Pregnancy care/New to Australia

[Mummy2 Joel]

Hey there ladies
I am hoping you could give me abit of info.
I have just found out we are expecting Baby#2

We have only been in Australia for 3 months from New Zealand and I do not currently have any private health insurance, so my questions are:

What sort of care do you normally go for midwife or obstatrician?

If Obs - what sort of costs would I expect to pay?

My first birth was very traumatic for me and ended in a emergency C-section, so I am alittle weary to go with a midwife again as I would rather an obstatrician with a good rep-can you recommend anyone on the Gold Coast?

Where is the best place for me to go to find out all about the birth costs and care options etc, as I am fairly new here I am not sure what is the norm.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[HeidiLee]

Hey there ladies
I am hoping you could give me abit of info.
I have just found out we are expecting Baby#2

We have only been in Australia for 3 months from New Zealand and I do not currently have any private health insurance, so my questions are:

What sort of care do you normally go for midwife or obstatrician?

If Obs - what sort of costs would I expect to pay?

My first birth was very traumatic for me and ended in a emergency C-section, so I am alittle weary to go with a midwife again as I would rather an obstatrician with a good rep-can you recommend anyone on the Gold Coast?

Where is the best place for me to go to find out all about the birth costs and care options etc, as I am fairly new here I am not sure what is the norm.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I am sure there are lots of different answers to this

My OB is costing us approximately $5000 with about $3000 refunded from Medicare (do you have medicare?). He also charges a "delivery fee" of $1800 which is payed by our private health and would be payable by yourself if you didnt have it - so say $7000 for OB.

All our private hospital fees are covered by private health. Private hospitals are very expensive without private health.

Keep in mind a lot of obstetricians dont deliver in public hospitals (ie private ones you pay to see).

If you want an OB book early as the good ones book out fast (normally by the time your 6-8 weeks).

I cant comment on care you get from a midwife as I am seeing an OB but I can say our OB is wonderful and does a free scan everytime we see him. He is also on call 24/7 for any problems.

[AM]

Generally speaking midwife attended birth ends in less intervention, meaning you will be less likely to end up with surgery, if you are going to have to pay out of pocket anyway, maybe think about homebirth with an independant midwife, the care is great, and traumatic births are pretty rare with homebirth, and most women rate it among the best experiences of their lives me included

[Amara]

Whatever you choose most of your labour is going to be with a midwife anyway. A private OB often only turns up towards the end to do the actual delivery & you are not guaranteed to get your own OB no matter how much you've paid. Sometimes the OB is not available and their on call one will turn up instead. I know women who've had this happen.

The public system here is very good. You can either see the midwives at the hospital or you if you can find a GP who will do shared care you can see him/her throughout the pregnancy or get a private OB just for the appointments & take whoever is on duty at the hospital when you give birth.

If you go with the middys you wont pay anything at all. If you go with a GP you will pay whatever they charge for appointments. If you are lucky (like me) you might find an OB who will do just the appointments and charge only about $50 per appointment and not charge the pregnancy management fee.

I gave birth in a public hospital but paid for my own OB for the appointments. I did that as I wanted just one person seeing me each time I had appointments.

I had midwives throughout the labour and 2 OB's & a student OB checked on my progress throughout. In the end I needed a little intervention and one of the OB's came in delivered bubs whilst the student watched.

Most public hospitals have better facilities to deal with emergencies than private ones do so that to me was also important.