Care in public hospitals

[Schmickers]

Yeah, this sounds quite typical of a public hospital antenatal appointment. Most public hospitals expect that you will get your emotional support and education from family and/or antenatal classes, and so the actual appointments themselves are pretty perfunctory. Of course, this assumes that a) the antenatal classes are on at a time that you can attend, and b) that they are being taught by someone who is competent and experienced. As far as I am aware, appointment times and content with OBs varies from doctor to doctor, with some doing 5 minute appointment and some doing up to 30 minutes.

An option I can heartily recommend is going with an independently practicing midwife. You don't need to have a homebirth to book in with an independent midwife (although that's something else I can highly recommend, as well), but they can do all of your antenatal care. We have 90 - 120 minute appointments with both of our babies, comprising clinical care, emotional support, and education, at times that suited us, with someone who was really in touch with our needs and wants. It was awesome.