Women who are assigned a personal midwife throughout their pregnancy have better births and end up costing the health system less overall than other women, scientists have found.
In the study of almost 2,000 Australian mothers, those who had been given the same midwife from 24 weeks of pregnancy were significantly less likely to have an elective Caesarean and were significantly more likely to have given birth without the use of pain relieving medication. They also seemed to experience less blood loss.
After birth the mothers left hospital sooner and had better breast-feeding rates. In the key measures of pregnancy