It's interesting reading seeing that many women seem to think that going to the RWH will somehow give them something better than what is available at their local hospital.

The stats on the deaths are hard to comment on as I think most hospitals that have maternity wards lose babies (and mothers) from time to time so this could be no worse than any other hospital.

I gave birth at Dandenong Hospital a couple of months ago and there was no noticeable shortage of staff during labour nor in the post natal ward or the special care area. If anything we got far more attention than I would ever have expected. My favourite midwife had just left the RWH and was far happier at Dandenong. She always had the time to sit on my bed and have a chat to me when things were not going as expected. I don't think that would happen at the RWH.

I think women need to put more trust back in to their local hospitals and the RWH should just concentrate on the riskier births and direct all low risk pregnancies to local hospitals - I think they are doing a lot of this anyway - maybe they need to do a bit more of it so they can cope with what they take on.