isnt this what happens in private hospitals everyday?
midwives do teh work, the ob blows in delivers the baby, cuts the cord and collects a few thousand dollars for the privledge? thats if they even make it, in that case the still collect their thousands!
That isn't really fair. I'm a bit concerned about the number of people who appear genuinely afraid of doctors in this thread. They aren't the boogey man. As a daughter of a surgeon I can assure you that the vast majority of surgeons are very serious about patient care. They can have their arses sued off at the drop of a scalpel, for one thing, but they are generally quite principled people. Obstetricians have a bad time fighting off the stigma that they are too eager to perform unnecessary c-sections or get out their forceps. This isn't the case. Surgery is risky. Patients die on operating tables in the most simple operations. Doctors don't like killing patients.

In my antenatal class I asked an innocent question "At what stage during labour does the obstetrician enter the picture?" The midwife running the class became immediately defensive and started barking that midwives are perfectly capable, as if I had mortally wounded her. God forbid I ask a midwife any question she doesn't like ... she'll tear my head off! Luckily I've also met nice midwives who are reasonable and intelligent and don't get skittish at the mere mention of an obstetrician.

Um - why isn't there an option to have both an OB and midwives working together for patient care? Why does it need to be a turf war?
This does work in the private system. I have an Ob I meet with regularly and he's lovely. He works closely with a midwife who takes his patients when he is unavailable (like on holidays or at a conference). She is great, too. They seem to have a good working relationship with each other.

kuraiza, you sound just like my DH - true libertarian.
It's all very clear to us libertarians how crap the system is. It won't be long before I'm a full-blown anarchist. The more I hear about people "expecting" free health care and saying things like "I would never pay to look after my body and the life of my unborn child, although I'm perfectly happy to spend $120 every 6 weeks on a hair cut and dye ..." Bleh!

A question for everyone: What is a low-risk pregnancy?

My sister had a low-risk pregnancy, but around her due date she went for a routine visit with her Ob and they discovered the umbilical cord was wrapped 3 times around the baby's neck and was stretched over his face cutting off his blood supply, so she was suddenly booked in for an emergency c-section. Without that meeting with her Ob, her baby would have died. So there you go, no such thing ... all pregnancies are risky. We should all be able to choose for ourselves what risks we're prepared to take, but again I stress the importance of not expecting others to pay for the risks we take.