I've had five children in public hospitals, with some mixed experiences. My first was at a large teaching hospital, they were overcrowded, overrun, and the consulting obstetrician I was given was horrible. I was very young and treated like an idiot, but nevertheless, given very little assistance in looking after the baby after she was born.

The other experiences have been largely positive, although the staffing shortages have been notable once or twice. The cleanliness or lack of on the wards has been a feature of more than one hospital, and the pressure to get you out the door as quickly as possible is not conducive to a good recuperation, imo.

What I like most of all is that public hospitals emphasise midwife care and their vested interest as far as cost goes is in *not* medicalising your birth experience. I'd be dubious about going into a system where the caesarean section rate is so much higher, as it is in the private system.

What I don't like with the public hospital is your lack of choice. I am stuck with the hospital I am at, and I don't like it at all, but the other public hospitals won't take me because I'm not in their "catchment area". After my loca made mistakes early in this pregnancy I get a tight feeling in my chest every time I walk in the door. If I could afford a midwife for a homebirth, I'd have one.