Melbourne Midwifery Collective

27/08/2025

Here at the Melbourne Midwifery Collective, we were curious to see whether our statistics match up with that of an Australian study, showing that >11% of midwives chose homebirth, compared to 0.4% of the general population.

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So we conducted an internal survey! We looked into the birth statistics of all 19 of our private midwives, and these are the results here.

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We were personally really impressed with these findings! We'd love to know what you think? Have you considered homebirth? Or Private Midwifery care?

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17/08/2025

Five of our incredible private midwives have travelled to Sydney to attend run by - learning new skills & facts, reinvigorating our practice & connecting with other incredible practitioners ♥️

L to R:
Megan Roberts, .village.way.gippsland
Stacey Stewart,
Clare Lane, Clare Lane Midwifery
Sam Gaffney,
Fiona Wernke,

29/04/2025

07/03/2025

We are in the process of upgrading our website!

Over the next week or two, it may experience some brief downtime. If you can't reach us through the website, please contact us on Facebook or Instagram & we will get back to you asap.

01/03/2025

Introducing another wonderful member of the Melbourne Midwifery Collective, Louise Noorbergen!

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Louise is a highly skilled and experienced homebirth midwife who gained her endorsement in 2012. Louise says:

"I am a specialist in normal birth who views pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenting as a major life transition best facilitated by holistic sociological care that places the woman at the centre. Placing the woman at the centre necessarily recognizes her significant others, her community and cultural context. The birth of a child is a social event; the midwife’s role is to support the transition to parenthood physically, emotionally, spiritually and socially.

Being a midwife is a privilege.

It is a privilege to partner with a woman and her family through pregnancy and labour and to witness the sacred moment of birth; to facilitate understanding as a couple identifies the changes in their relationship as they become parents; to recognize that pregnancy does not happen in a vacuum and that sometimes there are challenges.

Along with this privilege is the responsibility to ensure competency and currency of midwifery knowledge and practice. This is best facilitated by reflective practice, peer review, client feedback and continuous professional development."

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Louise lives in Montrose in the Yarra Ranges, and sees women within a 75 minute drive of this area. To chat with Louise or find out more, check out her profile online at www.melbournemidwiferycollective.com

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01/02/2025

Wonderful birth story reposted from one of our beautiful Melbourne Midwifery Collective midwives Megan from .village.way.gippsland

🌻The stoic mumma 🌻
This first time mum reached out when she moved to the area.
From the very beginning, private care with a plan to homebirth felt right and safe.
She was a super cruisy woman.
She prepared for birth and parenting through many means and was well researched.
Not once in her journey did she express fear.
She had a deep trust in her bodies ability to birth.
Early in the new year, within a couple of days of her guess date (like all women across her family) she spontaneously began to labour. Typical early signs that actually escalated really quickly.
She worked hard and moved to the rhythm of her surges. Using the pool, shower and resting in bed when she had plateaus.
Everything looked great, her baby was happy and she had made great progress.
Things started to slow off a lot and for many hours. Although her baby was well we were a bit of a distance from hospital which is always considered in decision making.
We decided to move into hospital for varying reasons.
Greeted with friendly faces. She continued to labour and the frequency picked up. She had been going for 20 hours unmedicated and was exhausted, understandably!
A couple of hours later she birthed her baby with a little assistance. Along the way her and her man made decisions with confidence and continued to express those things that were most important to her, a bloody hard thing to do when you are tired and things haven’t followed your ideal path.
It really was beautiful to watch and I myself had to hold back tears a couple of times.
A private midwife is just that, we don’t promise a birth place, we promise support regardless of how things unfold.
Thankyou for trusting me, you are one strong mumma!

Thanks again to for your support and joining this awesome family

29/01/2025

Introducing the wonderful Renee from My Kind of Midwife - another one of our talented midwives here at The Melbourne Midwifery Collective.

Renee has been attending homebirths since 2017 and is based in Bass Coast. She cares for women in the Bass Coast, Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula and South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Renee says: My goal is to provide a calm and peaceful birthing environment in your home and we work closely with you to facilitate your birthing wishes.
There is good quality evidence to support homebirth is a safe option for women and babies.
Women cared for by a known midwife in her own environment are significantly more likely to have a normal vaginal birth and successfully breastfeed. They are more likely to be satisfied with their care and consider their experience a positive one.

