Well, the others have addressed your other questions nicely, so I'll stick to the last one. In order of preference, I would say Mercy first, RWH and the Northern very much last (in fact I wouldn't even consider this one). Private won't be an option for you now, they will all be booked out at this stage. But it sounds as though you've decided on public anyway .
Both Mercy and RWH are pretty new hospitals, but the Mercy is bigger. RWH definitely has space issues, and is likely to boot you out to a satellite hospital, like the Northern. Mind you, last I heard, there wasn't alot of choice to be had. You are assigned to a hospital by your postcode, and can't get around that. It used not to be the case, but seems to have changed recently. Your GP should be able to help you, but if not just ring the hospitals and find out for yourself. Good luck
as janie said, the other girls have covered your questions pretty well so i just wanted to add that i went public & it was my first.i didn't bother with shared care & just went to the hospital & this worked well for me. also, i have to say that until i had an appointment with the hospital at around 16 weeks, i felt completely in the dark with regards to what was going on, even with a good GP! i relied on BB & books/the internet for info!! even after my appts, i still made the forum my first point of call because i found my appts were over in 5 minutes (although be prepared for a long wait till you get your 5 minutes )
Congratulations on your pregnancy! It can be a very confusing time. Everyone seems to have answered your questions well, but I thought I would just agree with Janie about which hospital. It all depends on where you live and by the sounds of it you are in my area. But it does go by your postcode and if you fall in to only the Northern catchment area you are stuck with it! So if you can get yourself in at the Mercy make this your choice!!
And also, BB is one of the best resources around! Here you get personal experience from so many others - something you can't get from your doctors or books. It allows you to explore all the options that are available at every step and make the choice that is right for you. And this is the most important thing! You have to be comfortable with the decisions you make!
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