Would you give birth in a midwifery led unit?

I had an awfull experience with my first two with midwives, I had no continuance of care and both were hard labours and I was even told I had hours to go however bub decided to make her entrance while no one was around but my sister thank goodness, then I heamoraged also, then asked to leave 12 hrs later!!!!?????. After such a bad time we decided to pay for an obstetrician with our third.......WOW it was amazing, and after tearing the first two times I assumed it was a given but I felt so relaxed, in control and confidenet and told when to push and when not I did NOT tear!!!! Excellent birth, if I could have another birth experience like that I'd have more.

As I may be pregnant (via IVF...fingers crossed:pray:) and it may be twins (not so sure about this one!:redface:), and given that I'm older (will be 42 at birth assuming I am preg), I definitely want an OB.

Older doesn't mean you need an Ob! If you can get pregnant, you can give birth too :)

Also you have to understand in midwifery led care its completely different to hospital midwives who work in shiftwork. I think because so many women don't understand midwifery led care because so little get to have it (i.e. small team of midwives and knowing one of the few who will be with you, seeing them at each visit). Nothing like hospital midwifery.

The government doesn't actually "have" any money. There seems to be some confusion about this in general. It all comes out of each other's back pockets, and once it has trickled through the red tape and excessive madness of bureau-crazy, it ends up costing a lot more than it should. We never know the true cost of government funded medicine, but I'm going to hunt it down one day and shock everyone. How much are you really paying?

Why do midwives have to be a government funded option? I might be all over a private midwife in a home-birth situation (I voted undecided on this poll for this reason), but as a choice I would never, ever expect anyone else to pay for it.

Public hospitalisation is there for emergencies. A home birth option doesn't fall under the emergency umbrella no matter how you view it. It just doesn't.

Yes, I know how well received a libertarian's opinions are when it comes to health care ... but :p

I had planned to give birth in the FBC but various things led to this not being possible, and while the care I received under an OB was excellent, I would still prefer the midwivery model of care next time around. Unfortunately I'm under the impression that FBCs do not take VBACs in Vic, so I will be back with an OB when I'm ready for #2!

None of the options on this poll are for me... home birth all the way, baby!

Id never pay to have an OB.....but with all 3 girls...i have seen the hospital...and 9/10 times i see an on duty OB and only see midwife twice in a whole pregnancy.

In labour i had midwives but always had the on duty OB deliver my first 2DD's

I feel safer with the OB's on duty....then i do with the midwives (even if they do all the work until the end..LOL).

Midwives wont see me the entire pregnancy cos to them...im a high risk....

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The government doesn't actually "have" any money. There seems to be some confusion about this in general. It all comes out of each other's back pockets, and once it has trickled through the red tape and excessive madness of bureau-crazy, it ends up costing a lot more than it should. We never know the true cost of government funded medicine, but I'm going to hunt it down one day and shock everyone. How much are you really paying?

Why do midwives have to be a government funded option? I might be all over a private midwife in a home-birth situation (I voted undecided on this poll for this reason), but as a choice I would never, ever expect anyone else to pay for it.

Public hospitalisation is there for emergencies. A home birth option doesn't fall under the emergency umbrella no matter how you view it. It just doesn't.

Yes, I know how well received a libertarian's opinions are when it comes to health care ... but :p

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i guess that depends on how you look at it - we all pay a medicare levy, which is there to fund public health care - so isn't this something that should be funded? public hospitalisation isn't there JUST for emergencies, it's for treatment of any condition deemed to require treatment - birth included. wouldn't it ultimately reduce the expenses on the public coffers? if the volume of "on call" ob's in the public system were ultimately reduced because they were only called upon when genuinely needed?

i'm not going to claim to know what cost there is to getting something like this happening, but the cost wasn't the question - it was whether we'd use it. i answered yes - as, in my mind, i've had every part of this journey "medicalised" and don't want to go down that path with giving birth - but i'd also like the back up of the birthing centre being near a hospital if an emergency arose.

i think there will always be a huge divide in the community whilst so many people continue to see birth as a medical procedure, not a natural progression of pregnancy (which can go wrong admittedly, but not as often as we're led to believe). i don't think that encouraging midwife led care, and using some of the tax dollars that we're handing over to pay for it is necessarily a bad thing!

Given my own personal circumstances (previous premmie and severe pre-eclampsia, plus two prior emergency c/s) I don't think a midwife-led unit would have me, even if I wanted to go there!

Kuraiza - if hospital births are for emergencies, we sure are in a hell of a pickle if most of our births are happening in that environment! No, the call for REAL choice by funding MW care and homebirths comes about because a lot of women go the 'free' option of the hospital to get a hospital birth, but to get a birth with no complications that costs even less than an medicalised birth, you have to pay through the nose. This is not 'choice'. It's a bitter pill to swallow to birth peacefully but expensively, when women who are happy to surrender themselves to medicos (or not happy to, whichever applies) pay nothing! Therefore, government-funded MW care births are a compromise in this situation. I took this compromise the first time with DS.
I loved my care at the Angliss and the continuity of care was excellent. I loved that I was able to have my waterbirth. I hated having to move from labouring at home, to transitioning upon arrival at the FBC. But at least I knew I was going to a 'safe' place, where they knew me and what I wanted for my birth experience :)
I reckon that dropping the Baby Bonus amount back to what it was last year and paying for normal births at home with MW's would be a forward step. I mean, you have a medicalised birth and you keep the whole BB afterwards, like a double-dip. You have a normal birth at home and lose all the BB in paying for MW's, none left for baby once it's here. Makes no sense.
Nelle: look up Midwives Naturally and you'll hopefully see who I mean. Not wanting to post her name here, just in case she wouldn't want it plastered over the net out of the midwife team context :) Obviously, she doesn't work alone!

Homebirth is a form of midwifery led care! Midwife is the primary carer :)

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Is there a way to combine MW/OB care in a hospital setting? I don't believe there is. :(

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Yes there is. The hospital where I birthed my four children was only a very small district hospital, having about 120-150 births a year. You are seen by your GP, who is also trained in obstetrics and then when the time comes, you get your choice of Dr attending - just like in a private setting only its in the public system. They are looking at changing the mode of care at that hospital so that it is mainly the midwives that do all the pre-natal care for 1 to ease the workload on already overworked rural GP's, who you would only see to have referrals for testing/scans etc and 2 because in a normal and uncomplicated pg and birth there is really no need for more specialised medical care. But this hospital is really what those in the city would call a birthing centre anyway.

I was able to get into the Canberra Midwifery Unit this time and am STOCKED!!!!
The OB walked in and stitched me up and walked out again when I was at the hospital with DS.
My Doula and Midwife did everything.

I meant the midwife team context of Midwives Naturally, Kel :) My point was that she might prefer to be identified with her team, not sure how she feels about her name being posted as a stand alone MW (being that it's not how they operate!).

Here is the irony. When pg the first time, I only considered using a private ob because I was worried about complications and wanted the "best care". The only complications I had were AS A RESULT of the interventions I had because I had a private ob and the "best care". Second time I did go the ob route again, but with loads more information and I did avoid the interventions and problems of the first birth. I doubt I'll have any more, but if I did I would LOVE the option of mw led care. For me, the biggest risk during labour is the interventions you can end up with in hossy!!

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Why do midwives have to be a government funded option?

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Kuraiza, why shouldn't they be? It would cost the government a lot less money to fund mws for homebirths and have fewer ob patients in hospitals. Not to mention what it would do for hospital waiting lists, and ob beds could be reduced and replaced with surgical beds.

Of course I would rather have a midwive deliver my baby and be there for me, the hospital system can be so cold and unwelcome

My second child was born in RBWH through the Peguses program it is not a Birth center which I find out this week if have gotten in to that for my third child. The Peguses Group is All midwives.. I saw a Doctor once, then a group of ten midwives.. So when the time came for me to give birth, I went to the labor rooms and was not introduced to a stranger but one of those ten midwives I had seen in outpatients.. I felt it was a very good medium between the birth center and a doctor present. The only time a Doctor is called is if there is a real emergency the same as if you were in the Birth Center.. You do have to get into these groups early but at least you have more of a chance of having your baby your way...

