Dr Scott Shemer

Meet my team: Charis, Midwife

A snapshot of your pregnancy care.

My multidisciplinary team and I aim to provide the most comprehensive, holistic obstetric care possible.

My patients will give birth at the exceptional Epworth Freemasons Hospital, where my brand new, bespoke consulting rooms are located on-site for your comfort, safety and convenience.

Stay tuned as I share more details of each of these benefits and features over the coming weeks and months.

Through pre-conception care, pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period, our practice is all-encompassing. My multidisciplinary team and I aim provide you with the best and most comprehensive care possible as you grow your family.

Meet Emily - Practice Manager

You’ve just found out you’re pregnant - congratulations! So what’s next?

I’ll never forget the moment my wife first had a positive pregnancy test. It was overwhelming and surreal, especially after infertility and IVF. The indescribable excitement of falling pregnant is often accompanied by some degree of anxiety and uncertainty as well.

This is my easy-to-follow, step-by-step summary of how to proceed if you’d like to see me for pregnancy care ☝️

I limit the number of patients I look after each month in order to give every patient the best care possible. Any patient who has seen me for previous pregnancy care or pre-pregnancy counselling will always be accepted, even if we’ve reached our monthly cap

I believe in individualising every pregnancy journey.

I encourage patients and couples to be involved in the decision-making process. This involves providing you with evidence-based guidance that allows you to make informed choices throughout the entire pregnancy and birth.

My areas of speciality include:
▪️Cervical insufficiency and preterm birth prevention
▪️Pregnancy after Assisted Reproductive Technology (IVF / IUI / ovulation induction)
▪️Multiple pregnancy
▪️Management of underlying medical conditions in pregnancy
▪️Recurrent miscarriage and pregnancy loss

My practice is inclusive of all patients and families wanting to become parents. This is a safe place for everyone, including single parents, partnered couples (heterosexual and members of the LGBTQIA+ community) and gestational surrogates with their intended parents.

Grounded in evidence-based medicine, our practice provides holistic, patient-focused, personalised care

Highly inclusive, we seek to provide a personalised pathway to parenthood regardless of gender and family structure

Consulting rooms done our way - an intersection of intense colour, personal art and cosy furnishings to create our luxe, cocooning space. Purpose-built so all your visits are in one place - here you’ll see me, our midwives, .mama.physio and . You’ll also have CTG monitoring and do your genetic screening on-site.

Thank you to for supporting our dream and for bringing our vision to life!

Our specialist team ensures your needs are met at every stage

Care begins even before becoming pregnant

Personalised holistic care during one of life’s most important experiences

A year in the making!

New website
New rooms
New hospital
New vision
Same me

Visit www.drscottshemer.com.au - link in bio

Almost ready! Big reveal coming soon…….…….

There are few things I love more than the . It would therefore come as no surprise that this one meant A LOT to me. Koda is absolutely adorable, Mon and Pat. May 2024 be your best year yet in more ways than one 💙🤍🏆🤞 .cripps

A wonderful mother helping me deliver her own baby, thanks to her remarkable surrogate. Surrogacy is truly one of the most incredible and selfless gifts anyone can ever give to another family. What a privilege for me to be a part of stories like these

I don’t for a second take for granted how lucky I am today. I’m able to share my day with the remerakble mothers in my life.

Each Mother’s Day, I also reflect on the privilege I have spending every day helping people become mums. Whilst this is most often joyful, there are plenty of my patients for whom today is incomparably hard. To those desperate for motherhood, those remembering babies lost, and those parenting without a mother - I see you and I am thinking of you

About last night. Thanks for a wonderful evening at the MCG. I’m a very proud and happy fan this morning 💙🤍💙🤍

Just had a positive pregnancy test? You could be my first patient due in 2025!

Let me give you a quick rundown on how to calculate your due date:
1️⃣ Naegele’s Rule: This method relies on regular menstrual cycles. It involves adding 280 days (or 40 weeks) to the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP). It is based on a 28 day cycle. For longer cycles, your EDD will be later (eg. if you have a 30 day cycle, an extra 2 days must be added on). For shorter cycles, your EDD will be earlier (eg. if you have a 25 day cycle, 3 days must be subtracted)
2️⃣ Ultrasound: A measurement of the fetal crown-rump length (CRL) is considered the most accurate way to date a pregnancy. This is most reliable when performed between 7 and 9 weeks gestation, although I may do your initial scan even earlier if you have significant risk factors such as a history of recurrent miscarriage
3️⃣ For IVF pregnancies, your EDD can be definitively calculated based on the date of your embryo transfer and the age of the embryo at the time of transfer

To make a booking for pregnancy care, call my rooms on 9347-0747

It’s Dietitians Week! The perfect time to collaborate with Alex , my brilliant practice Dietitian (and wonderful medical administrator), for advice about managing iron deficiency in pregnancy.

Iron is an important dietary mineral which our body primarily requires to support the growth and development of red blood cells, which are responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body.

During pregnancy, iron requirements increase. Your baby will draw iron stores from your body to develop their own stores – which they will then use during their first six months of life.

Dietary iron can be found in two forms – haem iron (iron from animal foods) and non-haem iron (iron from plant foods). Slide across to find some examples of both haem and non-haem iron-rich foods.

Some patients find it difficult to meet their iron requirements via diet alone. Oral iron supplementation or an intravenous iron infusion may be required.

Blood tests are performed at different stages throughout pregnancy to check for iron deficiency, which can lead to anaemia. This may leave you feeling especially fatigued and lightheaded.

If your iron stores are low, my team and I will tailor a plan to optimise your iron level.

50 DAY COUNTDOWN
We have reached only 50 days until we officially move to !

My team and I are incredibly excited to share this next phase with you. Our new rooms are well underway and we’ll have some sneak peeks for you over the coming weeks!

Our all-in-one space is custom designed to bring holistic private obstetric care to a new level. Together with Freemasons Hospital’s exceptional facilities, our patients will have access to everything from preconception to postnatal care all in one location. Stay tuned!

Life lately. A beautiful, restorative week with my family. Now ready to return to the best job in the world as we move to in just two months’ time

TW: MENTAL HEALTH

Your wellbeing matters. Your mental health is a priority.

Yesterday’s article published in The Age, highlighting that one in two Victorian mothers is missing out on recommended screening for postnatal depression, brings to the fore the importance of focusing on perinatal mental health.

We know that perinatal mental health issues are remarkably common, affecting around 100,000 families across Australia each year.

I am thrilled to have the sensational Jackie Bailey , a psychologist with a special interest in perinatal mental health, joining my team and consulting from my rooms at Epworth Freemasons from June. Strong collaboration with my wonderful psychiatric colleagues, including the brilliant (who is quoted in this article), will also continue. All of my patients will be screened for perinatal depression both during pregnancy and then at six weeks postpartum.

You can read the entire article here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/half-of-victorian-mothers-miss-vital-mental-health-screenings-after-birth-20240313-p5fc1q.html

Today, we celebrate women.

I have the immense privilege of spending my professional life caring for and supporting women through the most wonderful - and at times challenging - moments in their lives.

This is only possible with the support of the inspiring, dedicated and skilled women who work alongside me. My entirely female team of practice staff, midwives and allied heath practitioners enable and encourage me to be an unwavering advocate for women’s health.

On International Women’s Day, I feel especially proud to be a ‘Girl Dad.’ I have a real responsibility to raise empowered and self-assured young women. And they have exceptional role models in my wife, their grandmothers and aunts, and other strong female figures in our lives.

We must acknowledge the challenges women face, even in this day and age: disparities in employment opportunities and pay, an increased risk of family violence and inadequate resourcing for mental health support, particularly for young women.

Change is possible and crucial, and we can each contribute in a small but meaningful way. I am proud to advocate for woman-centred obstetric care, and to have created a workplace that is truly supportive of my staff while they grow their own families. I encourage everyone to reflect on where you can do your part to enable the changes needed for the women in your lives

I’m rapt to introduce my newest team member! Emma is a multitalented, experienced, empathetic medical administrator, who has started in our rooms today.

Qualified and trained as a prenatal genetic counsellor, Emma has been working alongside families on their reproductive journeys since 2013. Whether it is before, during or after pregnancy, Emma has always enjoyed providing people with a safe and welcoming space from the moment they enter the practice. Since focusing specifically on medical administration, Emma has loved nothing more than hearing people’s stories and making sure they have the best support team behind them at all times.

Emma and her wife have two beautiful children who were both welcomed into this world by me! She also has a 45kg Great Dane x standard Poodle. She loves spending time with family and friends, travelling and enjoys nothing more than a great coffee first thing in the morning.

Welcome Emma!

39 🎂🎈

Introducing the newest member of the extended Dr Scott Shemer Team family……… Welcome Remy! Our incredible midwife Charis has been a huge part of so many of your pregnancies and births; how remarkably special to see her, and partner Sam, with their own adorable daughter now 🤍

A beautiful week away; quality time, just the four of us. No work, no social media, no distractions. Remarkably grateful to my wonderful patients, who understand the importance of work-life balance and allow me to spend time with my own little family. Now feeling completely refreshed, rejuvenated and excited to soon return to the best job in the world