell you clearly. My responsibility as your midwife includes providing honest clinical advice even when that advice differs from your preferred plan.
When Pregnancy or Birth Becomes More Complex
Pregnancy and birth are dynamic. Sometimes circumstances arise that mean additional monitoring, investigation, consultation or specialist care is recommended.
If this happens, we will discuss what has changed, why it matters and what your options are.
I practise in accordance with my professional and regulatory responsibilities and use the Australian College of Midwives National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral, alongside relevant clinical guidelines, evidence and my professional judgement.
Depending on the circumstances, I may recommend discussion, consultation or referral to another healthcare professional or service.
This does not necessarily mean that your midwifery care ends.
Where clinically and professionally appropriate, I can continue providing midwifery care collaboratively alongside obstetric, medical or other specialist care.
The goal is always to provide the right care for the circumstances rather than forcing your pregnancy to fit a predetermined model.
You have the right to make informed decisions about your healthcare, including declining recommended care.
If you choose to decline a recommendation, we will discuss your reasons and I will ensure you understand the potential benefits, risks, alternatives and possible consequences of that decision.
Our discussion and your decision will be documented in your clinical record. Depending on the circumstances, I may also ask you to complete a Record of Understanding (ROU).
Declining recommended care does not automatically mean that I will cease caring for you.
However, there may be circumstances where your clinical needs or choices move outside the scope of care that I can safely, professionally or legally provide. If this occurs, we will discuss it openly.
Where appropriate, I may also seek professional, clinical, legal and/or professional indemnity insurance advice regarding whether and how I can safely continue providing care.
A Record of Understanding is a way of documenting an informed decision when you choose care that differs from a clinical recommendation or choose to decline recommended care.
It is not a permission form, and it does not remove your right to make decisions about your own healthcare.
It records the clinical circumstances, the recommendation that was made, the information and options we discussed, your understanding of the potential benefits and risks, and the decision you have made.
The purpose is clarity: we both understand the decision and the ongoing plan of care.
Yes.
Integrated care isn’t about avoiding medicine.
Sometimes the most appropriate care is rest, nutrition, movement, complementary therapies and time. Sometimes it is blood tests, ultrasound, medication, antibiotics, obstetric consultation, hospital care or emergency intervention.
Sometimes it’s both.
My approach is physiological where appropriate, clinical when required, and always centred around the individual woman and her circumstances.
Birth Centre Care
Suitability is assessed at booking and continually throughout pregnancy.
I consider your medical and obstetric history, current pregnancy, your baby’s wellbeing and any clinical circumstances that arise. I use the ACM National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral alongside relevant maternity guidelines, Matrescence Birthing Centre requirements and my own clinical judgement.
Suitability isn’t assessed once and forgotten. Pregnancy changes, so we continue assessing together as your pregnancy progresses.
If circumstances arise that make Birth Centre birth no longer clinically appropriate or fall outside the Birth Centre’s scope of care, we will discuss what has changed and your available options.
This may involve consultation with another healthcare professional, additional monitoring or planning birth in hospital.
Where possible, I will help make that transition as clear and supported as possible.
A change in place of birth does not mean that the philosophy underpinning your care suddenly disappears.
Sometimes labour or birth takes an unexpected turn.
If hospital care becomes necessary during labour, transfer occurs in accordance with Matrescence Birthing Centre’s transfer procedures, generally to Gold Coast University Hospital.
Once clinical responsibility transfers to the hospital team, I am no longer your primary clinical midwife. Where circumstances allow, however, I can remain with you in a support, advocacy and education role.
Transfer is not failure.
It is simply a change in where and by whom the necessary clinical care is being provided.
There isn’t one answer because this depends on gestation, your individual clinical circumstances, your baby’s wellbeing and the requirements of your chosen model of care or birth setting.
If your pregnancy falls outside the gestational parameters for your planned place of birth, we will discuss what this means and make an individual plan with you.
Continuity and support do not simply disappear because Plan A changes.
Availability & Backup Care
For non-urgent matters, please contact me during business hours: Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm.
For urgent pregnancy, labour or postpartum concerns, please call rather than text. Urgent telephone support is available 24 hours a day, with calls diverted to my backup midwife when I am unavailable or on leave.
Please do not rely on text messages for urgent clinical concerns.
If you cannot reach a midwife and require urgent assessment, contact your booked maternity hospital or assessment centre. In an emergency, call 000.
No, and this is intentional.
Providing safe continuity care requires midwives to have protected time away from work, adequate rest and reliable backup.
I provide scheduled continuity and urgent on-call availability within my model of care, supported by trusted backup midwives during my designated time off, leave or when I am otherwise unavailable.
Having another midwife involved when required is not a break in safe care, it is part of providing a sustainable continuity model.
My intention is always to attend the births of women booked under a model where I am the planned birth midwife.
Birth, however, is unpredictable. Midwives are human, babies occasionally have spectacularly inconvenient timing, and sometimes two women labour at once.
If I am unavailable because I am at another birth, unwell, on scheduled leave or experiencing an unforeseen circumstance, an appropriate backup midwife or your hospital maternity team will provide care depending on your model.
Where possible, I will communicate with everyone involved so the transition is as seamless as possible.
Our Care Relationship
Good continuity care relies on trust, communication and mutual respect.
Very occasionally, the midwife–woman relationship changes to the point where continuing care is no longer appropriate.
This might occur because clinical needs have moved beyond my scope or model of care, professional recommendations cannot be safely accommodated, communication or trust has significantly broken down, or the therapeutic relationship is no longer workable.
