I think you see Kim and me smiling because you have touched on what is perhaps the biggest selling feature of midwifery care. We look after birthers and their babies until approximately six weeks postpartum—or at least we're compensated in my jurisdiction to six weeks, and care for them of up to 12 weeks, so there is that continuity of care. In the first week postpartum, those visits happen in the house. We do not expect you to pack yourself and your new baby into the car and drive to our office at five days postpartum, and we're coming the very next day. We will see you each day that you're in hospital, if you are in hospital, until you are discharged, and your very first day after discharge we're coming to you at home.
I can tell you both as a midwife and as a mother that if you are hoping to breastfeed, it is not as easy as it looks. It is extremely difficult, and your success is dependent upon receiving care early on. If I had had to wait until day five postpartum, my son would not have been fully breastfed or perhaps been a child who was not breastfed at all.
That is a place where our care really shines. It's also where we really have an opportunity to impact families as a whole in recognizing and responding, for example, to family-based violence or child neglect. We are very privileged to be able to enter people's homes and it really deepens the trusting relationship and is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt parts of our work.