MGP

The short definition

MGP stands for midwifery group practice, where one midwife looks after a woman through her pregnancy and is on call for the birth.

What it actually means

The ordinary way maternity care works is that whoever is rostered on sees you. MGP is the other way. One named midwife carries the pregnancy, with one or two other midwives behind her for the times she is not available.

That midwife is on call for the birth. So the person in the room on the day is very likely to be somebody both parents already know by name.

MGP sits under the heading midwifery continuity of care, and that model makes a positive experience of labour and birth more likely. Fewer babies arrive premature under it.

Where Dadda will hear it

At the first hospital appointment, when the models of care are explained — fast, as an acronym, alongside "shared care" and "team midwifery". It is one of the first real choices a couple is asked to make. Better to know the word before that appointment than during it.

He will also hear the same thing called caseload midwifery, continuity of carer or just "the MGP program", depending on the hospital.

Not to be confused with

• Team midwifery. With team midwifery a small team covers the pregnancy, so the faces rotate. With MGP there is one primary midwife and a named backup. Both count as continuity of care; they are not the same arrangement.
• A private obstetrician. MGP is midwife-led and runs inside the public system. The midwife works with the hospital's doctors where that is needed.
• A doula. A midwife is not the same thing as a doula. A midwife is a registered health professional.