has anyone had...

[Lirael]

a caesarean in a public hospital but done by a private OB?
as in, you went to your chosen OB all thru preg, then instead of going to a private hospy to have bub you went public but paid for the c sect and OB fees etc???
without private health cover?

the OB I want only delivers at the private hospital and they recommend private cover as it gets expensive without it. thing is, if I do have private cover I will be paying around $160 a month and I have the 12 month wait. however Im not sure, if I have it for say, 4 months and get preg will I be covered for the birth if it falls outside the 12 month wait?

so I was thinking, maybe if I find a diff OB who delivers at the public, I can get away with no private cover and just pay for the birth and anaesthitist(sp?) etc and stay in hospy as public.

How much roughly would it cost?
would I be better off going private with private health cover?(i hear they are nicer rooms and food etc)
I definately want my own OB and I want to be able to have the birth the way I want it.

Im scared that I will fall pg and either not be outside the waiting time for private cover or have to go public where they turn around and say no to a c sect and make me have a VB. Im scared of no choices and no control.

sorry that was soo long and rambling:o

[babyella]

hi cel:wave:

first thing i would do is ring all the different health funds and check their policy on waiting times...i know it's normally 12months to be covered for pregnancy but you never know what you'll find

when i fell pregnant with Ella i had private health cover (i'd been with them for 3 years) it turned out i wasn't covered for pregnancy after speaking to a few different people on the phone i got a nice lady that waved the waiting time because i'd been with them so long....if your persistant you may find a loop hole!!

as for cost i think my c/s was around $7000 (the health fund paid most of this) i'm not sure if that was just for the c/s or the hosp. stay as well (had to stay in for 1week) i'll double check for you....

as for going public or private i think it depends where you are i went and checked out all the hospitals in my area before i made a decision....try to get some feedback from people that have stayed at the hosp. your thinking of going to

good luck:thumbsup:

jess

[Mrs Potts]

The short answer to your question is yes.

With my DS I saw my private Ob all during the pgcy. But gave birth in a public hospital, in the public system. I needed to be induced so my Ob made it for a day that he was the on call Ob so that if there were any problems he would be my Dr. Luckily for me, since I ended up needing an emergency c/s.

We did have private health cover at that time but we hadn't served the waiting periods for obstetrics so we weren't covered for the birth.

HTH

Edited to add: doing it this way we had no out of pocket expenses at all. It was totally covered by Medicare.

[theycallmemum]

You were very lucky. I had the same thing happen to me (turns out we weren't covered for obstetrics or CARDIO!) and my health fund point bland refused to allow me to back pay a higher level of cover and I had to go public. I was so cranky about it, we had been with them for about 2 years.

They've since ammended that level of cover and it now covers cardio (imaging having a heart attack and discovering they wouldn't cover you) but still not obstetrics.

[theycallmemum]

I did this with baby #2, it was fantastic.

[Lirael]

The short answer to your question is yes.

With my DS I saw my private Ob all during the pgcy. But gave birth in a public hospital, in the public system. I needed to be induced so my Ob made it for a day that he was the on call Ob so that if there were any problems he would be my Dr. Luckily for me, since I ended up needing an emergency c/s.

We did have private health cover at that time but we hadn't served the waiting periods for obstetrics so we weren't covered for the birth.

HTH

Edited to add: doing it this way we had no out of pocket expenses at all. It was totally covered by Medicare.

thats a good idea. so, if I were to find a private OB who delivers in public hospy I should be right?
I am definately having a csect no questions asked, but I am worried that the public hospital will do what it did last time and give me no choice and make me have a VB. I just cant do that again.:no: