so my book-in at Bendigo is 7 days away....

what's going to happen?

Bit nervous with all the shoddy mis-information & lack of care received by my local doctor.

Are they going to do an internal exam, are they going to do a pap smear, are they going to measure my cervix & uterus (like one google search mentioned), do I get another ultrasound?

Will they offer me different birthing options in public, or don't I get any choices unless I pay for private care? If I only get a shared ward, no privacy, and stirrups I swear I'm going to have an "oops, baby came unexpectedly quickly" home-birth!

Do I get to choose my midwife from their team, or just whoever they assign, or is it a random draw every time I go there? Remembering my sis-in-law's experience at Royal Women's where she had a collection of mid-wives, but the head midwife was a real B!tch, didn't even pretend to be nice in front of us visitors! Poor Jess was tearing up a few times, whilst the rest of us were left with our mouths gaping wide open in shock!

Will they also give me info on the private ward's care, in case we could afford an upgrade?

Will they offer us a social worker to help us with the material/lifestyle/rural side of things?

Will it be: in you come, when you due, thanks for choosing us, see you when baby drops, be off with you now...

hi Phynna,
Congratulations on your pregnancy! I'm not at your hospital, so i can't say for sure what will happen at your first appointment, but i can say generally what happens (well this is what has happened for all three of my pregnancies)

Your appointment will most likely be with a midwife, she will weigh and measure you to get your BMI. She will take your blood pressure, she will take bloods to check your rubella levels, HCG (maybe), err and i forget what else they test for, lol! They will ask you when your last period was and work out your due dates. Have you had an ultrasound done yet? If so they will want a copy of the report.

I really can't imagine them doing an internal. Its just not really necessary. With DD i had my first internal done while in labour (which seems to be a quite common with the other ladies here on BB too). When was your last papsmear? They will ask that question too. If its been over two years maybe they'll do one (not sure i've never left mine over two years).

If you're going public?? I have only the best things to say about them. They have lower intervention rates and by no means are they on a lower level than a private hospital. My labour room had the fitness ball, bean bags, shower, spa EVERYTHING! It was a huge room that i could move around in. Midwives generally prefer you to move around during your labour, staying in bed with stirrups is a bit out of date ;) However if you're going to go public you will more than likely be sharing your room (once the bub is born) with another lady (depending how many beds they have in each room, some have 4, some have 6, some have 2).

Umm after your first appointment you should be seeing an Ob every 4 weeks until about 28 weeks i think (??) after that ever two weeks, then as it gets closer every week. If your going public you will not be able to chose your MW or your Ob. Luck of the draw! I have had no problems with my MW, been very lucky indeed! Or my Ob's for that matter!

I'm not sure what you mean about a social worker?? why do you want one exactly?

They will not kick you out of hospital until you have established breastfeeding (or have a fair idea) and you and bub are healthy. I stayed for 5 days when DD was born, and they were in no rush to kick me out.

If you want a private ward, i'm pretty sure you need to have private health insurance, you can always ask them tho, maybe they do have some type of payment thing??? really don't know!

Hmm i think i've answered most of your questions. And i am no expert, this is just what i have learnt personally, after having my daughter 18 months ago. I hope it helps! Let me know if you have any more questions

ps- also, depending how far along you are they may try and find bubs HB with the doppler, if they don't - don't stress! If its still early there won't be any chance of finding it, they didn't find mine till around 16 weeks. Ultrasounds = you can have an optional one done at 12 weeks called the nuchal translucency (sp), it will test for downsyndrome and some abnormalties, this ultrsound will cost you money (it is not refunded my medicare either). And then you have one between 18 -20 weeks.

pps- lol, i keep adding to this post! In regards to birthing options, some hospitals have a 'birth centre'. its a centre which encourages natural birth, for low risk pregnancy only. I don't know much about the birth centre, but have heard great reports!

thankyou! you are a great help!

Good to hear I still have some good facilities in the birth room available to me! :p That's a big relief to start with! And good to hear they won't kick me out asap too, so many women these days seems to be kicked out by 2 days, it's scary, I don't know how they are expected to cope, much less walk!

