Birth Choices

[LizLemon]

It depends on your OB (mine is v expensive) but I am currently out of pocket just under $3K. By the time bub is born, and including private insurance excess I'm counting on about $3,500 - $4,000. That includes scans as well.

The biggest impact to the safety net is the cap on the management fee - I got back $475, against a charge of $3,000. But I hear of alot of OBs charging around $1500 so you could do it a lot cheaper. I just love my OB and wanted continuity between babies.

Hope that helps..

[FabFiona]

I received back around $450 for my OB management fee. Add on scans, paed and anything else you might need.

[Fuzzywuzzy]

I had DD in the birth centre at Rbwh, you need your gp to send your referral to the hospital and make sure that they clearly mark it "birth centre" then the hospital does a ballot at 16 weeks I think. Yes it is pretty much luck of the draw. I know that they've introduced a different midwife led program but i'm not sure if you need to be living in their catchment area to get in. You can always call the birth centre or hospital to find out.

Good luck JF!