As a New Zealander () I only ever really knew about midwifery lead care. I was really surprised that it wasn't the same here.
After all our troubles TTC I told my FS that I didn't want any more excessive interference when it came to the pregnancy & birth - so i was a bit anti seeing an Ob. Apparently the FS wrote this in his referral () and my Ob said "so, I hear you don't want me already, and we've only just met!".
But the Ob was loverly, loverly, loverly, and he just so happened to be at the hossie (doing an elective CS) when i was in labour so he peeked in and he was great and so happy to be part of our birth. If all OBs were like him there would be no problems. But the cost wasn't so high for us due to the safety net etc.
Next time...hmm, not sure what we'll do.