Thanks Natalie. I'd found other sites with it too, but was just really surprised that noone had talked about it on here before.
Chalk one up to the midwives at Geelong Public Hospital huh? Interestingly, Geelong is one of the busiest hospitals in all of Australia for admissions. They are a very progressive hospital offering a great standard of care for birthing mums including free lactation consultants, a family birthing unit, and a maternity support worker.
So I'm thinking this is a great thing for us, but hwo many other hossies do it?

ETA - Kelly, I did see a the maternity support worker after Jenna's birth for a bit of a debrief, and mothers group is a gem for this sort of thing. I guess I just wanted to hear from the horses mouth (ie my midwife) how she felt it all went. As she said to progress from 2cm to 5cm in 2hrs at home, and then to 10cm in another 1hr, I was labouring pretty hard.
I think I would have been fine to cope with the labour pain had I been able to move, but the fact was back pain meant I could barely move a muscle. If this option had been available at the time I think it would have been perfect for my situation as it may have been enough to take the edge off and get me off all fours.
I bet next time I go early, and the baby isn't posterior, and its all over and done with nice and easily. Ah well....

Anyway - it just seemed like a good thing for people to think about, and maybe ask their midwives about?