Public or Private Ob/Preg Care ADELAIDE

[skylasmum]

Hi Everyone,

I've done some searching on previous forum posts but can't find any info relating to my question. If you live in Adelaide/SA and have an experience to share, I would love to hear about it...

DH and I are planning for our 2nd little angel and this time we are considering 'going public' or 'shared care' with my trusted GP. We went private for everything with our first, (which I was happy with), but it did cost about $3000 ouch!

The reason for going private the first time was primarily for me as I have type 1 diabetes and wanted a high level of care. I needed frequent ultrasounds (as is a matter of course for pregnancy with D) and in the end DD was born by caesar at 33wks and stayed in special care nursery for 6 wks.

Now that we're a single income family, we are a little more frugal and in planning for the next baby, wonder if I and bub would be okay in the public system? We still have our 2nd to top private health insurance as I use it for other services...so it is an option I could elect to go private in a public hosp.

I'm going to discuss it with my GP and Endocrinoloigist (diabetes specialist) to see what they suggest, but if you have a recommendation for a particular Ob, hospital or antenatal service in the public system - I would love to hear about it. We live to the north of Adelaide.

As an additional note, my diabetes is well controlled and I had a 'textbook' 1st pregnancy. My DD's prematurity was unexpected.

Thanks for your help. Have a great day.

[the_queen]

Hi Skyla'smum!

I live round the Salisbury area.
I am under the care of the Northern Women's Community Midwifery Programme, and will give birth at the Lyell McEwen Hospital in Elizabeth. With the midwifery care I'm receiving, I could choose to have the baby at home (but DH is not too keen on that idea.... ). I see a midwife for my appointments, actually there are 2 MW's assigned to me, one primary and one back-up, and I will meet and have appointments with both of them throughout my pregnancy. In the last few weeks of the pregnancy, they can come to my house to do the checkups there. I can page my midwife at any time 24 hrs a day if I have any probs eg bleeding, early labour, etc. When I do go into labour I will page her and she'll either come to my house or meet me at the hospital and will be there for me while I'm birthing. I have my ultrasounds/blood tests etc at the hospital, and so far I haven't paid a cent (and probably won't, either).
The Lyell McEwen hospital has just recently been upgraded, their maternity section is very high-class and when the hospital was accredited recently, it was awarded the highest possible accreditation... thingy.... (LOL damn, I was sounding all smart and everything for a minute!!!)

Anyhoo, in my experience so far, Northern Women's are fantastic. With my first daughter, I saw MW's and OB's at the Lyell McEwen hospital, and sometimes I was waiting in that damn waiting area for 2 hours......

Not sure if I'm allowed to post the phone number for NWCMP? Mods please feel free to delete if necessary:

Northern Women's Community Midwifery Programme
28 Philip Highway
Elizabeth 5112
08 8252 3711

Good luck with your pregnancy!!
:)

[uptheduff]

I had Angus as a public patient at WCH last June, and i intend to do the same with this child (due in September). When i did the hospital tour, another woman was asking about the differences between public and private patients, and from what i could tell, the only difference is that you can choose your ob. Obviously this may be different with other hospitals, but at the WCH private patients do not get priority over public in regards to having a single room, having the best birthing suite, or shorter waiting times for appointments!

I'll be going through the midwifery group practice (hopefully) with this baby...last time i did shared care with my gp, and i think i only saw an ob about 3 times in the whole pregnancy! So it certainly wouldn't be worth $3000 for that in my opinion!

[brooke]

I just had my baby at the WCH and went thru the Midwifery Group Practice and I could not fault it! The care during my pregnancy was amazing, my midwife Jan Pryder who I saw all the way thru my pregnancy was great! And she comes once a week to visit me and my little princess now for 6wks! It like having private care,, If you are in the MGP then you get first preferance over the birthing centre! :)
they were all so fantastic during my pregnancy and even offered me a hypnotist for my fear of needles... :o
Didnt cost a cent which is the best part! If I ever had another baby (which I wont) then I would go thru that again!

