Caitlyn Atkinson Midwifery

14/12/2025

Planning to give birth in hospital? Antenatal/postnatal private midwifery care is available in Dunsborough 🐚 Designed to sit alongside your hospital or medical care.
Book via www.caitlynatkinsonmidwifery.com 🐚

Private midwifery care, birth support at home or in hospital, Dunsborough midwifery clinic.

16/10/2025

Complete pregnancy packages or individual appointments now available in my Dunsborough midwifery clinic.
There are so many benefits to having your own midwife on your maternity care team.
Have a look on my website for all of the info or book in for a visit.
See you soon!
Caity 🙂
Www.caitlynatkinsonmidwifery.com

12/09/2025

The Midwifery Clinic is for local mums who are planning on giving birth in hospital, who want the benefits otheir own private midwife through pregnancy.

Medicare rebates are available, making fees more affordable for more women to access private midwifery care.

Waitlist is open now. Website booking coming soon.
Contact via website below for info or to book in.
Caity x

09/09/2025

I’m doing a thing …

Pregnancy clinic care wth your own midwife - making private midwifery more accessible and affordable.

If you’re planning a hospital birth, you can still experience the time, relationship and support of your own midwife for antenatal care.

Personalised care.
Long visits.
Medicare rebates.

✨ Coming soon

24/07/2025

Well, after almost 4 years that’s a wrap on my contracted hospital hours.

The biggest hurdle to getting into private practice? The 5000-hour requirement. It’s about to change—maybe even be scrapped entirely. I could lament that, but honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience.

If you’re in the hospital and envisioning a future in private practice, here’s my two cents from the other side:

Practice everything you can, as often as you can. Arrive early and cannulate the morning inductions. Go on call for suturing. Hone your palpation skills. Get really good at documentation. Don’t be shy about picking the brains of the clever people around you.

Use every experience to ask yourself: How would I have navigated this outside the hospital? At a homebirth with two sets of hands instead of ten, how would this look different?

There might be people who don’t want to see you succeed—and that’s okay. Sometimes, it says more about them than about you.

And most importantly, the strong relationships with your hospital colleagues that you’ll develop in this time are so important. Be open about your goals. Make it known that you value their collaboration and expertise when it’s needed. Be transparent. Ask for support in developing your knowledge and skills.

I know I’m a fortunate private midwife to be able to say this, but the support and encouragement I’ve had from midwifery staff, managers and the obstetric team (many of whom have known me since my student days) has meant a lot.

No man - or midwife - is an island.
It works better when we work together.

I’ll still be bouncing around these walls now and then—it’s not quite goodbye. But it certainly feels like the end of a chapter. Thanks for the lessons and the laughs. You know who you are (and you get first pick of my uniforms).

Onwards we go!

04/07/2025

What happens when your research could expose illegal activity — and you’re the one responsible for asking the questions?

As we arrived at the beach today, I got word that my ethics application was finally approved — after a lengthy resubmission where I was asked to further address the possibility that participants might disclose the illegal involvement, under certain state’s laws, of “unregulated birth workers” performing “restricted birthing practices”.

It pushed me to reckon with where I stand: as a researcher, a midwife, and a community member. Navigating this means understanding and upholding institutional requirements, protecting participants through ethical research practice, and doing my best to hold space for the complexity of women’s real-world experiences.

My “community group” - a group of women who generously share their thoughts with me at each stage of the project - was instrumental in this process. They helped me unpack the risks, clarify the language, and stay grounded in both the purpose of the research and the realities it touches. Their insights challenged me, inspired me, and ultimately made the project stronger and more accountable.

The work of participant recruitment and data collection begins now — but this moment felt like a big breath out.

19/06/2025

REPOSTED:

📣Speaker spotlight: Caitlyn Atkinson

🔥 Women’s Experiences When They Choose Freebirth 🔥

What happens when women step out of the system to give birth on their own terms?

Midwife and researcher Caitlyn Atkinson brings academic, professional and personal insight into one of the most powerful - and often misunderstood - birth choices: freebirth. Her research centres women’s voices to explore the nature, meaning, and impact of care outside conventional systems.

Based in regional WA, Caity is a privately practicing midwife and postgraduate researcher at ECU. Her approach honours women as the expert of their own experience - and she’ll be sharing what she’s learning directly from them.

This talk is not one to miss.

19/05/2025

Sometimes I wonder about myself 8 years ago, I wonder what the hell was I thinking deciding to start studying again, what the hell was I thinking setting my sights on private midwifery practice.

