As I just went through this and relied initially on taxis until I was completely beyond broke, and then solely on public transport (which still required long bouts of walking on my part) and the extreme kindness of friends with cars, I couldn't read this and not post although I'm not sure I'll be of much help.
My hospital Social Worker had access to free full-day MetCards so I could ride public transport all day long for free. Also, I'm not sure about your hospital, but at mine the cost of parking was absolutely ridiculous and I was given basically a letter each week to allow me to purchase a parking pass for $35/wk which was a huge discount since parking there for a full day costs that alone. Although I obviously didn't use the pass myself, I passed it on to Seth's father and his family and they shared it amongst themselves.
Money is seriously one of the biggest worries when you find yourself in this situation. At first I was so exhausted both physically and mentally that I relied on meals purchased from the food court and easy transportation home until my money ran out. Rather quickly I may add. I did however have access to a Parent's Lounge on the SCN ward so once the fatigue subsided for a bit, I started to bring food from home that I had prepared the night before.
So my advice is to A. Not overly stress about what you're going to do in an 'IF' situation. Yes it's great to be prepared, but I find sometimes over-preparation can make you more anxious than anything else considering we really don't have much of a choice regarding timing when our babies decide to do a runner from our bellies.
B. If your hospital is equipped and advanced enough to properly care for Prem babies, then chances are there will be both a Social Worker and a Care Manager who are assigned to each Prem family. They'll have the information regardiing every single support and offer of assisance available, both from the hospital itself and from Centrelink and other Commonwealth agencies.
Don't fret darling - there are heaps of people thrust into this situation each day and no one will allow you to go any length of time without seeing your baby who needs you more than anything.
HTH in some small way -
S xo
OT but interesting: I had Low PAPPPA as well although this wasn't listed as a contributing factor to Seth's prematurity.
Last edited by BloominRoses; October 18th, 2009 at 05:33 PM.
thanks for that info for some reason reading you post pulled at my emotions i think cause you know how it will be if thats me. I know when my mother was in icu and i was there traveling 1.5 hours each way on public transport i spent my all and everything, let alone energy and walking and in this case i wont be up for walking previous to birth and not much immediately after. I was an absolute mess and then some, in the end she was in hospital for many months during my 8 week stay interstate i was utterly drianed living on black and gold 2 minute noodles 1 packet a day and think that the experience of making life decisions for my mother will be the same as for my child if it comes to it.
I know that i will beat myself up if i have not in prep dont everything i could have done to prepare for this possible event. Murphys law?! I am one of these ppl whom need to have some type of control over the area's i can control other wize i go mad. Rather be prepared than not. I have emailed the hospital and asked about travel allowance stuff as i will do 45km's there and back and i think the hospital travel system is for 50km's.
I completely understand why you want to be as prepared as possible - especially after going through that painful ordeal with your mum. The fact that you may have to go through the same thing for the second time, and in this instance it'll be because of your child, breaks my heart a little for you but I know you will get through it once again.
I've been there with the no food, no money, no nothing all because of having to pay for things that we just shouldn't have to worry about when our baby is born under those circumstances. But I made it through - and you know exactly how . If anything, because you are an Aus citizen you will have so many more support services accessible to you that just weren't an option for me at all and I hope that provides just a little reassurance to you.
I promise you: the people at your hospital will do all they can to get you there every day. So much research has been done about how important Mummy contact is with prem babies, even when we can't physically touch them yet, and as your hospital is set up to deal with Coffee Bean's care, they will definitely be on top of how integral your presence is. Royal Women's here even has accommodation available for families who live a long distance away so I have to believe the medical profession in this field supports all of the research undertaken. In fact, I heard fellow mums get kindly told off for not getting in there every day so if you are wanting to go, and the only thing preventing you is a lack of funds for transport, they will bend over backwards to get you there. And if for some reason they don't, so many other community support services will.
When you're stressed about preparing and planning, etc... and want a bit of reassurance, just picture me being wheeled into Emergency wearing no pants or underwear, definitely no hospital bag and all alone, thinking I was constipated. Ninety minutes later Seth was here and 5 weeks and 6 days later he was at home. Yes the process sucked at times, really badly, but if we end up sharing similar experiences you will one day wake up and realise that although we can't control much of anything despite how much we try to, sometimes it's those things that surprise us out of the blue that matter the most.
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. If anything, because you are an Aus citizen you will have so many more support services accessible to you that just weren't an option for me at all and I hope that provides just a little reassurance to you. 
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