Shared Maternity Care and the Benefits to Know!

by Geoff Brice Consultant

What is shared care?

It is an arrangement between a hospital and a local health care practitioner wherein the entire pregnancy care of a woman is divided between the local provider and the hospital. Usually the local provider is a General Practitioner but many times it can be either a midwife or obstetrician. Some of your antenatal appointments will be with your local providers and some will be with the hospital, depending on the reason of the visit. Most of the medical care centers offer services of shared care only for women with low-risk pregnancies.

Making arrangements for shared care

Being an expecting woman if you are looking for shared maternity care, ensure that your hospital and your GP both provides these services. Whosoever participates regularly in such care will surely be having a relationship with not one but many maternity hospitals. If in case they do not have a relationship., all this can be arranged. If still you are not able to make efficient arrangements you can ask your maternity hospital to provider you with a list of local health care professionals whom you can contact to hire for shared care during maternity period.

Benefits of shared care pregnancy

Most of the females prefer opting for these shared services for women’s care as they can receive the most of the pregnancy and antenatal care from their GP or midwives or obstetrician who they are familiar with and the ones who works close to their home or workplace. This also makes case of you and your baby easier even after the baby has taken birth. The same GP will continue to care for you and your baby weeks and months after birth.

The midwives or obstetrician or General Practitioners, who take care of you and your baby pre and post pregnancy are familiar to your spoken language, cultures, and the traditions as well and can help you in growing your baby with the best possible values. Also, you can continue hiring these services for the extended time period as you require.