Oh I forgot that for the main part one of those ten midwives also looks after you on the ward.. They do rotations between the out patients, Labor Ward and Maternity Ward... One day I had the Woman that Birthed my Daughter look after me in the ward.. We had a good time chatting about how quick she came

Thats great, i really cant beleive that it could only be 10% of women wanting this

Something tells me the methodology for this 'study' is a little less than stringent!

For sure! When this bub is born and for future bubs i'll have it no other way.

I had my first child, a daughter, at my local public hospital (a large hospital) about 6 weeks ago, went through the antenatal clinic and had midwife care. I thought they did a great job and answered all my questions. Now I go to my local clinic for bub's checkups and the midwives there are very knowledgeable and supportive.

I would do the same thing again for the next baby (a bit further down the track):D Midwives have extensive training and know as much as the obstetricians do. Only time a doctor was involved was during the delivery (I had an epidural with forceps delivery).

thumbs up for midwives!

When I started looking into birth centers and midwife care I was disappointed that I couldn't find anything I liked in my area. My best friend was booked into the RPA birth center in Sydney which we toured and it looked fantastic. When she actually went into labour it was unfortunately full, but when they took us over to the RPA labour ward I was amazed to find that the room and the facilities were almost identical to the birth center (only difference we could see was the bed). I was really hoping to find something as homely and welcoming in my area, but nothing I've seen even compares (please correct me if I'm wrong because I sincerely hope I am!).

My best friend and I also share a similar view of how we wanted to experience birth. We wanted the "expert" care of an obstetrician, with the hope that we would never have to use that care. In other words, we wanted something that resembled a homebirth, but with all the "safety nets" if you know what I mean.

When I am finally lucky enough to fall pregnant, I will definitely be looking into having a doula/midwife for the birth, and I think it is definitely something that sound be covered by health funds etc...

It's a good point that a midwife led unit would (should) be cheaper and cost tax payers less. Unfortunately, in reality the government would impose so many restrictions and regulations that it would end up being an expense nightmare.

But it shouldn't be. The government is just rubbish and makes everything 10 times more complicated. Here's a local case of government-gone-stupid:

On the Gold Coast the government just stripped every hospital of their ability to provide labour or birthing spas until they write up all their procedures and methodologies which is both time consuming and costly for hospitals. The public-funded birth centre managed to get their procedures written so they got their plugs back (the government took away the spa plugs). I was planning on using the labour spas at my private hospital for pain relief but it's not an option any more.

I agree that midwife options and homebirth options should be easily available in Australia without restrictions, but the reality is they cost so much because of the government regulations. So I'm not advocating doing away with midwives or homebirths, I advocate doing away with government and that should solve everything. :) I would like my private health fund to cover homebirths.

Oooh I just had a thought. I was a technical writer for government back in the day (ahhh now it all falls into place). I should offer my services to the private hospitals to write up their spa procedures for them. Don't think I could do it in under 7 weeks, though. Not enough time for me to get back my spa privileges. :(

As a New Zealander (:redface:) 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 (:doh:) 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.

I would love to have midwife led care, even though I usually have GD during my pg's, I think that I could still enjoy forming a relationship with both a midwife and an OB and other allied health services to look after me and bub. I think midwives are better capable to look holistically after the family and could spend more time with us, rather than being processed like what tends to happen with OB's or public health.

I like the idea of having delivery with midwives being in charge, but with the back up there if needed. Not sure how practical that is, but Ashford (where, once we are pregnant, we are planning to go) seem very good at giving parents to be as much choice as possible. Let's hope so!

At the end of the day though, I want whatever will get bubs born with both me and bubs being safe as possible.

During my 1st pregnancy, I saw a private OB(through a private practice)...2nd time around I did see an OB a few times during the pregnancy (mainly because I was having a 2nd C-section). The majority of the appointments I saw a midwife, which I didn't really like. Don't get me wrong, they were highly trained and were wonderful, but I saw a different midwife just about each and everytime and so towards the end of the pregnancy I just felt like a number. Comparing the 2 experiences, for me, I much rathered the personalised and one on one care of my OB (unfortunately he had moved interstate, by the time my second baby was on the way). Also because I didn't have many appointments with an OB 2nd time round, I hadn't had the chance to get to know the doctor who was going to be delivery my baby.It was much more beneficial and comforting with the birth of my first child, knowing the doctor who would be delivering my bundle of joy.....

