Mitcham Private vs Knox Private - Melbourne

[inka2980]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences (good or bad) in either of these hospitals?
I was wondering about things like:
Which obstetrician did you use?
Quality of care?
Were the midwives nice?
Food?
Did you get a private room?
Did you get pain relief when you asked for it?
etc, etc.

Thanks.

[sare]

Hi Inka - I had dd at Mitcham and am having #2 there in October. I had a great experience there and would highly recommend it.


Which obstetrician did you use? Peter Tang. I can't rave about him enough. He's just lovely and really listens to your concerns. He didn't make dd's birth as he was delivering another baby in one of the other birthing suites, but dd's was a really uncomplicated birth and he came to check on her (and me) within 20 minutes of her being born.

Quality of care? Excellent. The midwives were all excellent (bar one who had me stressed about having high blood pressure) I had trouble b/f dd and one of the midwives could see that I wasn't ready to be discharged. I deperately wanted to go home, so she spent about 3 hours looking after me, teaching me how to express, organising the hire of an electric breast pump, writing up a feeding plan, teaching me how to bottle feed dd, organising for dd to come back for a weigh in 2 days later (as she had lost about 10% of her body weight) and organised for me to meet 1-on-1 with a midwife 3 days after I had been discharged for more assistance in getting dd to latch on. It all helped because I b/f dd for 14 months. So I'd say their level of care is A+

Were the midwives nice? Think I've already answered this. Some were a bit business-like, but the majority we're friendly, extremely helpful and very affirming.

Food? Delicious. I'm even looking forward to it this time around.

Did you get a private room? Yes. I hope I do this time too.

Did you get pain relief when you asked for it?I asked for an epidural when I was about 7cms dialated. The midwife organised for an anaethesist (sp?) to come in but it would take over 30mins. Basically I didn't have enough time. I was offered gas straight away, but did not want a pethadine shot.

Hopefully that answers your questions. I have heard good things about Knox too, but I know of far more people who have had their babies at Mitcham and all of them have been really happy with the hospital.

I visited my SIL at a private hospital in the city last week and was surprised by how poorly she had been treated (long waits to see midwives, really abrupt and abrasive midwives, continual interruptions during visiting hours and while she was trying to rest) and by some of the things that we overheard staff saying. Needless to say, that totally reaffirmed my choice to have my baby at Mitcham. :thumbsup:

[Mikeswifey]

I had 1st baby at knox, having 2nd baby at Mitcham. I hear the care is better.

My ob was Dr Jason Clark. He was FANTASTIC and did everything he could to make my baby come out alive (she was stuck). I hear his not taking new patients on.

With the care day nurses were great, night nurses sucked bad. Old matron type ladies. Wont go into it to much, will be here all night.

Food was fantastic. Everytime I finished one meal it was time for the next. Muffins, cake, desserts it was great.

I got my pain relief. Tried to do it without an epidural but the nurses told me I needed one and I agreed.

My DD was in the nursery too coz she was sick. Hated the nursery nurse. She shouldnt even be working. The lady with the short hair.

But otherwise we got a double bed so Michael slept the 7 night its was lovely that he could be there with us. They also let my mum come in whenever she wanted. Whatever visiting hours she wanted.

[kimbapuppy]

We had Dr Chew and she was fantastic and worked overtime to ensure the baby was delivered safely. Dr Chew was on time and was always available when we needed her. Personally, I would go with her again, however definitely won't be going back to Knox Private.

Just want to warn all expecting mothers out there who are thinking about having their babies at Knox Private Hospital. 5 months later after settling all the hospital bills and just before Christmas, we received a bill of $2,500 out of the blue because our baby was put "under observation" for a total of 6 hours in the nursery. Our baby was not in intensive care, or "plugged in" for monitoring, just in the cot placed in the corner. They measured her oxygen level ONCE and that was the only equipment used. We were not allowed to take our baby out of the nursery even when the oxygen level was 100% fine (this was 30 minutes after in the nursery) and even when she was fine.

The pediatrician, Dr Drew did not even see our baby in person and asked to put our baby "under observation". Btw, he was useless, checking the baby for the next 2 days all under 1 minute each visit.

Naturally as a new parent, I checked on my baby often throughout the night in the nursery. The way the midwifes treated the babies in the nursery was shocking - when a baby made a tiny noise, one of the midwife would shout out to the baby, "oh, SHUT UP!" even when I was in the nursery. This baby was actually in the incubation unit, all plugged up with oxygen gas and all as well.

Please beware of the SCAM at Knox Private Hospital and the hidden bills. They are more interested in making money out of their patients, than providing top patient care. They threatened to pass the bill many times onto the debt collector (not by phone but always by mail) and said to me in my face, Knox is a private hospital and has to make money.

