Relevant clause in Section 88 – DA24

Homebirth supplies and support means the payment that maternity providers may claim for a homebirth. This fee is implemented for the maternity provider to replenish his/her birth kit. It also affords the LMC to compensate the back-up’s presence and assistance during the birth.

Homebirth means:

(a) a birth that takes place in a person’s home and not in a maternity facility or birthing unit; or

(b) a birth for which management of the labour commences at home and there is a documented plan to birth at home (Section 88 p. 1042)

Examples when this fee can be claimed:

  • An LMC is at a woman’s home for a planned home birth but her waters indicate presence of meconium and she needs to be transferred to a nearby hospital as a precaution. In the meantime, the LMC has used towels, gloves and a mattress cover during her time at the woman’s home prior to the transfer.
  • A woman births in her car en route to the hospital. The LMC manages to find her car parked along the side of the road. The LMC delivers the placenta and has used the last of her gloves, a cord clamp, towels and a blanket for the baby. The mother and baby are stabilised and they both head off to the hospital (or home).

Examples when this fee cannot be claimed:

  • A woman has planned homebirth but decides before established labour to deliver in hospital.
  • A woman has called her LMC because she thinks she is in labour. The LMC arrives to her home to do an assessment. The hand held doppler reveals a non-reassuring fetal heartbeat. It was decided for the woman to deliver at hospital. The LMC does not use any part of her kit nor was her back up present for the assessment.