If I believe I may need to cease providing care, I will discuss this with you openly and consider my professional obligations and your ongoing maternity needs. Where appropriate, I may seek advice from relevant professional bodies, healthcare providers and/or my professional indemnity insurer.
Care will not simply be withdrawn without consideration of appropriate ongoing maternity care and safe transition.
Likewise, you are always entitled to decide that I am no longer the right midwife for you.
Sometimes the right decision for everyone is to part ways respectfully.
Fees & Experience
Private midwifery care is much more than the hours spent sitting together during appointments.
Your fee contributes to ongoing continuity throughout pregnancy and postpartum, clinical assessment and planning, documentation, communication between appointments, collaboration with other healthcare professionals, on-call availability where included, birth attendance where applicable, backup arrangements, equipment, professional development, registration, insurance and the considerable costs involved in maintaining a private healthcare practice.
Most importantly, you are paying for continuity, experience and time.
I deliberately maintain a small caseload rather than practising high-volume maternity care.
I began my midwifery journey in 2007 and completed my Bachelor of Midwifery at Australian Catholic University in 2010. I later completed postgraduate studies to become an Endorsed Midwife through Griffith University in 2015.
My career has included public and private maternity services, birth suite, antenatal and postnatal care, midwifery group practice, special care nursery, private midwifery practice and collaborative care with private obstetricians.
Alongside clinical midwifery, I have spent more than two decades studying and working across complementary and integrative health.
My additional training has included bodywork and massage therapy, counselling, HypnoBirthing, Spinning Babies, nutrition, herbal and natural medicine, aromatherapy and other complementary approaches.
I don’t see these as two competing worlds.
Good care is knowing how to draw from both and knowing when each is appropriate.
Homebirth
Yes. I consider a limited number of planned homebirths.
Homebirth suitability is individual rather than simply a tick-box exercise. I consider your medical and obstetric history, current pregnancy, previous births where relevant, clinical circumstances, location, available support and whether I can safely and professionally provide the model of care you are seeking.
If you’re interested in homebirth, we can discuss your individual circumstances before deciding whether we are a good fit.
Planned homebirth care includes arrangements for an appropriately qualified second midwife to attend around the time of birth.
Your second midwife is an important member of the birth team. She provides additional clinical support and allows two experienced practitioners to be available should you or your baby require additional care.
Where possible, I work with experienced private midwives with whom I already have established professional relationships.
Planning a homebirth doesn’t mean circumstances can’t change.
Suitability for homebirth is continually assessed throughout pregnancy rather than decided once at booking.
If a clinical concern develops, I will explain what has changed and discuss my recommendations with you. This may include additional investigations, consultation with another healthcare professional, referral for specialist care, or a recommendation to change your planned place of birth.
I use the ACM National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral alongside relevant clinical guidance, current evidence and my professional judgement when making these recommendations.
A consultation or referral does not automatically mean that your homebirth plan ends. Sometimes additional care can occur alongside ongoing private midwifery care.
If I believe homebirth is no longer an appropriate option, however, I will tell you clearly and we will discuss why and what options are available from there.
You retain the right to make informed decisions about your healthcare, including declining a recommendation to change your planned place of birth.
If your decision differs from my clinical recommendation, we will discuss the potential benefits, risks, alternatives and possible consequences. Our discussion will be documented and I may ask you to complete a Record of Understanding (ROU).
Your decision does not automatically mean that I will cease providing care.
There may, however, be circumstances where I determine that I cannot safely, professionally or legally continue as the responsible midwife for a planned homebirth. In those circumstances, I will discuss this with you openly and may seek appropriate professional, clinical, legal and/or professional indemnity insurance advice.
If I am unable to continue providing the planned homebirth service, I will discuss appropriate ongoing maternity care and transition arrangements with you.
Transfer is part of responsible homebirth planning.
Before birth, we will discuss the circumstances that may lead me to recommend hospital assessment or transfer, where we would usually transfer to, how we would get there and what happens once we arrive.
Some transfers are non-urgent and allow plenty of time for discussion and planning. Others may require urgent medical assistance.
If transfer becomes necessary, my focus remains the same: safe clinical care, clear communication and helping you understand what is happening.
Where appropriate and possible, I will accompany you and provide clinical handover to the receiving maternity team. The hospital team may then assume responsibility for aspects of your clinical care depending on the circumstances.
Transfer does not mean that you have failed at homebirth.
It means the circumstances have changed and we are responding to them.
Potentially, yes.
I regularly attend planned homebirths as a second midwife alongside other private midwives.
If you already have a primary midwife, arrangements for a second midwife should generally be made through them. Your primary midwife remains responsible for your continuity of care and birth planning, while my role is to provide additional registered midwifery support around the time of birth.
Second-midwife attendance is subject to availability and agreement between the midwives involved.
One Last Question...
You don’t need a midwife who simply tells you what you want to hear.
And you probably don’t want one who tells you what to do.
My style of care sits somewhere much more useful in between.
I will listen to you. I will respect your autonomy. I will help you explore your options and advocate for your voice to be heard. I will support physiology and normal birth when it remains appropriate to do so.
And if I am clinically concerned, I will tell you.
I will recommend consultation, investigation, transfer or medical care when I believe it is warranted, and then we will talk about it.
I don’t expect blind compliance, and I don’t offer blind agreement.
I offer partnership.
If that sounds like the kind of relationship you want with your midwife, we may be a very good fit.