yep Brigsy's Girl and Rory I agree, and now that more women are learning about the services of doulas/birth attendants I think the figure will continue to fall.

I had my first baby publicly (we had no cover) and decided to go private for the second only because I felt so unsupported in the public system back in 1994. I was sick of being herded around for tests with up to 10 other women at the same time, like cattle! "All the women for urine tests this way pleeeease!!!" However... if I had known about doulas back then I may not have gone private the second time... maybe... it certainly was lovely at Cabrini Private... but these days we have higher financial priorities and by our third i have to say we had the confidence to go home the following day after birth which i found a bit daunting with our first (sent home within 24 hours of birth).