[Manxie]

Skylas Mum

Its a toughie! I was always pro public (work at public hospital) but my experience with DD's birth makes me have a few reservations. However, I went through the birthing centre which I presume you would not be eligible for? I also had a student midwife look after me which I wouldnt do again.

The reasons why with hindsight I think it would have been good to go private are that you have an obstitrican (Sp!) that you can see for any post delivery complications. I ended up messing around with my gp not knowing what to do and when I finally got a referral it took two weeks to get in and see someone. The same goes for the paediatrician, we have had to fight for a referral (which we eventually got) but I assume that if you are private you can see someone quickly.

I still havent completely made my mind up - think there are pros and cons for both. If I went private I would want it to be attached to a public hospital so that if you or bubs need intensive care you are close by.

Good luck with your decision.

[moonblossom]

Where generally do you live?

[deanbean]

Hi
I am 33 wks pregnant and have decided (obviously some time ago) to be a private patient. There were a number of factors involved:
- my preference if i went to the WCH would be the midwifery grp practice, however after talking to the coordinator she said that they get twice as many applicants as they can take! Seeing as I was (already!!) 8 wks pregnant at the time (how early do people make these decisions!!:eek: ) and I would have had to wait 2.5 wks just to get my initial appt, I didn't think my chances of getting into the grp practice were going to be very good.
- i did make the appt - just to keep my options open - and the last thing the booking lady said to me was that I would need to allocate half a day for each appt as they were very busy!!!
Now being a first time potential mother and running my own business, this was going to be a pretty big ask - so i weighed up the cost of taking half a day off work every time i needed an appt to paying a private obstertrician. With the medicare system paying for quite a bit of the ob's costs (I got back 1450 from a 2000 bill) and my health fund paying for most of the delivery costs (i think i pay about 500) I decided to go private.

I also considered the fact that I could choose to go private wheras many people don't have that option - so i guess i thought that hopefully the place at WCH i could have taken, was used by someone who had no private health insurance.

to cut a really long story short (or shorter:o ) i have heard that the Lyell's midwifery program is pretty good. Not overly convenient location for someone who lives in the Hills mind you! but the whole concept of actually being able to birth at home if one wanted sounds great to me!!

good luck with what you decide - if you haven't already decided - and let me know if you would like the ob's name who i am using. he is pretty laid back so far.

cheers:)

[skylasmum]

Thanks guys! All your suggestions have been extremely helpful :) Since my original post, I have been doing lots of thinking and talking to other mums 'at large'. The consensus is...whadda ya know! Some have had great experiences with public and some with private! In the end I know it's up to me (and DH!) to decide what will be best for us.

The NWCMP sounds fantastic, and actually it is only just around the corner from me as I live in Paralowie (just west of Salisbury). I look at the huge sign they have out the front everytime I drive past and think mmmmm. The LM Hospital seems very good too.

I'm definitely swaying toward private though. My rationale is 'why place pressure on the public health system when I PAY for private care', having just ONE OB, set appointments and continuity of care (who on earth has 2hrs or half a day to wait for an appoinment??), student OB's or MW's would really scare me and lastly whatever way I slice it, my diabetes makes my pregnancy 'high risk'.

I've got an appointment coming up soon with my diabetes specialist so will be all ears to his advice.

I am SO EXCITED about becoming pregnant again!! Thanks again everyone for taking the time to write. Have a great day in mummy-land

[mummy2]

Deanbean - I'd be interested to know who your Ob is. I am trying to decide if I should go back to the Ob I saw the first time around... she was very clinical about things, matter of fact and not really into doing anything differently (ie. give birth on your back only), however - having said that I had a dream pregnancy and no complications with the birth either. So, do I go with what worked the first time around OR go to someone else who might be a bit more relaxed about things?? I live South of the city - so Flinders Private is probably the way to go.