[bodalicious]

Hi everyone, I am booked into Mitcham Private for an C-section on the 6th May. My first daughter I had at Knox... and like others found the night nurse absolutely terrible to a first time mum. To the point I screamed at one to get out of my room! :mad: I also was not given hardly any help to breastfeed so that didn't happen! :thumbsdown:

I have been told Mitcham is much better and so my Dr... Dr Chester Yeoh whom bought my beautiful daughter into the world will bring my next beautiful girl into the world! :smiliedance:

I am hoping this will be a better experience than my first birth!!

Carolyn

[LovingMummy]

Hi guy.... finding this intersting... I know the thread was started quite some time ago.... but we are looking at using Dr Chew...

We had our first at Knox... and I found them wonderful! I hear htey have one of the highest breastfeeding success rates in the state! I also like the fact that they have emergency facilities there in case something goes wrong.... would love to hear any feedback on the nurded (as they are what really make your stay)..... we had our daughter 3 years ago... so things might have changed....

[mim1]

I had my son at Mitcham (3 years ago) and was happy with the overall experience. He stopped breathing 1 minute after he was born and suddenly the room was full of midwives (and my Ob who was there already) and they did a wonderful job. A neonatal paediatrician was there in under 10 minutes (he started breathing again after 1 or 2 minutes) and he was the only baby in special care for the first 24 hours. The nurses in special care really helped me establish breast feeding - if it hadn't been for them I might not have got started. It was 3 or 4 days before I could BF my son (2 days til I could touch him at all) and then he needed comp feeds for 8 days as he was still unwell. But, I BF happily til 12 months :).

There were issues, but I know there are not specific to the hospital. Waiting an hour for pain medications (especially overnight) was pretty normal and as my ds was sick they were a bit vague about when I could go home. Then a midwife walked in on the evening of Day 3 and said 'You're going home tomorrow morning' ... she wasn't very nice about it and it was complete news to me, so I didn't take it well. But the nice special care nurses (and my dh) calmed me down.

[MyPossum]

We just had our 1st bub at Mitcham this month. It was fantastic and we don't have a bad thing to say about the entire experience!
Midwives were fantastic, including overnight - and I never once waited for pain meds. It is to the credit of a couple of the midwives in particular that I had breastfeeding under control by the time we came home. We had a huge double room and the birthing suite was even bigger and very impressive, food also was great.
My OB ended up being away (it was Easter), but the OB we had in his place was great too.
Would highly recommend it!

[Issi]

Any recent experiences are much appreciated as to the care the baby recieves at either hospital. Thank you!

[MyPossum]

I know this is an old topic but have people had recent experiences with birthing in these hospitals?

I have been admitted to both during my pregnancy for complications and had horrific experiences at both, if I hadn't already paid for my OB and he only had rites at these 2 hospitals I wouldn't use either.

Which is the better of the 2 evils when it comes to baby care? At this point if I have to go to one I don't care how they treat me so much as how they treat my baby.

At both hospitals the nurses were rude to the point of tears and said things that would have got them fired from any public hospital (not to mention at Knox a nurse having a domestic with foul language at her husband right outside birth suite twice over the course of half an hour over his cheating - just charming you couldn't find a more bogan setting to have a baby). I am white but at Mitcham they seem raciest beyond belief and I don't know that i'd feel comfortable having our friends and family come as my husband is not white and most of my friends are asian. The nurses at Mitcham made horrible raciest remarks constantly while I was there in July and they never seemed to answer their phones, the minimum wait was at least 40mins to see anybody even when pain medicine was due after surgery in Maternity ward.

I really can't decide which is the better of the worst, I have to have a c-section and it has to be at one of these 2 hospitals.

Any recent experiences are much appreciated as to the care the baby recieves at either hospital. Thank you!

Obviously everyone's experiences are always going to be different, but I can not say a bad word about anyone/anything at Mitcham (in my experience in April this year).

You can see what I had to say about it from my previous post!

[Dishwashing Diva]

I think this is a bit old now, but I had my DD at Knox in March this year and I found them to be great. The midwives were very helpful with establishing BF and would stay as long as you wanted them to. I never had to wait long once I pressed the buzzer for help. My delivery was pretty straight forward and I didn't have any drugs, but I only asked for them when I was in transition anyway. Bubs was with me for most of the time. The one night DH didn't stay was when DD decided to not sleep and scream the whole time, the night nurse came in and after trying to help me settle took her to the nursery so that I could get some rest. The only midewife I found to be bad was one that worked in Special Care nursery and she wasn't pleasant when I went down for DD to get weighed or to express etc, but I have heard that she has since left.
Overall I had a very pleasant experience at Knox.

HTH