Advice on Hospitals

[JobyBear]

Hello,

My hubby & I are currently TTC#1 but would like to know if anyone's had any experience (or knows of anyones' experience) in either the Werribee or Geelong Hospitals?

I've heard some horror stories about Geelong Hospital but don't know anything about Werribee. :confused: We would be a Public patient.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[JanetF]

You need to find out the statistics for interventions at each hospital, find out if you can access some form of midwifery care rather than routine obstetric care and TAKE A DOULA!!!!!!! There are several great doulas in the Geelong area. Asking for experiences of hospitals isn't very useful because all hospitals whether public or private are full of 100s of different staff and you don't know who you'll get. You may get wonderful staff but you may not and then the shift will end and you'll get a whole new lot anyway. This is one reason of many why I birth at home so I handpick my medical people and always know exactly who will be with me! And they know me really really well having spent hours and hours getting to know me. If you think you really must go to hospital (and remember, you're not sick, you're pregnant :) ) then always choose public over private as their intervention rate is generally lower, and therefore you and your baby will be safer. All public hospitals are much of a muchness with obstetric interventions but if you take a doula, you have a much much higher likelihood of achieving a gentle, safe birth for you, and most importantly, for your precious baby :) Private hospitals have significantly poorer outcomes particularly in terms of perineal damage and injury to babies by unnecessary surgeries and inductions.

[my babyemmy]

I have a few friends & family that have given birth at the werribee mercy hospital, And its about 1/2 & 1/2 some had really good experiences there and some not so good!:o all the best

[mum24]

Hi JobyBear, I recently had a natural vbac @ Geelong Hosp as a public patient and have no complaints. All up, including labour, I was only in for just under 24 hours and every request was met with no dramas. Midwives were very supportive and also treated my dh2 well. When I was given a bed in the maternity ward after giving birth, I was treated very well by all the staff, was given all meals and snacks even though I hadn't ordered anything, all meals came with my name on them. When I explained I wanted to go home the same day, all staff who saw me were very supportive.

Good luck with everything:)

[My2LilRockStars]

Hi,

I had my son at Werribee Mercy. I thought the support was great, considering he was born premature and had to be raced off to RCH within 20 hrs of being born.
First, Werribee tried with their facilities to stabalise my son, but he needed a higher level of care so they arranged the NETS ambulance to transport him without delay. They also orgainsd for my partner and I to stay at accomadation at RCH. About a week later, Harley was ready to leave RCH, but still needed low level care, so we went back to Werribee. Harley stayed in the nursery for another few days and I was allowed to stay as a boarder (luckily there was a bed free). They helped me emotionally and physically through all of those first steps you usually learn straight away - feeding, bathing, etc. My experience was great overall, however I did feel I was looked down upon because I chose to bottle feed Harley.
Good luck!
Lisa