Choosing a doctor

[mocaloca]

I have recently found out I am about 6 weeks pregnant, very exciting and scary. I am not from Australia and my experience so far with other doctors here have been they rush you out of the office as quickly as they can. Maybe just bad luck.

I want to find a doctor who will not be like that. Is it ok to schedule your first OB visit with 2 doctors and then decide which one you like best?

How would you go about it?

[mummy2sophie]

Hi there! Congratulations on being pregnant! :thumbsup: First of all, you said you are not from Australia...but are you here in Australia now or planning on having the baby in Australia?

If it is in Aus. are you with private or public?

We went private as then we could choose our obstetrician. Public doesn't give you a choice. Although you could find a great gp and then do "share care" which means your regular check ups are with the gp and you only see the ob once in a while (you'll have to talk to someone who has done this as I'm not sure...).

But if you're private first of all decide which hospital you like best and take it from there. When we decided to get preg I visited both private and public hospitals. I went to Hornsby public and chatted to the nurses there. One nurse was happy to chat for ages as it was a "slow" day and she didn't have a lot else to do. So I asked her who the best ob is! And she told me Dr Andrew Booker (we're in Syd) and I asked her why and she said that he has a beautiful bedside manner, he really cares, he's quite young so fresh and keen out of uni and does a fabulous c/s scar (this is very true as I had to have one). So we went with him and were very happy, he's also our ob for #2.

Although he is sometimes a bit quick (an in and out visit so to speak) So I come armed with a list of questions so we don't waste his time. And I read a lot of books to help us understand a lot of the processes.

Midwives often know the best doctors because they have to work with them all the time. :yes:

[mks]

Where abouts are you (or will you be)? I can give you my recommendation in Brisbane if you like.