The last 8 years have not been easy. There have been many sacrifices. When people have asked me “how” I’ve done this, my answer is always - not without a cost. Time and time again I’ve reminded myself of my Burmese grandfather’s most favoured childhood lesson - “What is the big D, Caitlyn? (as he points his finger at me) Discipline”. He also had the big S, sacrifice, and later at his grandchildren’s request he included the big B, for balance. But that’s another story.

I often say to women that there’s usually a fair amount of grit that goes into birthing their babies. I say that with the feeling that I’m prepared to walk with them through that grittiness, as I have been there myself, in many different forms.

So here we are, 8 years on from setting that goal, a private midwife with clients who are trusting me with their care, and often teaching me along the way. And I feel like it’s only just begun.

18/05/2025

A little update from my postgraduate research journey. I’m not yet at the point to share my project in full, but for those who might be interested here’s a run down of where I’m at (bravo if you make it through the caption).

Postgraduate research (aka doing a research degree like a Masters by Research or PhD) means diving deep into a specific topic, asking a big question, and spending a few years trying to answer it through careful, original research. It’s independent, rigorous, and I’ve been told the sometimes consuming nature of a research project makes it a bit like having an extra child (send help).

Last December I completed the first major milestone called ‘confirmation of candidature’, essentially the formal green light to keep going. It’s where you present a seminar detailing your research plan, literature review, and methodology to a panel of academics who assess whether your project is well-designed, feasible, and meaningful. Getting there was challenging and confronting at times, with many hours spent gazing out from my desk wondering what on earth I’d gotten myself into. But ultimately, the rigorous process pushed me to sharpen my thinking and clarify my direction.

Having the green go ahead, I’ve begun creating a ‘community group’ of women who represent the specific population being studied. The unique insights of the community group aim to add meaningful value to the design, conduct and outcomes. To mitigate potential power disparities and assumed knowledge, my intention in forming a community group is for the research to be undertaken ‘with’ women, rather than ‘on’, ‘about’, or ‘for’ them.

Right now, I’m in the middle of the HREC national ethics review process. As my project involves human participants, it needs to meet strict national guidelines around consent, privacy, and safety. It’s detailed (and sometimes slow), but important. It’s made me think more deliberately about risk, power, and how to design a project that’s not just ethically compliant, but ethical in practice.

Thanks for following along. This part of the process is slower, quieter, but foundational—and I’m looking forward to sharing more once on the other side ✌🏼

18/05/2025

For the new faces - I’m Caity 👋🏼

I provide private midwifery care throughout the South West - care that’s individualised, unhurried, in-your-own-home, and based on a strong relationship between myself and your family. My case load of women is small, allowing me to be there for you in whatever capacity you need. I can support you to birth at home or in hospital.

Outside of private midwifery, I’m a postgraduate midwifery researcher with Edith Cowan University - a role that keeps me up to date with current research, and able to communicate it to you, to help you make informed decisions.

The South West is my home and I’m deeply committed to being a positive force in our community. I’m a mum to two girls, and wife to my organic-farmer husband.

I have some availability for the remainder of 2025 and will happily come to you to for a free info visit to make an introduction and answer any questions you might have.

Feel free to get in touch here, or via the contact details on my website (link in bio). Looking forward to connecting with more of you out there in the real world!

Caity xx

18/05/2025

For the pregnant women (or soon to be), have you heard about private midwifery? Never heard of this model of care? All of the important info is below.

In practice, private midwifery means …

- All of your care from the one same midwife (me!) from early pregnancy until 6 weeks postpartum. Care that’s based on your individual needs and a relationship between myself and you and your family.

- Long, unhurried appointments in your home. Ample time for getting to know each other, questions and individualised care planning.

- Thorough, non-biased, evidence-based education to support your informed decision-making. I use my experience as a researcher to communicate the relevant information to you.

- All referrals for pathology and imaging provided directly from me. No waiting rooms or unnecessary appointments.

- Birth support at home or in hospital.

- Acknowledging the significance of your postpartum time - providing postpartum care in your own home (from your bed, in your pyjamas).

- Experienced breastfeeding support.

- Support in navigating the maternity system whenever necessary from someone who has strong relationships within our locals hospitals. Providing consistency and support when context and plans shift. Women with complex needs hugely benefit from continuous midwifery care that’s provided in collaboration with our obstetric colleagues.

- 24/7 on-call support.

Unlike fragmented models of care, when women have a trusted relationship with their midwife - someone who believe in them, and knows their needs and values - research shows outcomes are improved, intervention rates are decreased, women feel more informed and confident in their decisions, and the personalised connection mitigates you feeling like another number.

If this kind of care is what you want for you, your baby and your family, I offer free information visits in your home. My client load is small, so I can prioritise your care. If this resonates with you, DM or contact via my website www.caitlynatkinsonmidwifery.com