CALL the midwife may become the catchcry of young women in Dubbo who will be offered one-on-one professional support before, during and after they have their babies.
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A pregnant woman without medical complications will be paired with a midwife under a new model of care to be launched from Dubbo Base Hospital.
Recruitment is under way for six highly-skilled midwives to form the Western Midwifery Group.
Setting up the group is Dubbo Base Hospital midwife Judi Yeo, who is confident its services will be popular.
"Women who are eligible will be allocated a midwife," she said from her office at the hospital.
"That midwife does all your antenatal care, and when you go into labour you call your midwife and she comes in for your birth, and then she will visit you at home."
Mrs Yeo said in the event of illness or worse, the first call from an expectant mother would be to her midwife.
"Say you were at home and unwell, you would ring your midwife who would give you advice over the phone or get you to come in," she said.
"If any risks develop, or any concerns during the pregnancy, we would refer them to our obstetric team for consultation."
If a woman's pregnancy became "high risk", an obstetrician would become her primary carer, but she would keep her allocated midwife.
"When you birth, when you have your doctor visits, the midwife still comes along," Mrs Yeo said.
She said the new model of care would help women reach a "really good established labour" before heading to hospital.
"You're not going to get your first contraction and come straight into hospital, you're going to ring your midwife and she's going to say 'hop in the shower, remember what we talked about'," Mrs Yeo said.
Once in the labour ward, women would rely on midwives with whom they had built relationships and birth plans across many months.
Of the average 100 babies born at the hospital each month, 45 of them are to Dubbo women.
Each of the six midwife recruits will care for 40 pregnant women in a year.
The new model allows for midwife and patient to meet at mutually agreed times at the hospital.
Every midwife will have a "partner" so advice and direction is available when one or the other is not at work.
Mrs Yeo said the model of care was being implemented across the state, in keeping with NSW Health's Towards Normal Birth policy.
The NSW Health website states the policy aims to "increase the vaginal birth rate in NSW and decrease the caesarean section operation rate" and "develop, implement and evaluate strategies" to support women.
Mrs Yeo said existing models of pregnancy care would continue at Dubbo.
She said Dubbo women currently had the option of seeing a private obstetrician, attending a weekly antenatal clinic or a three-day-a-week midwifery clinic at the hospital, or utilising the services of their GPs and the antenatal clinic.
The midwife-cum-project officer is excited another option is almost on the table, offering "one-on-one relationships and professional care".
"I think it's time that the women of Dubbo have this choice," she said.
The Western NSW Local Health District reports being "committed" to the new model of care, already operating at Orange and being developed at Dubbo, Parkes and Bourke.
The Western Midwifery Group will be launched when its staff is recruited.