a few months ago we moved to rural QLD, we have a public hospital that services a larger area.

DD and I required a visit to the emergency department not long after moving here and I already don't like it. The nurses were lovely but the whole process you have to go through before they even ask "why are you here/what's wrong" is frankly disgusting.

I've searched and searched and search for info about birthing at the hospital and was hoping to find some first hand accounts but so far no luck. I did however find a research paper (which is now a could of years old) where they interviewed 20 women from the area who had giving birth in the previous couple of years. The research was very limited and didn't at all indicate what kind of birth they had (spontaneous/induction/etc) but 30% opted to travel away from the area to birth (I assume this was Brisbane or Toowoomba as these are our closet major cities). It was also noted all those with a medical back ground choose not to birth at the local hospital which for me seems worrying.

Anyway as a public patient can you book in and birth in a hospital 6 hours away? What about as a private patient in and private hospital?

Anyone have any experience with traveling 6hours with a new born who is a week or so old?

I was really hoping to avoid a 3rd induction (when and if we have another) but can't really spend 1, 2, 3 months waiting in Brisbane a baby to be born.

This has all thrown a bit of a spanner in the works as I have no idea how or where I would be able to birth. I'm kinda getting ahead of myself but I don't want to get to the point in a pregnancy where its viable and THEN start stressing over it.

There are also no IM's out here. If we can get a pregnancy to stick I kind of thought the birthing part would be the easiest but it all seems rather complicated at the moment. The thought of birthing in a hospital which no one has said anything nice about terrifies me.