I am planning to have my first birth at home with midwives, my second choice would be to go to a midwifery led unit. It's dissapointing that we are not very progressive when it comes to midwife based care in birth. A government funded programme for midwives in homebirth would be an amazing step forward. The only two states in Australia that currently offer this are W.A - if you live in Perth and South Australia - if you live in one of two suburbs! the other thing I have found is that women often do not realize what options are available to them outside of the medical model, especially first time mothers. Maybe one day we will have a model closer to that of new zealand where birthing with midwives at home or in midwifery led units is the norm. i hope so.