Midwifery support

Do you know someone who would like support from an ACU Midwifery student during their pregnancy? The Continuity of Care Experience can offer support through pregnancy and the postnatal period.

The Continuity of Care Experience (CCE) forms part of ACU midwifery student requirements for the Bachelor of Midwifery course. The intention of the CCE is to enable students to experience continuity with individual women through pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period.

We would like to invite members of the ACU community to consider this opportunity to participate in the CCE throughout their pregnancy and birth journey.

Did you know that: 

• women who labour and birth with a support person are more likely to have a range of improved outcomes? (Bohren, Hofmeyr et al. 2017)
• an Australian study found student midwife support was also associated with improved outcomes? (Tickle, Gamble et al. 2022)

The CCE program provides ACU Midwifery students with opportunities to experience a range of different models of care. They experience different perspectives and ways of thinking, which is important in developing their own practice. Students learn from talking and listening to women, by observing the relationship between the woman and her care-provider and by developing a range of skills including navigating professional relationships as well as time management, documentation, and clinical midwifery skills.

The midwifery student may accompany CCE participants to antenatal appointments, classes or screening tests and participants may also invite them to attend the birth as a support person. The level of involvement is at the discretion of the woman, but the student will need to attend a minimum of four antenatal visits and two postnatal visits during the course of the partnership and, if agreed, provide support during the birth.

Find out more about Continuity of Care – Faculty of Health Sciences at ACU

Please note: Participants will be asked to sign a consent form. The student documents the partnership like a case study, but participant name, care provider and place of birth will not be used in order to protect privacy.

Bohren, M. A., et al. (2017). "Continuous support for women during childbirth." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (7).

Tickle, N., et al. (2022). "Clinical outcomes for women who had continuity of care experiences with midwifery students." Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives 35(2): 184-192.