For most healthy pregnancies, all three are safe and comfortable places to give birth, so choose the one that feels right to you — often the one closest to home. Your appointments can be at whichever of my rooms suits you, whatever hospital you choose; it is urgent reviews and your labour care that happen where you are booked. Occasionally there is a medical reason to favour one site, usually where you or your baby may need extra support around the birth, and I will raise that with you early rather than late.
Side by side
Malvern

Cabrini Malvern

Where I also consult, in the Mother & Baby Centre
Special care nursery
Babies from 34 weeks. A Level 3 nursery under the Victorian classification, staffed by paediatricians and nursing staff.
If your baby needs intensive care
A transfer is needed. Your baby goes to an appropriate neonatal intensive care unit; you can stay at Cabrini under my care, or move with them to Jessie McPherson. Either way you remain my patient.
Your room
Private, guaranteed. Every room has a double bed and ensuite, and a partner or support person can stay.
Length of stay
Four nights, or five after an emergency caesarean.
On the same campus
Adult intensive care, operating theatres, in-house anaesthetics and a 24-hour emergency department.
Visiting hours
Partner or support person: any time. Other visitors: 3:00pm to 8:00pm, two or three at a time.
Feeding support
Midwives on the ward, then an outpatient breastfeeding clinic until six weeks. A GP lactation consultant works in the Mother & Baby Centre.
Tours & classes
A 30-minute midwife-hosted tour of the birth suites, postnatal rooms and nursery. Classes run from early pregnancy through to baby first aid. Bookings on 03 9508 1724.
After you leave
No hotel stay. Instead, a “return home sooner” support package: if you and your baby are well and you would rather be at home, you can leave early and be supported there. We decide it together, and Cabrini can tell you what the package includes.
Without private insurance
A self-funded package is available. My fee is separate, and set out for you in advance.
East Melbourne

Epworth Freemasons

Birth suites at Victoria Parade; I consult at Grey Street
Special care nursery
Babies from 32 weeks. Your baby is admitted under an Epworth paediatrician, and you have access at any hour.
If your baby needs intensive care
A transfer is needed. Your baby goes to an appropriate neonatal intensive care unit; you can stay at Epworth under my care, or move with them to Jessie McPherson. Either way you remain my patient.
Your room
Private suites, with a partner or support person welcome to stay. Most rooms have a double bed — the exception is the first night after a caesarean, when you will be in a single bed. There is no night nursery — your baby stays with you, with midwives on call.
Length of stay
Three to four nights, depending on medical need and how you and your baby are recovering.
On the same campus
No adult intensive care on site. The caesarean theatre is on the birth suite itself — the only one of the three where you are not moved to a separate theatre suite. Anaesthetic and paediatric support 24 hours a day.
Visiting hours
Partner or support person: hours are not separately published — ask the ward. Other visitors: 10:00am to 1:00pm and 4:00pm to 7:00pm.
Feeding support
Midwives on the ward, plus lactation consultants at the Maternity Hub for private one-on-one consultations. Your first clinic consultation is complimentary as an Epworth maternity patient.
Tours & classes
In-person and virtual tours of the unit. Childbirth classes are best booked early in the second trimester and attended at 30 to 35 weeks. The Maternity Hub (Suite 116, Level 1, 03 9418 8300) adds a concierge, pre-admission midwife consultations, a childbirth educator, a gestational diabetes educator and pelvic health physiotherapy.
After you leave
A hotel stay at Park Hyatt Melbourne with Epworth midwife support, for the first days after the birth. Eligibility is decided with your midwife after the birth, rooms depend on availability, and I have to approve the transfer. Concierge: 03 9418 8300.
Without private insurance
A self-funded package is available. My fee is separate, and set out for you in advance.
Clayton

Jessie McPherson

On the Monash Medical Centre campus, near my Monash House rooms
Special care nursery
Babies from 37 weeks in the Level 2 ward nursery, staffed by neonatologists and neonatal nurses. Babies born earlier are cared for in the intensive care unit on the same site, not transferred.
If your baby needs intensive care
No transfer needed. A Level 6 unit at Monash Children’s Hospital sits on the same site — the highest level of newborn care in Victoria, able to look after even the sickest babies, while you stay where you are.
Your room
A mix of private and shared, so a private room is requested rather than guaranteed. Every room has its own ensuite, and partners are welcome to stay.
Length of stay
Three to four nights, depending on your recovery.
On the same campus
Adult intensive care, neonatal intensive care, operating theatres and anaesthetists, at any hour. The unit cares for lower-risk and higher-risk pregnancies alike.
Visiting hours
Partner or support person: throughout your whole postnatal stay (7:00am to 8:00pm before the birth). Other visitors: two a day, 10:00am to 8:00pm, and siblings with an adult.
Feeding support
Midwives on the ward, plus board-certified lactation consultants before the birth, at the hotel stay, and for up to six weeks after you go home.
Tours & classes
Childbirth education classes, with access to mental health support if you need it. Tour arrangements are not published — ask the unit.
After you leave
A two-night hotel stay at Hotel Chadstone through the Jessie Parenting Sanctuary, once you leave the ward. Covered by the hospital for privately insured patients, meals included, partner and children welcome subject to room size. No pre-booking — the ward team arranges it.
Without private insurance
A self-funded package is available, and the hotel stay can be included in it. My fee is separate, and set out for you in advance.
Details above are drawn from each hospital’s own published information and can change. Where something is important to your decision, please ask me or the hospital directly rather than assuming.

How I would think about it

This is an individual decision, and I am happy to help you work through it. Many people have already decided before we meet — often because of family, a previous birth, or simply where feels right — and that is entirely fine. I will look after you at your preferred hospital.

Distance matters. Your appointments and consultations can be at whichever of my rooms is most convenient, whatever hospital you deliver at. But it is any urgent or unanticipated review, and your labour care, that happen at the hospital you are booked into, so that is the travel worth picturing — possibly at night, possibly in a hurry.

Occasionally there is a medical reason to favour one hospital, and if so I will explain it to you gently and fully, well before any decision has to be made. That usually comes up where a health condition of your own needs closer support around the birth, or where something about your baby — a complex twin pregnancy, a finding on a scan, or a previous early birth — means there is a greater chance they will need extra help in their first hours. In those situations, being somewhere with intensive care on site simply means you and your baby can stay together if you need it. For most pregnancies none of this applies, and you are free to choose the hospital that feels right to you.

Then the days after. Some people care a great deal about the room, the food, how long they stay and whether their partner can sleep there; others just want to go home. Neither is wrong, and it is worth saying out loud which one you are.

Take a tour before you decide if you can. Ten minutes standing in a birth suite tells you more than any comparison table.

Deciding early helps, because hospital bookings and tours fill up, but it is not irreversible. If you want to change hospitals during your pregnancy, tell me and we will arrange it. After 20 weeks, urgent concerns go to the birth suite at the hospital you are booked into, staffed 24 hours — not to the rooms. Before 20 weeks, or for gynaecological concerns, call the rooms in business hours or the after-hours line given on your appointment card. For a medical emergency call 000.