Post birth hotel stays

[LivysMum]

Hi there,
I'm a new member and this is my first post. I'm a mum to a vivacious 19-month-old girl and I work part-time.
Our little girl (or DD, as I should say in forum language) has brought us so much joy and soon we are hoping to double the joy with another bub.
My husband and I had a very positive experience and straight-forward birth at the Mercy (public hospital) in Melbourne, but I am not thrilled at the prospect of doing it again.
I didn't like sharing a room, my husband hated leaving us on our first night as a family and soon after I got home I was unprepared for the influx of visitors (unannounced visitors, especially!).
We can't afford private health insurance and even with it, we would not be guaranteed a private room. I know beggars can't be choosers, but surely there has to be a better way?
Cutting to the chase, my husband and I have discussed hiring a hotel room and private midwife for our second birth. Even though this will be expensive, it will still be cheaper than the private health option. I think it will give us a chance to recuperate and have some solitary bonding time before the hoardes of family and friends arrive.
Has anyone heard of this before? Do you think it's a good idea? I'm really curious to get opinions here.
Thanks so much.:)

[garfield13]

You could guarantee a private room if you choose a private hospital that only has private rooms, this is what we went with.
I can see where your coming from as one of the main reasons we went private was for the longer stay.
Im pretty sure hiring a private midwife will cost a bit, so would it be possible just to get private health just for your pg and then cancel it once bubs is here. Im looking around for cheaper at the moment, have found so far $123 per mth to include pg with $250 excess and then if you find a cheaper ob you may not be out of pocket too much. I would weigh up the costs of each option.
With the new changes to medicare next year our ob will probably cost around $3k now which will be a bit of a stretch but our experience last time could not have been more wonderful so we will going to the same hospy etc.
As far as visitors go we just put it out there well before bubs was due about no visitors in the first week or so once we were home as we just wanted to find our feet first, apart from mil coming over as soon as we were home fromt he hospy for hours, everyone else was fine with this. Thats another positive with private hospitals, your in there for enough time to geet all the visitors out the way too
good luck with your decision

[Roopee]

Livy's Mum- I think that it is a fantastic idea. Imagine the room service, one on one care, oh it just sounds like bliss.

If I were ever lucky enough to be blessed with number 5 its the option I would take- for certain!

[missie_mack]

Hmm I am sure I read about 18 months ago how some of the hospitals in Sydney were so over flowing they were booking some Mums into hotels to do this very thing :yes:

I have often joked with a few hubbers IRL that I might do this :p especially considering the hospital charged my healthfund nearly $1000 a day for a room where the toilet didn't even work and I had to waddle down to the visitors toilet despite having had a CS :rolleyes:

[Mama2Mia]

We stayed at the hyatt regency for days 3 and 4 when we had DD2 - we chose to take up this offer as we also wanted to control visitors - we have private hospital cover and did this through a private hospital so not cheap although our hotel stay was fully covered for.

We had a huge private room at the hosptial but even this was difficult to control who comes in and out. We found the hotel great as people had to call to find out what room you were in so you could at that point tell them whether you were up for visitors or not. OUr hospital allowed dad's to stay (first night free then $30/night) but not quite the same as a hotel bed! Plus we had DD1 who wasn't allowed to stay at hospital but could have at the hotel.

You'd only need a private midwife for a couple of days to help you settle in so cant imagine it being overly expensive....plus hotel room costs which is only a couple of hunderd bucks or so (depending on your tastes!).

but you could save all that and do the same bonding at home - you'll just need to put up a sign on the front door to let people know you're not up for visitors.

i get what you mean though.....as soon as news gets out that you've had bubs the phone calls and txt messages start rolling in asking when they can visit....i always send a txt to congratulate bubs arrival and tell them i'll give them a buzz in about 4 weeks time to arrange a time to visit.....because i know how it feels!

[stepmum1]

If you fall pregnant after September 2009 a Private/Independaent midwife may not be an option. The Govt. are planning on making independent midwives illegal.

That said why wouldn't you just plan a homebirth rather then hotel stay? You can always tell visitors that you didn't birth until later or you are lotus birthing : )

[LivysMum]

Thanks for all your considered responses. I think a hotel stay is the way to go. I think I might need to get tougher with visitors too - I accepted so many when Livy was born, it was ridiculous. But I kept thinking that I just needed to get them all out of the way. It's very hard to knock back people once they have arrived, even if they haven't given you notice. I felt rude at the prospect of doing this, but I won't next time around.
I think I might take your advice Garfield13 and tell everyone that there will be no visitors at home for the first week.
Thanks again for your help.