A baby boom across the Gold Coast has motivated Gold Coast Health to launch a new community-based midwifery service at Varsity Lakes to provide families with access to maternity care closer to home.
Gold Coast Health has appointed five midwives to deliver antenatal and postnatal care through Your Midwives Varsity (YMV) in collaboration with local GPs.
Women’s Services Nursing Director, Hazel Brittain said, “the service offers care in pregnancy and in the early weeks after baby is born from the same midwife and in the community close to where they live.”
Community Midwife, Janice Rowe said “One of the things we strive for in antenatal and postnatal care is a relaxed mother and having the same midwife through the journey from pregnancy to childbirth fosters a more positive experience for both mother and baby”.
YMV provides antenatal care at Varsity Day Hospital and postnatal care in the home and clinic. The service is available to women living in the South end of the Gold Coast with an aim to offer integrated maternity care.
Demand for Gold Coast Health maternity services continues to climb. Last year, more than 5,100 Gold Coast families used Gold Coast Health’s antenatal, birthing and postnatal services. This includes families from Coomera and surrounding suburbs were cared for by a team of five midwives in a similar community service called Your Midwives Brygon Creek.
This service shares a space with the existing Midwifery Group Practice at Varsity and increases the options for continuity of care for women.