If you'd like to know more about Renee or discuss booking her for your homebirth, check out her profile on The Melbourne Midwifery Collective, her insta page or her website https://mykindofmidwife.com.au/

27/08/2024

Meet the incredible Clare Lane from Clare Lane Midwifery, one of our founding members of ❤️

Clare has been a midwife for over 30 years and is an experienced homebirth midwife. Clare is Medicare eligible and endorsed to be able to prescribe and order blood tests and scans for clients. Clare is a proud mum of 4 children, one born in a birth centre and 3 welcomed at home.

Clare's other passion is breastfeeding and she is a qualified lactation consultant with 12 years experience in this area. Clare is experienced in waterbirth and helping women have a vaginal birth after a caesarean. Her other interests include aromatherapy, massage and homeopathy for use in pregnancy and childbirth.

Clare is passionate about working with pregnant women and their families. Having a baby is a fabulous, exciting adventure and Clare feels very privileged to go with women on that journey.

Clare lives in Mitcham but travels all around Melbourne and surrounding areas. To find out more about Clare or have a chat with her, check out her website (https://www.clareandnicmidwives.com/) or her profile on Melbourne Midwifery Collective (https://www.melbournemidwiferycollective.com/clare).

28/07/2024

Introducing one of the fabulous Melbourne Midwifery Collective midwives, the lovely Fiona from Intrinsic Midwifery (insta: )

Fiona grew up on the Mornington Peninsula and from a very young age knew that Midwifery was in her future. Fiona is now an Endorsed Midwife, with over 15 years experience across the midwifery continuum.

In late 2021 Fiona decided it was time to set up Intrinsic Midwifery, to provide holistic pregnancy and postnatal care to women, in their own homes, all whilst educating them & their families, and showing them the mighty power within every mother to be.

Intrinsic means ‘belonging naturally; essential’, and was chosen as the business name, as Fiona believes in women and their innate ability to birth their own babies.

Fiona has both a Provider and Prescriber number through medicare. This means that Fiona is therefore able to order relevant and requested screening and diagnostics tests throughout pregnancy and into the postnatal period.

Fiona is now also a Shared Care Affiliate with Monash Health, making the hospital booking more steamline for those in Monash Health’s catchment.

Fiona services areas of Cardinia Shire, City of Casey, City of Greater Dandenong, Knox City Council and the Yarra Ranges Shire.

If you'd like to find out more or get in contact with Fiona, check out the Melbourne Midwifery Collective website (https://www.melbournemidwiferycollective.com/) or the Intrinsic Midwifery website (https://intrinsicmidwifery.com.au/).

28/07/2024

Did you know we are now on insta? Come follow us

19/06/2024

https://www.facebook.com/stories/10158019714391016/UzpfSVNDOjg1MTg5NDQ4OTE0NTM4NzA=/?view_single=1&source=shared_permalink&mibextid=W9rl1R

16/06/2024

If you have seen me lately you will already be across this info. If not I just want to let you know
there are some potential legislative changes where women may not have the choice to birth where they wish with the support they wish.

This is going to have a significant impact on the Homebirth community, on private midwives like myself and most importantly and alarmingly on birthing women.

Anyone who has planned or is planning a homebirth or has had a homebirth or is a homebirth midwife please to complete the Homebirth Australia survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNlT1WsatyuiqbXAAaVG5ZeNgFb3OC4ejdffRx_SXTnHdCaA/viewform?usp=sf_link

If you would like to read more about the future of Homebirth in Australia you can read this blog with a very recent update at the end https://midwifethinking.com/2014/01/02/the-future-of-midwives-and-homebirth-in-australia/?amp

The Federal Government recently announced plans to offer insurance for "low risk" homebirths. Right now, there is no insurance available for midwives during homebirths. Since 2010, there has been an exemption allowing midwives to assist with homebirths without insurance for the actual birth. This me...