Australia offers several models of maternity care, and none of them is the default here. Answer a few quick questions and we will point you to the one that fits your life, as a starting point for the conversation with your GP.
No sign-up. A few quick questions, and we will point you to a model of care worth looking at first. It is a starting point for your GP, not a prescription.
| Model of care | Who cares for you | Where you give birth | What it costs | Often suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public hospital care | Midwives and doctors at your public maternity hospital, usually a rotating team. | Your local public maternity hospital. | Free with Medicare. Some scans and tests carry small gaps. | Any pregnancy, including complex or higher-risk, and keeping costs down. |
| GP shared care | Your own GP for most visits, sharing antenatal care with the hospital. | The public hospital you are booked into. | Mostly covered by Medicare; some GP visits have gap fees. | Women with a GP they trust, or living far from hospital. |
| Midwifery group practice | A known primary midwife, backed by a small group you also meet, through pregnancy, birth and after. | Public hospital or birth centre; some programs support home birth. | Free with Medicare. Places are limited, so ask early. | Wanting one known carer and fewer interventions. |
| Team midwifery care | A small team of midwives you get to know, sharing your care across pregnancy and birth. | Your public maternity hospital. | Free with Medicare. | Wanting midwifery continuity where one-to-one caseload is not offered. |
| Private obstetric care | The obstetrician you choose, at their private rooms and at the birth. | A private hospital, or private care in a public one. | Health insurance plus gap fees. Anywhere from about $1,000 to $22,400 out of pocket, depending on your cover and your hospital. The cost calculator works out your own figure. | A chosen specialist, a private room, or a complex pregnancy. |
| Private midwifery care | A privately engaged midwife for one-to-one continuity, sometimes with hospital visiting access. | At home, or a hospital where your midwife has an arrangement. | Typically about $5,000 to $8,500 out of pocket after Medicare rebates for a birth at home or in a public hospital, and more if you birth in a private hospital. The cost calculator works out your own figure. | Wanting continuity with one midwife, and a home birth option. |
| Birth centre care | Midwife-led care in a home-like birth centre, with hospital backup close by. | A birth centre, often attached to a public hospital. | Free with Medicare in public centres. Places are limited. | A low-risk pregnancy wanting a natural, midwife-led birth. |
| Publicly funded home birth | Public-hospital midwives who care for you and attend a planned birth at home. | Your home, with arrangements to transfer to hospital if needed. | Free with Medicare. Programs are limited and not available everywhere. | A low-risk pregnancy wanting to birth at home with hospital backup. |
| Remote and rural care | Midwives or GP obstetricians caring for you close to home in a regional or remote area. | Your local service, sometimes travelling to a larger centre to birth. | Funded through Medicare and the public system. | Living regionally or remotely, and wanting care near home. |
Choosing a pathway is not a one-way door. Many women move between models during pregnancy, and your GP or midwife can help you switch if your needs or circumstances change.
Availability differs by hospital and region, especially for midwifery group practice and birth centres. The state-by-state picture below shows what exists where you live.
Not every model of care exists in every state, and the named programs below are where to start looking. Pick your state to see the picture, then confirm the details with your GP or hospital, because programs open, close and fill quickly.
8 of 8 models of care are available in New South Wales.
GP referral to catchment hospital, book before 12-14 weeks
~41 MGP programs across 14 Local Health Districts. $44.8M allocated in 2025-26 NSW Budget for expansion including 53 additional midwives. 9+ PFHB sites. Book before 10-12 weeks. See our MGP Guide for all programs.
Widely available across NSW through local GPs
Low-risk pregnancies only
NSW has 9+ public homebirth programs. In the national review of Australian publicly funded homebirth (Catling-Paull et al., Medical Journal of Australia, 2013), of 1,807 women who still intended to birth at home at the onset of labour, 1,521 (84%) did so, and around 88% had a normal vaginal birth even after allowing for those who transferred to hospital. $83.8 million NSW maternity investment announced June 2025.