Again, thanks so much for your trouble replying to such an extent, I lost my mum 8 years ago, so all those questions I would normally ask her, are now eating at me, and coming out here on the forum, no matter how hard a mum-in-law might try, they can't replace your own mum, so it's more comfortable to ask on a forum where it's not a face to face thing, you still feel some degree on anonomity, but at the same time, the answers help and reassure so much, it's really appreciated!

Um, the social worker thing.....am going to need help with Centrelink & setting up family benefits etc, as when I lost my job Centrelink declined to give me the dole, saying we own too much land and should earn money off that (it's a long story), and also because, we are both casual workers, we barely can cover our mortgage & bills, and after 4 months of unemployment, we are way too far behind to be able to catch up on our own anymore, we need the extra help from a social worker

In regards to staying in hospital, you generally stay in for 5 days after a caesar and 2 days for a normal vaginal birth. (This of course is provided you and bubs are healthy).

You generally have whatever midwife is on duty, this goes for antenatal and labour.

At my hospital (public) I see a Dr at weeks 20, 34 and 41. All other appointments are with a m/w.

I think Telly covererd everything else.

Good luck with your pregnancy.

Phynna, you're welcome! :p
I know what you mean, i love this forum for asking those questions you don't really know who else to ask! haha!

As you can tell by Ubba's post, all hospitals are different.
If you are in a small town some hospitals have a very low birth rate (meaning not many babies are born there), so if you're lucky enough - you'll end up with your own room anyway! Like i said, it really is luck of the draw!

I don't know if all public hospitals do this (so if you've had anything else ladies, please correct me), but i've heard a number of women report the same thing - When i was finally at home, the hospital sent a midwife to my house twice just to check how everything was going, make sure i was breastfeeding fine and just having a chat about baby things. It was suuuuchhh a HUGE help, she weighed DD, took blood (this is only because dd had jaundice), checked my stiches (yes embarrasing indeed!) and informed me to the local family clinic (a clinic run my the government, it has midwives there to weigh, talk about BF, Solids when the bub is big enough, give vacinations etc. all for free!). So with that said, you'll find even if you do home home after two days - you're still not alone, most public hospitals send a midwife around home. (I've got a number of friends who had their baby private - and this service has not been offered to them)


As for the centrelink thing, we were given all of our paperwork in hospital, and we filled it out on our own then went into medicare and handed it in there. I really can't remember much about that part, DH was in charge of it. So sorry i'm not much help in regards to that. But i do know they give you heaps of paper work at hospital, including the birth registration paperwork. Maybe you can head in to centrelink some time before bubs is born and get them to fill you in?

wow, i really do ramble on don't i!
Sorry!

I went to the Bendigo hospital twice and had 2 pretty fantastic experiences both times. The midwives up there are fantastic!

Your first appt will take about 45mins to an hour. They will ask you questions about your history etc, weigh you, ask what type of care you are looking at having (shared care, Midwives, etc).
If you are highrisk for any reason, they will get you to attend the Womens health clinic for all of your appointments with Registrar Obs. They have a program called the MAMPTA program, where you are seen by the one team of midwives, with a main mdiwife who will attend all of your AN appts and your birth. I didn't make it into this program because of where I live, and seeing where you are located, you may not be eligable for that either.
If your GP is near you, I'd take the shared care option. It will mean you don't have to drive to the hospital for every appt (which will be every single week from 36 weeks onwards and being heavily pregnant and having to drive so far is not all that great). With shared care, you will have to attend the hospital clinic every so often, but not for every appt.

When you give birth, you will have your own labour room. The BH also has 3 48 hour rooms, which have a double bed in each and Your Husband/partner can stay with you the entire time.
If not, you will probably share a room with one other person. I didn't mind sharing a room at all, as it meant that I wasn't alone when Hubs had to go home. ALways had someone to talk to :)

99% of the midwives are fantastic!! You will no doubt come across one or 2 that you don't gel with. They are in every single hospital.

Anyway.... good luck. If you'd like to know anything at any time, feel free to harass me :):)

Awesome girls thankyou all so much! You've helped to calm down one very nervous girly! I will have to let you all know how I go now! I don't quite know what I'll do with the shared care, I really don't want to see the local's here in St Arnaud at all, they the reason I was so scared in the first place, so I might have to check out Maryborough or Charlton doctors instead, hmm. I'll ask the hospital for their advice on that one. Thankyou all so much ladies!!!!!!