Great News!

...As part of the budget annoucements, midwives will be covered with indemnity insurance and be part of Medicare/PBS scheme as of July 2010.

This will mean that consumers will be able to hire an indepedant midwife, although homebirth is not funded yet.

It has been a long hard struggle over the last few months to get this result during the Maternity Services Review, thank you to everyone who made submissions supporting women's choice and women centred care.

So they've done it after all. Are there any catches?

The details are still yet to come out. There's talk of collaborative care, and it hasn't been defined as to what that will actually entail yet. But it does appear to be a step forward.

So according to a blog I read actual independant homebirth is not going to be allowed--only 'cooperative care' within the system.

Hmmm, the devil really is in the detail here. Not so great news after all- see the future of homebirth thread within this forum for more detail.