Operating for over 20 years. Teams of Aboriginal Health Workers and midwives providing continuity of care. Self-referral accepted. Evaluation showed preterm births decreased from 20% to 11%.
Australia's most advanced rural Birthing on Country service, operational since 2018. The $68M Gudjaga Gunyahlamai Birth Centre will be Australia's first Aboriginal-owned, midwifery-led freestanding birth centre.
Pregnancy management fee: $3,000-$8,500. Total out-of-pocket: $1,000-$22,400, depending on your cover and hospital
NSW has a formal Visiting Endorsed Midwife (VEM) Policy Directive, one of the most formalised in Australia. A homebirth with a private midwife typically costs $5,000-$8,500 out of pocket after Medicare rebates. No GP referral needed since November 2024. From July 2025, endorsed midwives have PII for homebirth through MIGA. Directories: homebirthnsw.org.au/midwives, eligiblemidwives.com.au. Read our full guide at /find-care/private-midwife
NSW has Australia's most extensive government-funded Aboriginal maternity program (AMIHS) and the most ambitious Birthing on Country infrastructure project (Waminda). The 2025-26 Budget allocated $83 million for maternity and family care including 53 additional midwives for regional NSW.
Bulk-billed online midwifery service providing telehealth care throughout pregnancy and postnatal period, seven days a week. Targets rural and remote women.
Accommodation support: $43 per night (2024 rate). Limited financial support. Does not cover childcare, lost income, or meals. Covers travel to nearest specialist only.
Bulk-billed online midwifery service. Australia-wide telehealth care throughout pregnancy and postnatal period, seven days a week.
Strong Mums, Strong Bubs, Strong Families. Operates nationally through the ACCHO network.
Intensive home visiting for first-time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers from pregnancy through child's second birthday.
Training for remote health staff to manage obstetric emergencies where midwifery coverage is absent. Bush Support Line: 1800 805 391.
Consumer advocacy organisation helping women understand and access available maternity care options.
$5 million MRFF-funded program translating Birthing on Country principles into rural and remote settings nationally.
Looking for someone near you instead? Search the Find Care directory for practitioners across New South Wales.
Out-of-pocket costs run from nothing at all in the public system to more than $22,000 privately, depending on your cover, your hospital and how your birth goes. Those are the two extremes rather than what most women pay, so the calculator is the honest answer: it works out your own figure from your own circumstances.
Private health insurance has a 12-month waiting period for obstetric cover, and it is worth asking for a written quote from private providers up front.
Costs are estimates based on 2025-2026 data. Always confirm with providers; Medicare rebates and thresholds are updated annually. Sources: Medicare Benefits Schedule, Pregnancy Birth and Baby, state health departments.
How babies are born in Australia, based on 285,305 births in 2023. All figures are from the AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) unless otherwise noted.
Of the 285,305 women who gave birth in Australia in 2023, here is how their labours started. These are national averages across all hospitals, both public and private.
Source: AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 · aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies
All Australian births, 2023.
Source: AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 · aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies
Of the 285,305 women who gave birth in Australia in 2023, here is where they had their babies.
Source: AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 · aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies
How national birth statistics have changed over two decades. All figures are percentages of total Australian births in that year, unless stated otherwise.
| Metric | 2004 | 2010 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caesarean rate | 29% | 32% | 41% |
| Spontaneous labour | - | 56% | 40% |
| Induction rate | - | ~27% | 33% |
| Homebirth (total) | - | - | 2,081 |
| vs 2019 | - | - | 923 (2019) |
| Average maternal age | - | 30.1 | 31.3 |
| Smoking in pregnancy | - | ~13% (2011) | 7.8% |
Source: AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 · aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies; AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection time series
National averages for mothers and babies in Australia (2023), across all birth settings.
