Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
She chose her obstetrician at 6 weeks. The question is whether she chose you.
The economics of a private obstetric practice are decided in the first trimester. By six weeks gestation, the expecting parent has Googled 'private obstetrician [suburb]', read three or four practice websites, asked her friends, and decided who she wants. The GP referral comes after that decision, not before it. The practices that earn well are the ones whose websites show up at six weeks with clear antenatal-care pathway pages, transparent MBS Item 16401 and 16402 fee detail against private-hospital affiliation (Mater / Frances Perry House / Cabrini / St Vincent's / Northern Beaches / North Shore Private / Royal Hospital for Women / Westmead Private / Mercy / St John of God), VBAC-pathway and high-risk-pregnancy subspecialty content, and a clear 'what's included in the $3,000 to $8,000 antenatal-care fee' breakdown. The practices that don't are quietly losing the decision to the obstetrician across town who wrote the page. The complex-pregnancy work (multiple-pregnancy, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, VBAC, the higher-margin presentations that justify the FRANZCOG subspecialty training) lives on the long tail and is even more invisible: the patient who needs a VBAC obstetrician is searching 'VBAC obstetrician [suburb]' specifically and most practices have nothing on it.
Good specialist obstetric marketing is three things, in this order: a clinical-pathway page library that wins the long-tail searches at six weeks gestation (antenatal care, birth, post-natal, multiple pregnancy, VBAC, IVF and fertility, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, caesarean section, perineal repair, Group B Streptococcus, Rhesus disease management), a transparent MBS Item 16401 and 16402 antenatal pricing page against the chosen private-hospital affiliation with a clear 'what's included' breakdown ($3,000 to $8,000 antenatal-care fee), and a GP-referral page that includes the current new-patient wait time, the MBS Item 16500 and 16501 pregnancy-care fee schedule, the Item 16518 vaginal-delivery and Item 16519 caesarean fee detail, and the post-natal Item 16400 and 16404 follow-up structure. The hospital affiliation matters more than agencies realise: surfacing Mater, Frances Perry House, Cabrini, St Vincent's, Northern Beaches, North Shore Private, Royal Hospital for Women, Royal Women's Hospital, Westmead, Mercy or St John of God affiliation builds the credibility the expecting parent needs to make the six-week decision. The practices that earn well are doing exactly this.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Sets the plan around the clinical pathways you actually want more of (VBAC, multiple pregnancy, gestational diabetes, high-risk antenatal) rather than chasing every general obstetric referral. Briefs the other agents so the pathway pages, the GP-referral materials, the clinical-education content and the local SEO all push the right patients into the right week of the diary. Builds the recognition that wins the six-week first-trimester decision before the patient even asks her GP.
Imports your existing site, ships a clinical-pathway page library with the FRANZCOG credentials and private-hospital affiliation surfaced on every page, builds a proper online enquiry flow that captures referral status and private-health cover detail, and keeps the obstetrician bios and pathway pages up to date with one-tap uploads from the consulting room.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move specialist-obstetric rankings: long-tail keywords on every clinical-pathway page (private obstetrician [suburb], VBAC obstetrician [suburb], multiple pregnancy obstetrician, gestational diabetes obstetrician), MedicalBusiness schema, internal links from pathway pages to the hospital-affiliation page, and a Google Business Profile with every clinical pathway ticked. Sets the primary category to 'Obstetrician-Gynecologist' (most practices have it wrong as 'Doctor'). Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Runs Google Ads sparingly, on the long-tail high-intent searches you can't outrank organically yet ('VBAC obstetrician [suburb]', 'multiple pregnancy obstetrician [suburb]', 'private obstetrician [suburb]'). Switches Meta off by default (AHPRA-fraught territory for obstetric advertising, especially under the post-2023 cosmetic reform implications for any cosmetic-adjacent procedure copy), and pauses every campaign automatically when the new-patient antenatal diary hits the cap you set.
Posts AHPRA-compliant clinical-education content in your real accounts: a carousel on the VBAC candidacy criteria, a reel on what's actually included in the $3,000 to $8,000 antenatal-care fee against the private-hospital cover, a LinkedIn post for local GPs on the new Item 16401 referral workflow, a gestational-diabetes screening week post in March. No testimonials, no comparative claims, no influencer endorsement deals, no cosmetic-adjacent procedure copy that risks the 2023 cosmetic-reform implications. You approve in two taps.
Drafts the longer-form pieces expecting parents and GPs search for at six weeks: 'private obstetrician versus public hospital midwifery group practice: what each actually includes', 'how much does private obstetric care cost in [city]: the MBS Item 16401 to 16519 breakdown', 'VBAC: who's a candidate and who isn't', 'multiple pregnancy: when an obstetrician's the right call'. Two a month, in your voice, that pull the first-trimester search and convert the six-week decision.
Your first 30 days.
- Existing Squarespace site imported, legacy hosting torn down, Genie or Best Practice booking widget re-embedded
- Clinical-pathway plan set by Sam against the antenatal-care slots and the higher-margin presentations (VBAC, multiple pregnancy, gestational diabetes, high-risk antenatal) you actually want filled
- Antenatal care, VBAC, multiple pregnancy and gestational diabetes pathway pages drafted, indexed and ranking page one for '[pathway] obstetrician [suburb]'
- GP-referral page live with prefilled Item 16401 and 16402 PDF, MBS Item 16401-to-16519 fee breakdown, current new-patient wait time, hospital affiliation
- Google Business Profile primary category corrected from 'Doctor' to 'Obstetrician-Gynecologist', services expanded from 4 to 17, hospital affiliation and FRANZCOG surfaced
- Transparent antenatal-and-delivery fee page live against the private-hospital cover detail so the six-week decision is informed
- AHPRA-compliant and RANZCOG-compliant clinical-education social cadence queued in the obstetrician's voice for the next fortnight, ready for two-tap approval
- New-patient antenatal diary capacity rule set so paid acquisition pauses automatically when the first-trimester intake is full
Specialist obstetrics grows when the six-week first-trimester decision goes your way, not when the GP referral happens to land. The expecting parent chooses her obstetrician at six weeks gestation, after reading three or four practice websites and asking her friends. The practices that earn well have clinical-pathway page libraries that capture her at six weeks, transparent fee detail against the private-hospital affiliation, a GP-referral pipeline that includes the current wait time and the MBS Item 16401 to 16519 fee breakdown, and FRANZCOG-credentialled clinical-education content that builds the recognition that wins the decision. The higher-margin work (VBAC, multiple pregnancy, gestational diabetes, high-risk antenatal) lives on the long tail and is even more invisible. The practices that grow are the ones writing the pages.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the pathway-page library and the GP-referral pipeline for $5k a month, and most don't understand AHPRA specialist advertising standards or the 2023 cosmetic-reform implications well enough to keep your FRANZCOG clean. Tools are cheap but the VBAC pathway page sits in your Asana for a year. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the pathway pages, build the GP-referral pipeline, fix the Google Business Profile, post the AHPRA-compliant clinical education, and quietly switch the marketing on and off as your antenatal diary fills. You stay in the driver's seat, AHPRA-compliant and RANZCOG-compliant by construction, two taps to approve.