Midwives without professional indemnity insurance will still be able to oversee home births until mid-2015 while federal and state health ministers try to find a long-term solution.
Australia's health ministers on Friday agreed to extend the existing insurance exemption for midwives in private practice for two years. It was due to expire in mid-2013. Midwives have been able to access government-supported insurance since 2010 because insurers wouldn't offer them products. But it doesn't cover the delivery of babies in the home.
Federal and state health ministers, meeting in Sydney, agreed to the extension while asking Western Australia to ''develop a paper on longer-term arrangements''.