| Maternal mortality | 8.2 per 100,000 (2023; triennium 2021-2023: 6.7 per 100,000) |
| Breastfeeding initiation | 91-96% |
| Exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months | 38% |
| Perinatal mental health | 1 in 5 mothers, 1 in 10 fathers |
| Stillbirth rate | 8.7 per 1,000 (2023; AIHW reports this as the highest rate in over 20 years and a continuation of recent increases) |
| Neonatal death rate | 2.4 per 1,000 |
| Preterm birth (<37 weeks) | 8.4% |
| Low birth weight (<2,500g) | 6.6% |
| Admitted to NICU/SCN | 18% |
| Apgar score ≥7 at 5 minutes | 98% |
Source: AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 · aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies; AIHW Perinatal Deaths 2023; PANDA 2024
How outcomes differ depending on the model of maternity care. These comparisons are for low-risk women to make the comparison fair.
MGP means you see the same midwife or small team throughout pregnancy, birth, and after. "Standard care" means you see whichever midwife or doctor is rostered on. This comparison is for first-time mothers at low risk of complications.
Source: Cochrane Review, Sandall et al. 2024, doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004667.pub6; AIHW Maternity Models of Care 2025 (aihw.gov.au)
Private midwifery means hiring your own midwife who provides one-on-one continuity. These figures compare first-time mothers at Australia’s largest private midwifery service (2,747 women, 2014 to 2022) with national indicators for first-time mothers. Worth keeping in mind: women who choose a private midwife tend to start out lower risk, and the study was not adjusted for that, so some of the gap reflects who chooses the model rather than the model itself.
Source: Gao, Wilkes et al., Women and Birth, 2024 (retrospective cohort study) PMID 38402093
Most comparisons put midwifery care against everything else pooled together, or private hospitals against public. Neither tells you how the models themselves compare. This one does, and it is the only Australian study that places privately practising midwives alongside the rest rather than against a national average.
| Outcome | Standard public | GP shared | Midwifery continuity | Private obstetric | Private midwife |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour started on its own | 45.5% | 54.3% | 63.6% | 32.0% | 91.2% |
| Induction of labour | 38.8% | 33.6% | 28.3% | 35.2% | 6.4% |
| Vaginal birth (no forceps or vacuum) | 49.9% | 49.9% | 67.8% | 39.0% | 81.1% |
| Instrumental birth | 12.8% | 16.9% | 11.2% | 10.8% | 9.2% |
| Caesarean during labour | 19.6% | 19.3% | 12.4% | 16.1% | 7.8% |
| Planned caesarean | 17.7% | 13.9% | 8.7% | 34.1% | 1.9% |
Two things here matter more than the headline. Once the figures are adjusted, induction under private obstetric care is not meaningfully different from standard public care: the private difference sits almost entirely in planned caesarean. And no model differs significantly on instrumental birth at all.
How to read it. This shows what women who chose each model experienced, not what each model causes. Women who choose a private midwife differ from women who choose a private obstetrician in ways no adjustment fully removes. The survey was self-reported, those who took part self-selected and skew older and more advantaged, it covers 2020 and 2021, and only 192 of the women had a private midwife. Epidural was not measured.
Source: Dahlen HG et al., Women and Birth 2026;39:102178 (BITTOC national survey, n=3,682)
Large studies from the UK and Australia found that for low-risk women, planned homebirth with a qualified midwife was associated with lower rates of perineal trauma (tearing) and postpartum haemorrhage, and higher rates of vaginal birth compared to hospital-based care. Individual circumstances and access to emergency transfer are important considerations.
Source: Birthplace in England 2011, BMJ 2011;343:d7400, PMID 22117057; Catling-Paull et al. 2013; Homer et al. 2019
The caesarean rate has risen from 29% of all Australian births in 2004 to 41% in 2023, with the primary caesarean rate (first caesareans) around 30%. Spontaneous labour has fallen from 56% in 2010 to 40% in 2023. Australia's caesarean rate is above the OECD average.
Data from AIHW Australia's Mothers and Babies 2023 (updated July 2025). Figures are national averages and may vary by state, hospital, and individual circumstances.
Take this comparison to your GP appointment, or start your journey and we will keep it handy as your pregnancy progresses.
