Key messages
- Victoria’s network of services means that, for most women and families, maternity and newborn care is provided close to home.
- A tiered system with agreed levels of care for public maternity and newborn services means that women and families can have confidence in the consistency and quality of care they receive.
- Capability frameworks support and guide how planned maternity and newborn care is provided.
- The Regional Maternal and Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Committees review selected maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity cases at a regional level.
- Due to ongoing work of the Victorian Maternity Taskforce, the current maternity and newborn capability levels for 2022-23 to 2023-24 remain in place until determination of 2024-25 to 2025-26 levels is completed.
Capability frameworks for maternity and newborn services
The capability frameworks for Victorian maternity and newborn services:
- Describe the requirements for providing safe and high-quality maternity and newborn care for Victorian public and private hospitals, including the:
- required workforce
- infrastructure
- equipment and clinical support services.
- Assist health services to manage different complexities of care, making informed decisions about the:
- resources
- partnerships
- protocols.
- Enable a transparent approach to planning and service development at a local level, taking into account community need.
- Support health service regions and the department to plan and manage the maternity and newborn service system.
Maternity and newborn capability levels
Services operate in a networked system across 6 levels of care:
- Levels 1-3: Local care for healthy women and babies at low risk
- Level 4: Local care for women and babies with some risk requiring additional care
- Level 5-6: Local care for all women and babies. Regional/statewide care for women and babies at high risk
Download the capability levels for 2022-23 to 2023-24 or view tables on this page.
Please note: These capability levels are currently continuing to be in place during the process of determination of 2024-25 to 2025-26 levels is completed. This web page will be updated once finalised.
Changes to services
The policy and funding guidelines represent the system-wide terms and conditions for government-funded healthcare organisations. As outlined in the capability frameworks section of the guidelines, further information regarding planned or unplanned changes, including diversions related to maternity and newborn care, can be found below.
Regional Maternal and Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Committees
Established in 2015, the Regional Maternal and Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity Committees (the Committees) review selected maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity cases at a regional level.
In 2020, the Committees' management moved from the Royal Women’s Hospital to the six level 5 capability regional maternity services (in accordance with the Maternity and Newborn Capability Frameworks).
All rural and regional maternity and newborn services must participate in committee meetings.
| Region | Level 5 Service Lead |
| Barwon South West | Barwon Health |
| Gippsland | Latrobe Regional Health |
| Grampians | Ballarat Health Service |
| Hume Lower (Goulburn) | Goulburn Valley Health |
| Hume Upper (Ovens Murray) | Albury Wodonga Health |
| Loddon Mallee | Bendigo Health |
Regional Maternal and Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Committee's guidelines.
These guidelines are for Committee members and seek to support the processes and procedures of the Committees.
Updated