hospital booking / midwifes

Hi,
Have just found out that I'm pregnant and we are very new to all of this! My question is about hospital bookings...we have private health cover and there really is only one option of a private hospital in our area. the thing is that an extended family member is a midwife there. So what I'm wondering is, when you make a booking are the midwifes aware of this or is it purely an admin thing and they don't find out who patients are until futher down the track...(we are planning to keep the baby news just to ourselves until the 12 week mark, so obviuosly don't want her to find out through the hospital.) The other option is is it possible or do many people who have private health ins. go through the public system?? (Its not our ideal situation to be in a hospital with a close family connection working there as a midwife!!) Anyway, let me know if anyone has any info. thanks for your help...sorry its a bit of a long post!

You can go public as a private patient someone will be able to help you out with this. I'm not sure if it's just an admin thing, I would think that it would be but I'm just not sure. It is good to book in asap as they can book out really quickly. All they will do is basically give you an appointment for when you are 12 weeks + to do all the paperwork so it's possible that all the midwives won't know but you will possibly speak with a midwife to make the booking, I think it will depend on who answers the phone. However I may be wrong but I know when I rang they put me through to the midwifery department and that's where I spoke to someone.

HTH

I'm sure your relative would understand that this is something that is to be kept private - they are professionals, so I would be very surprised if they would get involved.
I would propose you call the team leader in the maternity care and have a chat with them. They would definitly keep your details private. It would be a big stink if they didn't.
Now if you really dont want to have anything to do with that hossy at all, you could investigate going through the public hospital as a private, but I can't give you any advice on that.
I guess maybe your dr could help?
The first port of call will be to go to your GP who will arrange initial blood tests and will give you a referral. Not sure where you are, but in VIC you can go shared care, which means that you will only have to go through the midwives once or twice through the whole care.
Also if you are private, I'm guessing you would see your OB in their office - not the hossy.
Most first appts aren't til the 12w time anyway, so the chance of your relative finding out are pretty slim.
HTH - and CONGRATS!!! What wondeful news :D

Thanks for your info....you girls are so helpful!!

Hi babyno1 and congrats. The only way your relative would know you are booked in is if she did the booking in (it's a midwife that usually does this) and/or she saw your file. Having said that, it is actually against the law for your relative to then tell ANYONE else at all without your permission - she can be criminally charged with breaching patient confidentiality (there are very strict laws about this).

I myself have private health insurance with full obstetric cover but my DH and I have decided to go through the public system as a public patient to save some money - we are using shared care so my GP/OB manages the pregnancy and other than two appointments at the hospital (one booking in at 10 weeks and one at 34 weeks) i only go to the hospital to have the little bubba. You can go public as a private patient, often what you get depends on your insurance policy. This way, you may have the option of your OB delivering your bub as opposed to hospital OB, but otherwise it's fairly administrative - oh - you will have to pay for the same things that you would have to in a private patient such as medications etc if needed (as public it costs you nothing). Also, in a public hospital there is no gaurantee that you will get a private room (often private rooms are used for c-section patients). Really depends on your insurance policy. Hope this helps and hope you work out what to do - you could also speak to the nursing unit manager of the unit and advise her of the situation and that at this stage you don't want your relative to know, she should be able to help.