Invitation from MAMA

Celebrate with MAMA  

As a way to say thanks for all of the help & support you have so kindly given to us, you and your family are warmly invited to celebrate the successful opening of our centre… 

Sunday 4th December 2011 

1pm – 4pm 

at 38 Gatehouse Drive, Kensington 

Champagne and Finger Food will be served throughout the afternoon 

Please RSVP by 25th November 2011 

to Kylie Tel: 03 9376 7474 

Email: admin@midwivesandmothers.com.au

Membership in MiPP

A MiPP meeting in 2009

MiPP is a collective of privately practising midwives in Victoria.
MiPP meetings are usually by-monthly, in locations to suit members.  Communication is mainly by email, either directly or via the maternitycoalitionmidwives Yahoo! Group.

MiPP welcomes applications for membership from registered midwives, who seek employment/income from private midwifery practice, and who are willing to provide primary maternity care for women and their babies across the continuum of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period. 

Full members' entitlements include listing on the MiPP brochure, and on the MiPP page at the Maternity Coalition website. 

Associate membership is available for midwives and midwifery students who are interested in private midwifery practice.

It is a couple of years since MiPP published a brochure.  We are now preparing a new brochure, and asking members to indicate their desire to renew their membership.  Midwives who wish to join MiPP as new members are welcome to apply.  Applications are reviewed by MiPP on an individual basis.  A current full member of MiPP may be named as a sponsor to new members.


Please note that a midwife who wishes to commence private practice, outside the hospital/acute healthcare sector, is encouraged to seek mentoring with an experienced independent midwife.

Although the MiPP collective is based in Victoria, registered midwives from other parts of Australia are welcome to join our group.

For more information, or to request a membership form to be sent by email, please contact joy[at]aitex.com.au, or phone 0411190448.

MIPP is affiliated with Maternity Coalition Inc, as a 'Participating Organisation'.


Maternity Coalition is a consumer and midwife advocacy organisation, committed to protecting pregnancy and childbirth as natural processes, and to supporting the role of the midwife as a primary maternity care provider.  All MiPP members are also members of Maternity Coalition, and receive a copy of the journal Birth Matters quarterly.

Collaborative arrangements with Medicare-eligible midwives for Victorian public hospitals framework

The following communication to stakeholders has been distributed:

November 2011

Work has now commenced in Victoria on a framework for public health services that provides guidance on the appropriate mechanisms to consider, implement or review collaborative arrangements with [Medicare] Eligible Midwives (EM) providing midwifery care to women who are admitted privately and seeking to birth in hospital under the care of the EM.

An open letter to Bridget Lynch, past President of ICM

This letter, written by midwife Robyn Thompson, is addressed to Bridget Lynch, immediate past President of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM).  The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) is a member organisation of ICM.

I was privileged to be introduced to, and speak with you Bridget at the Australian College of Midwives Conference on Thursday October 20th 2011 in Sydney. I was in the right place at the right time in midwifery history.

the reshaping of private midwifery practice

Private midwifery practice is undergoing real changes, as midwives who have Medicare provider numbers are able to offer certain midwifery services for which women will receive substantial Medicare rebates. 

There is scheduled fee for each item, from which rebates are calculated [variation in amount payable depends on a person's safety net]. For example:

Key issues for midwives

Referring to the development of visiting access arrangements for midwives in public hospitals (see previous post), the following comment has been offered by a highly respected 'elder' of the midwifery profession, Helen Sandner, from Bendigo.

I would just like to put forward a few key issues that I think are paramount for future discussions and consideration in the planning and implementation of a written document.

• Midwives autonomy. In saying this I do not mean in a dictatorial way, but I believe that it is important to acknowledge that we are registered to practice as autonomous practitioners. It is only the Government that is putting us back under the auspices of the medical profession with the Collaborative Determination. 
• Collaborative respect. We deserve equal respect and I would like to see this in writing. We are not underdogs or lesser professionals and this needs to be acknowledged and therefore we should be referred to in any document with the same level of professionalism as any other healthcare professional. 
• Consent, informed decisions and right of refusal. All without saying the women should be the focus and these points should be acknowledged in any written document.

Helen Sandner
Midwifery Practice Coordinator
Central Victorian Midwifery Group Practice

mipps and public hospitals in Victoria

Independent midwives in Victoria have for many years encouraged and guided women planning homebirth to make backup bookings with public hospitals. Those women who experience complications are referred to the back-up hospital. The midwife usually continues with the woman in labour, visits her in hospital postnatally, and picks up postnatal care after the woman and baby have been discharged. This process does not usually receive any special attention; it's just the way midwives work. Recent posts have discussed the midwife's role in hospital based intrapartum care.

A multi-disciplinary reference group has been brought together by the Health Department, to inform and support a process under which eligible midwives (ie midwives who have a notation on their registration that they are eligible for Medicare*) will be able to attend women privately in public hospitals.