Bugger just wrote a post and lost it argh...

Hmm the horror stories are everywhere but so are the great ones. I've already told you about mine, and as you know I didn't get everything I wanted from it but i did get to birth naturally which was my biggest priority. I guess its when you have interventions that things start to get complicated. If I hadn't been induced in the first place I might not have had any of the medical interventions I did.

With your appointments. You should definitely be having an appointment every 4 weeks, I'm with the MGP too and I have appiontments every four weeks. Mine are at the hospital, and the next one is 28 weeks (you miss out the 24 week one if this is your second child) but yeah you shouldn't be being left that long in between appointments.

As for the equipment you will have for your labour: I birthed Orlando in the Mater Mothers 2 years ago and they had the following in the room: Bath, shower, bean bag, excercise ball, shower seat for when its too hard to stand or you just want to relax, chair for DH or support person, bed for you, lots and lots of towels, a really really handy night gown that unclips at the shoulders (I swore I wouldn't use it but after about 2 hours I put it on and wore it for the rest of the labour.
There are actaully tours you can do of the birthing suites hun if you want to get a good look at where you will be going. They are free and you and DH or friend can go and they will show you the birthing suite and take you up to the ward where you will be staying with bubba.

As for being sent home when you don't want to be. The hospital can suggest you go home but if you have a strong feeling that you should be there then you can insist on stayign or at least going for a walk around the hospital to see if things progress more. You can call the pregnancy assessment unit and talk to a midwife lots of times if you think things are happening and they will give you some great advice. You can also call me if you want, we'll be doign things around the same time and sometimes having someone who has done it before can really help to make you feel like you're not being padantic and crazy.

Sorry that was long lol