i have been private on all 3 births.

first birth i needed to be induced (waters broken no contractions etc etc) and was a bit of a hard one nearly 3hrs pushing ending in a forceps delivery - i was lucky it was during the day on a friday and obs office was next door to hospital - he came in quite regularly to check on my progress and was there from 4pm until i gave birth at 5.08pm.

2nd birth - alot easier on a saturday morning - midwives called ob at 11am (he was at his sons's sports carnival but still on call) it looked like he was going to miss it - the midwives rang him at 11.30am and asked where he was and he said he was stuck in traffic and told me to keep my legs crossed - he arrived around 15mins before the birth.

3rd birth - different ob (as original ob as stopped obstetrics) lani was in a huge hurry to arrive but ob got there before dh lol - ob arrived 1/2 hr before birth and was my support partner lol as midwife was setting everything up and dh had still not arrived (busy arranging mum to babysit lol) so for 15mins before dh arrived ob was encouraging me and giving me water etc - great guy.

so i have been really lucky and felt that i have got my money's worth lol i must say i felt a bit sorry for my ob at my 2nd birth as he missed out on his son racing but i was glad he was there for me.