I can't help on the Melbourne side of things, as we've just moved here, but thought I might add something.

You may *not* need to have a midwife with you in order to instigate breastfeeding/ensure baby stays with you in recovery.

I used to work at RBWH (Brisbane), in theatres; and we were all being upskilled to have neonatal resus and education on baby-led attachment, so that if a midwife was unable to stay with a mum once they had given birth (generally due to being out of hours, and understaffing on ward/birth suite); bub could remain with mum, knowing that someone was available to assist should there be need.

So might be worth just asking about the policy of skin-to-skin/breastfeeding post caesarean section; and see if they require a midwife to stay; or if they've upskilled their recovery/theatre staff like we did.