Maternity carers
Designated (lead) carers
The designated or lead maternity carer is the health professional coordinating the care for women during the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods.
In 2025, just under half of all models of care (49%) have a midwife – public (midwives employed in the public health system) as the designated carer, compared with 47% in 2024. This is an essential component of models classified as midwifery group practice caseload care (100%) and is also found in nearly two-thirds of models classified as public hospital maternity care (65%).
The next most common designated carer is a specialist obstetrician – public (15% in both 2024 and 2025), followed by a shared care arrangement (14% of models in both 2024 and 2025) and a specialist obstetrician – private (10% in 2025 and 11% in 2024). Having a shared care arrangement means the model of care does not have a single designated carer and the carer may change at different times or be shared.
A designated carer of midwife – public is more common in models of care in New South Wales and Queensland (60% and 52%, respectively, compared with 49% overall). Two-thirds of maternity services (66%) have a model of care with a midwife – public as a designated carer. Victoria had a higher proportion of models of care with a specialist obstetrician – private as the designated carer (17%, compared with 9.9% overall). Over half (56%) of maternity services in Victoria have a model of care with a specialist obstetrician – private as the designated carer, compared with 40% of services overall.
The data visualisation below (Figure 4) shows maternity models of care by type of designated carer for both maternity services and models of care. Select the drop-down menu to filter by jurisdiction (state or territory) and use the buttons to view the data table and trend data.
Figure 4: Maternity models of care, by type of designated carer, Australia, 2021–2025
The bar chart shows around 49% of models of care in Australia have a public midwife as the designated or lead carer. This is followed by a public specialist obstetrician at 15.1%.
Collaborative carers
Collaborative maternity carers are other health professionals that work in partnership with the lead carer to provide maternity care. In 2025 most models of care (94%) have at least one collaborative carer, in addition to the lead or designated carer. Around half (47%) of all models have one collaborative carer, and this was higher in models classified as:
- private obstetrician specialist care (85%)
- general practitioner (GP) obstetrician care (81%)
- team midwifery care (72%)
- remote area maternity care (70%).
Just over one-quarter of models (28%) have 2 collaborative carers, and this was higher in models classified as combined care (61%), public hospital high risk maternity care (49%), and shared care (40%).
Common collaborative carers include specialist obstetrician – public (47% of models), midwife – public (43%) and GP obstetrician (16%). All models of care with a designated carer of specialist obstetrician – public have a midwife – public as a collaborative carer, while two-thirds (68%) of models with a midwife – public as a designated carer have a specialist obstetrician – public as a collaborative carer.
In models with a designated carer of shared care, most (92%) have a midwife – public as a collaborative carer, while around half have a specialist obstetrician – public (53%), GP (53%), or GP obstetrician (40%) as a collaborative carer.