Two and a half years ago, my daughter was born in the pool at Mullum Hospital, one of the first babies delivered via what has become the hugely successful midwife-led care program. It was an amazing experience, and I was back home within a few hours of delivery (it’d have been briefer only him indoors failed to fit the car seat beforehand).
I’m now a shade under halfway through my next pregnancy, so I got a referral and called to book in again. Very luckily, I secured the last spot in the program for October births. I had thought I needed a referral from a GP to book in but this is not the case; self-referral is possible.
So to others with bubs on the way, do not leave it as long as I did to get booked in or you may be very disappointed. When learning I could have self-referred I told the midwife, ‘if I’d known, I’d have called you with the pee stick in my hand’.
An exaggeration, but not a huge one.
Sam Leader
Mullumbimby
