Other maternity care characteristics
Antenatal and postnatal care
In 2025, most maternity models of care (97%) provide antenatal and postnatal care in individual sessions. Some (2.7%) provide this care through a combination of individual and group sessions. These group sessions include both education and clinical care.
Over three-quarters (77%) of models provide women with access to postnatal visits in a residential setting, such as the woman's home. This may be provided by the designated carer or as part of a domiciliary or early discharge midwifery home visiting program. It does not refer to a universal home visit by a maternal and child health nurse. All models classified as midwifery group practice caseload care and private midwifery care offer postnatal visits in a residential setting, compared with 81% of models classified as public hospital maternity care, and 36% of models classified as private obstetrician specialist care.
Labour and birth settings
A model of care may have one or more planned settings for birth. Nearly all (97%) maternity models of care offer birthing within a hospital birth suite or labour/delivery ward as a planned setting for birth. A small number of models (38 or 3.4%) have the home as a planned setting for birth; 4 more models were recorded with home as a planned setting for birth in 2025, compared with 2024 (34 models or 3.2%).
Around 77 models of care (7.0%) have a birth centre (either stand alone or in a hospital) as a planned setting for birth; 10 more of these models were recorded in 2025 compared with 2024 (67 models or 6.3%). Only a small number of these centres exist. A birth centre is an alternative setting to the conventional hospital setting for labour and birth. A common feature in a birth centre is a homely space physically separate from the main hospital, midwife-led care with a philosophy towards normality and avoidance of interventions.
Around 7.9% of models of care in 2025 have routine relocation of women prior to labour for intrapartum care and birth as part of the model. This was similar to 2024. Women cared for in these models require relocation from their communities to another location prior to labour for intrapartum care and birth. Routine relocation usually applies to models where women reside in a rural or remote community with no access to a birth facility. Women in these models are routinely relocated to a larger town or city some weeks prior to birth. Routine relocation as a characteristic of a model of care is higher in the Northern Territory (28%), Western Australia (14%) and Queensland (13%).