Public or Private - I'm torn!

i just wanted to remind you of something:

Just because you are a PRIVATE patient - does NOT guarantee you have a single room. Unless your hospital only has single rooms (well then... chances are high arent they lol).

Both public hospitals i attended (yes different ones for each child) were only single rooms - which i thought was great for a public.

I too had long waits in my clinics though.
but both boths did not cost me a CENT. nothing.

xx

I went private and loved it, will do the same again. But my Ob has been my specialist for 10 years, and I trust him and feel extremely comfortable with him. I think that's really important. Also I delivered at a private hospital that is within the women's hospital, so I felt comfortable that all the facilities one could possibly need were right there in the same building. Yeah, my Ob runs late sometimes, but you get that everywhere, and he never rushes you in an appointment. You get the feeling that he has all the time in the world for you, which I love.

Having my own room and my DH being able to stay the entire time was a massive bonus, but was not my main reason for going private. I just have control issues, and I hate the thought that if I went public, and I needed an Ob that I would just be lumped with whoever. I want to CHOOSE my specialist. But that's a personal issue of my own :lol:

I totally understand why many people prefer public, but it's not for me.

I went public, don't see any need for private personally. Still the chance you'll get *****y midwives either way hehe.

I didn't mind being in a room with three other girls - it was nice to be able to chat with them as it can get so boring even when you're dead tired. Swapped a lot of tips, had a laugh etc. Was great, looking forward to it again in December.

i went public for my son
I had the gold standard care with my DD with a private m/w, apponitments were about an hour long at my home i could ask any thing any time and not get pushed out the door. she was with me from the moment i called until a few hrs after birth.. then visited again that evening the next few days and weekly until 6 weeks!.

I went private with first pregnancy and was so glad because it ended in miscarriage. Instead of going to local GP or midwives or emergency, I was able to contact my ob on his beeper at any time and he scheduled a scan for me ASAP. When I found out I had m/c, he booked me in that night for a d&c as opposed to waiting in emergency department.

We went private for DD and loved it all - personal care and own room. I know you're not guranteed private rooms but you may stay one night in a shared room thenget moved anyway.

After having DD we did consider public because provate can be expensive andI knew friends who went that way and still had good care. However, after visiting a friend in a room with 4 beds i thought NO WAY! After giving birth you're so sensitve "down there" and need to go to the toilet a lot and I wanted privacy for that. I also wanted 4 nights not 2 so I could relax and enjoy getting to know our baby and what to do rather than being rushed out.

My friend who gave birth on a Friday morning slept that arvo, had visitors as well as midwives giving overload of information on the Saturday and then home Sunday morning. Her milk hadn't even come in yet. My 5 day stay meant more time to catch up on sleep, leanr feeding techniques and enjoy the help provided by midwives.

So that's why we chose provate again - maybe small selfish reasons but good enough for me! In saying that lots of public hospitals have excellent reputations too and it can sometimes simply depend on which midwife is on duty on how good they are.

I was the same as you and in the end decided to go private. At the time my key reasons were:
- I wanted the extra time in hospital with the midwives so that they could help me learn to breast feed when my milk came through
- I really didn't want to be in a shared room and if I had to be I wanted it to be for as little time as possible
- I wanted DH to be able to stay with us, I think the bonding he did with DS while we were in hospital has been the key factor in him being such a hands on Dad (particularly cos I had to have an emergency CS and he had to do everything for the first night, I can't imagine what it would have been like if he had to go home, I guess it would've been a midwife doing it)
- I wanted to see the same person for my check up appointments throughout my pregnancy.
- I would have a midwife with me the whole time I was in labour at the hospital (one on one ratio) and wouldn't be having to share them with whoever else was in labour.

I had a really good pregnancy with no real problems and I must admit towards the end I was thinking that next time when I had a better idea of what I was doing it wouldn't be worth paying the extra to go private. Well that was until everything I had planned for the birth went out the window, then I was so glad to have my OB who I knew and trusted.

Basically my waters started leaking. Because my OB knew how much I wanted to have a natural labour he gave me 96 hours for spontaneous labour to start (the midwife told me that in 99% of cases you will be induced that same day). I was on antibiotics and had to have monitoring each day to make sure everything was okay. But unfortunately DS never engaged and while I had a show right after my waters started leaking I never progressed to labour. So four days later I had to be induced. Not what I wanted, but I was happy because I felt that we had given it a good amount of time.

Unfortunately 11 hours after I was induced my labour still wasn't progressing very well. I had dilated to about 7cm, but the minute the syntocin was stopped my contractions stopped. A VE revealed that DS had turned and become posterior and that his head had lodged in my pelvis at the widest possible point. It was at this point my OB told me that he thought that it would be best to do an emergency CS. Because he had been through the pregnancy with me he knew how much I wanted a vaginal birth. At that time when I was at my most vulnerable I was so glad to have him advising me because I had a good relationship with him and trusted him completely. I think that if it was an OB who I had never met (as it would've been in a public hospital) I would not have had faith in them and wouldn't have been so trusting of their advice.

While an induction and a CS is the last thing I wanted I am totally at peace with the way that it worked out. It happened the way it happened because it was medically necessary and I'm thankful that my OB gave it every opportunity for us to have the natural labour that I wanted, even though in the end it wasn't possible.