Mummy4Life, if you read through the thread, you will notice that this is talking about continuous care with the same mws, similar to having your own ob, rather than just getting who is on shift.

Again though, midwifery led care does not mean a hospital full of midwives. It means continuity of care from a midwife or a team of midwives who you meet at pre-natal checks.

I am currently seeing my GP who is a registered OB with the hospital im booked in at, I am bulk billed and dont have to pay for parking plus she is 10 minutes from home compared to if i went to the hospital to see the midwives where i would have to travel 1/2 hr and pay for parking. Only reason i chose OB over midwives was a convenience thing, if i didnt have to pay for parking or travel so far to the hosp then i would def go midwife care.

I would have this as my second option if i chicken out of a home birth

I would prefer to be part of the midwifery system If given the choice.... unfortunately I dont have that choice for my next pregnancy (too high risk)

Who did they poll??? I would prefer midwifery care hands down!

Wow, parking considerations over empirically safer birthing! Never heard that one before LOL! Each to their own :)

Midwives over Obs anyday!!

I had both my girls in a public hospital. I loved the care I received from the midwives and I barely saw an Ob. The only time I saw an Ob was at 20 wks and 36wks (I was not happy with either) and post labour. I had 2 fantatic midwives for both my labours and I trusted them completely.

I also had a midwife visit me at home everyday for 5 days post birth.

Now my SIL paid private and had the very best of everything. Her Ob was there for the birth but after going home she had no back up support. All she got was a huge bill.

I Know which option I prefer.

Like I said in my previous post, I had excellent care from the midwives at the hospital here. But to explain further just how much they do:
~ pre-natal - we see the midwives for our routine checks at the hospital. When I was pg with Emily, I was fortunate enough to see the same midwife.
~ labour/birth - like I said, I had the same midwife with me from the time I initially got there, until I was transferred to the maternity ward after having bub.
~ post-natal - A midwife/trained lactation consultant came out to visit me once I went home. This is offered to all patients for up to one month postnatal.

So in both my labours, I never even met an Ob. The midwives were able to deal with everything they were faced with. Yes, it was a straight forward birth both times, however the ob's on duty weren't too far away if there were complications.
I'm not sure what other hospitals/birth centres are like, but I would like to think they are all like this, and offer this great service from midwives.
There is also talk of building a birth centre next to the hospital here in Cairns.

I was lucky enough to have the best of both - I had an ob who believed that women are more than capable of birthing babies (as long as everything is going normally) and had total trust in the midwives at the private hospital I went through for both my beautiful girls. I mostly had midwife care for my first child and due to complications of diabetes my wonderful ob was very reasuring and followed a 'wait and see' approach to managing it rather than going in guns blazing with blood tests, extra scans etc. In the end he wasn't there, just my midwife, husband, dd1 and doula. It was awesome. My lovely ob then came in about 1hr later to put in some stitches and greet dd2. I can't believe how lucky I am to have had such an empowering experience with my ob and midwives. It seems that not many in here have had fantastic experiences with ob care which is sad.

My OB from my 1st pregnancy, wins it over a midwife (sorry).

Sounds like a load of bias bull**** to me. I'd love to know where that got their demograhic from for that so-called 10%.
I went private Ob for my first largely due complications during pregnancy (DVT), but in a 'normal' pregnancy like the one I am currently having I am choosing to see a private midwife and am planning a homebirth partly because the Gold Coast Birth Centre doesn't support VBAC. There is no way I want to go through another c-section. I certainly would not pay for a private Ob when, in my opinion it is the Midwives who have most of the birth experince. Obs simply arrive at the 'last minute' to 'deliver' and are useful in 'an emergent' situation only.

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Wow, parking considerations over empirically safer birthing! Never heard that one before LOL! Each to their own :)

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LOL. I'll second that amazement, Mayaness!:rolleyes::wall:

Kurazia, NSW Teachers and I think Unity Health both cover part of (about half with Teachers, which is what I'm with) homebirth. I don't know if it would be too late for you to change funds?