Birthing at MMH Brisbane with the Midwifery Group Practice

Hi,

Well I had one of those nights the other night when I woke up in the middle of the night and thought...."WOW I have to push this baby out! How the heck am I going to do it!" :o

This is my first baby and understandably I am getting to the point in my Pregnancy where Women start to think about these things.

When the time came to book into Hospital I decided that I would book into the Midwifery Group Practice with the Mater Mothers Hopsital in Brisbane. This means I am seen by a Midwife at my house and then when it comes time to give birth I head to the Hospital. The great thing is that I have my own Midwife looking after me and she will be available for the birth (hopefully!!).

But there are a just few things concerning me...mainly that my Mother had me in 2 hours. From first contraction until she was holding me in her arms, her second 2 births were 40 mins each. To be perfectly honest I am scared. I am absolutly scared ****less that I will not get to the Hospital in time or they will send me home and I will have to have my baby at home...which I don't want to do. I am also worried that being a Public Patient I won't have access to waterbirth facilities or be able to have any special birthing aids. I really don't want to be laying on my back - it just seems like you are working against gravity and pushing up hill! :o

Can anyone shed some light on my concerns..or give me some knowledge of what the public system is like?

Thanks

Blondie :)

Thanks Suga :)

And thanks for putting everything in perspective for me. For some reason I think some Women get their kicks from telling people that Birth is traumatic and just love sharing their Horror stories with us.:shakehead: I try to ignore those people but it does get hard.

I have been given a mobile number for my Midwife but haven't seen her since my first appointment. I have seen the gyno at 17 weeks but apart from getting my 20 week scan I haven't heard from them. I feel like I am wasting their time if I call them to ask questions. They are probably super busy. I have been given a letter from them outlining a few group sessions that I can attend but as far as I am aware I don't really have any one on one time with my assigned midwife.

Thanks again Suga :D

I am going to call the Midwife today and just make sure that I am not missing out on anything :)

Thanks for the tip on the book! I might pop down to the bookstore today sometime and pick up a copy! I think i'll feel more relaxed about the whole process once I read up on it.

You've been a wonderful help :) Thank you again!

Bugger just wrote a post and lost it argh...

Hmm the horror stories are everywhere but so are the great ones. I've already told you about mine, and as you know I didn't get everything I wanted from it but i did get to birth naturally which was my biggest priority. I guess its when you have interventions that things start to get complicated. If I hadn't been induced in the first place I might not have had any of the medical interventions I did.

With your appointments. You should definitely be having an appointment every 4 weeks, I'm with the MGP too and I have appiontments every four weeks. Mine are at the hospital, and the next one is 28 weeks (you miss out the 24 week one if this is your second child) but yeah you shouldn't be being left that long in between appointments.

As for the equipment you will have for your labour: I birthed Orlando in the Mater Mothers 2 years ago and they had the following in the room: Bath, shower, bean bag, excercise ball, shower seat for when its too hard to stand or you just want to relax, chair for DH or support person, bed for you, lots and lots of towels, a really really handy night gown that unclips at the shoulders (I swore I wouldn't use it but after about 2 hours I put it on and wore it for the rest of the labour.
There are actaully tours you can do of the birthing suites hun if you want to get a good look at where you will be going. They are free and you and DH or friend can go and they will show you the birthing suite and take you up to the ward where you will be staying with bubba.

As for being sent home when you don't want to be. The hospital can suggest you go home but if you have a strong feeling that you should be there then you can insist on stayign or at least going for a walk around the hospital to see if things progress more. You can call the pregnancy assessment unit and talk to a midwife lots of times if you think things are happening and they will give you some great advice. You can also call me if you want, we'll be doign things around the same time and sometimes having someone who has done it before can really help to make you feel like you're not being padantic and crazy.

Sorry that was long lol

Thanks Chick :)

I think I might book in a Tour. At least then I know where it will all be happening. It sounds like they have everything that I want in the birthing room so can't complain about that :dance:

I also left them a message to call me back about my schedule of appointments but apparently they are not in the office on Wednesdays?

The whole 22 weeks of pregnancy I have had 2 Midwifery / OB appointments and of course a scan at 12 weeks and a scan at 19 weeks 4 days.

First appointment was an induction into the midwifery program with my Midwife at around 8 -10 weeks and the second was on 9 June - (17 weeks) this was an appointment with an OB - not my Midwife

I just dug up a letter from my Midwife for some dates for "group sessions"

The dates I have on the letter are:

28 July - (25 weeks)
18 August - (28 weeks)
8 September - (31 weeks)
29 September - (34 weeks)
13 October - (36 weeks)
27 October - ( 38 weeks)
8 November - (40 weeks)


These "group sessions" are appointments made up of the Midwives and also other expecting mothers. I have no idea what goes on at these? Birthing Classes perhaps? Should I take DH?

So do you think I am missing any? I guess its too late to complain now as I have a group session in 2 weeks.

So it is my understanding that I will not have another one of one appointment with my Midwife until the birth?
I guess I don't need one but I just thought that I would have another few face to face appointments?

Hummm questions, questions, questions! :)

Hmm that sounds strange to have them all as group appointments. I guess it won't hurt to check with them anyway. Maybe thats the program you are in?? Maybe they have time in those group sessions to ask any specific questions and get some one on one time if there is anything concerning you.

Also wanted to check if you had seen the thread about the Gold Coast dinner meet up? There's a bunch of BB girls all going out to dinner on the 31st of July. I'll be going and thought you might like to join us?? Anyway just something to consider.