So next time I will definately being going private and going with my OB. Not only for the reasons I listed to start with, but because if things don't go to plan having someone who you know and trust managing your labor means you can focus on doing what you need to do rather than second guessing an obstetric registar who you've never met.

I think the girls have well and truly covered all aspects of public and private but here is my two cents worth:

We chose private for the following reasons:
- our local private hospital is only 10 minutes from our house and it is LOVELY. Everyone who stays there refers to it as the 'hotel'. The rooms are really nice, the service is great and the midwives get a really good wrap
- they only have 2 shared rooms (max of two per room) and 35 private rooms so the chances of getting your own room is high. If they are busy and you do have to share, it's usually only for a night then you are moved to your own room
- DH can stay - woohoo! If you don't have a double bed in your room, they bring in a rollaway for DH.
- the rooms have bar fridges and tea and coffee facilities so it's a lot more homely. They have normal TV's with a movie channel too.
- I can take in my iPod dock and play music in my room - a big plus for someone who always has music playing
- the hospital runs various classes for mums and dads outside of visiting hours
- you have access to physios who specialise in women's health during your stay (they are actually my physios and are brilliant) who can help with laser and ultrasound treatment for tears, cracked nipples, swelling, etc.
- I can stay for up to a week if I choose. Some girls say I will get bored and maybe I will but I do like the idea of being in hossi until my milk comes in at least! I plan on making the most of the experience that is only a 'buzzer press' away too.
- my pregnancy is very low risk (so very healthy and a tad boring I guess!) but my OB is brilliant and I love seeing the same familiar face (and same midwives) at each appointment
- I have never waited any longer than 10 minutes to see my OB
- we hit the Medicare threshold a while back too so our out of pocket expenses to our OB are probably only $200 total
- they supply everything for bubs during our stay. I only need to take a couple of outfits and a blanket to take bubs home although I am taking in several wondersuits and newborn nighties cause I just love them!

So they are our reasons for going private and so far we are so happy with our decision.

It can help out the hospital if you use your private insurance.

I have had some recent experience in a public hospital (not for giving birth) where they ask that you use your insurance to help them out financially. They said that it helps them to help more people and I guess it takes the pressure off the public health system in general.

The hospital has a policy that they only charge as much as your insurance will cover so you don't end up paying a gap. Also they were happy for you not to use your insurance if you would have to pay an excess.

I'm sure it varies at different hospitals, but in my case it seemed to be the socially responsible thing to do. I have already paid for my insurance, so why not use it? My insurance can cover my costs and the public system can then help out another woman in my situation instead. Maybe it isn't as simple as that, but it makes sense to me.

I have private health insurance and chose to go in as a private patient in a public hospital.

I would see the public hospital OB (whom also worked at the local private hospital) if there were any concerns during my pregnancy so my care was always of great standard as far as i could see.

Like Raven mentioned there are no guarantees you will get a private room if none are available in a public hospital. If i had DD only minutes later i would have missed out on the last private room available as another patient (public patient) was about to get the private room but cause i wheeled my baby there 1st and i was a private patient i got it 1st.

I have many friends whom had their 1st baby at a private hospital and their OB didn't even make it to their births which they felt let down so chose to go public with the next baby.

GOOD-LUCK with your decision :D

P.S - Like Holly suggested ask your local hospital if they have a policy or program as such where you can pay just the excess (which i did) ... my local public hospital had a program (or maybe scheme is a better word for it) where they are encouraging private patients to use their hospital. I was even given a choice of a voucher as a gift from the public hospital in doing so for example there was a day spa voucher worth $300 ... but i chose a $500 gift voucher to spend at a local baby/child's clothing shop :dance:

Just wanted to add that if you get into the birth centre you will have your own room -they have double/queen? beds and your partner stays with you.They aren't strict on visiting hours either so DP could go out to get food and home to get me clothes and come back in to the hospital after hours. Although they do try and get you home as soon as possible after the birth. I had DD at 8.50pm and we stayed that night, she was pretty spewy and we weren't having much luck with attachment so when they wanted to discharge me the following day I told them that I wanted to be transferred to the maternity ward as I wasn't ready to go home. Regular maternity ward has shared rooms with 4 people and some private rooms I think. I don't think they were able to get me a bed up there so we ended up staying in the birth suite for 2 nights. You do get continuity of care with the midwives. I had 2 midwives that I saw for all of my appointments after my intial book in and one of them was there for the birth and we saw the other one for after care. I did have to wait for some of my appointments when there had been a baby delivered (same situation if an ob is on call for a delivery) - max of 45 mins and sometimes they were running late as they spend heaps of time with you and answer all your questions. They also have another system with rotating on roster midwives as opposed to on call. We moved to the south side during my pregnancy but if you live on north side you get home visits from a midwife after the birth when you go home.

The only thing I would be wary of is if you do have complications you will be transferred from the birth centre. I hadn't really considered this myself but when I have a second bub I think I will have a doula as well. The midwives were fantastic and if you are transferred during labour your midwife will stay with you but when it comes down to it they have to follow hospital procedure and they can only be your advocate if you advise them of what you want. You can't guarantee that you will be able to make decisions regarding intervention when you are in the heat of the moment so I would like to have that extra support just in case. (FYI I had a textbook pregnancy, went 7 days over, wasn't induced, had a waterbirth without any pain relief)

I think the main thing is that you feel comfortable in your decision and have the support to have an empowering birth experience.