Doula UK welcomes research suggesting that the preferred model of maternity care could save money.
One-to-one midwifery care, where a women sees the same midwife throughout her pregnancy and then at her birth, is as safe as shared maternity care and significantly cheaper, according to an Australian research study published today in The Lancet.
One-to-one, or case-load, midwifery care is widely accepted as being best practice. However, shared care – where a woman might see multiple midwives and her GP for antenatal care, and may never have met the staff who attend her birth – is standard in the UK, as in Australia.
The authors of this study have said that their results disproved concerns that the case-load midwifery model is too expensive or unsuitable for women with complex pregnancies.
The study, which looked at the births of over 1700 women at 2 teaching hospitals, found that one-to-one midwifery cost roughly
