How do you choose an Obs or a hospital? Which one do you pick first? How does it work?
Do you need to research hospitals early on?
Just not sure what happens when I do fall pg - what do I do?!?!
TIA - I'm totally clueless about this. :)
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How do you choose an Obs or a hospital? Which one do you pick first? How does it work?
Do you need to research hospitals early on?
Just not sure what happens when I do fall pg - what do I do?!?!
TIA - I'm totally clueless about this. :)
to be honest, it wasnt much of a decision for me. i live in a small town, only one choice of hospital and only a small handful of OBs to choose from.
if you know anyone who has been through the process in your area, ask them, even if you dont know them well they will be more than happy to give you their view.
good luck,
Linda
It's a very good question - one I wish I'd asked the minute I got my BFP. I think it helps if you have friends who can recommend an Obs. I am new to Brissy, so didn't have any recommendations. I was just referred to an Obs and I didn't even know if he dealt with public patients (he doesn't - so it means I'm committed to a private hospital, which I wasn't sure about even though I have private health cover).
I'm still very lost. It is never too early for you to start researching this, so when you get the BFP you know what your plan is, and can make the Obs appt ASAP.
In Darwin we had blessed little choice, only 1 private hospital or 1 public hospital, and only 1 OB! So that made my choice easy!
In Adelaide I was keen to deliver at a particular hospital becasue my previous experience of that hospital was so positive so I rang them to check which OB's delivered there. From there I asked around for recommendations, from my GP and from other friends who had had babies/were pg.
To my mind, whilst the hospital/convenience of location is important, the OB choice is the vital one, as you'll see a lot of them! It is comforting to know you like them & feel confident in your choice,and that they fully support the way you want to handle the pregnancy/birth........
HTH
I just find all this stuff so confusing! I'm in Brisbane and I guess there's a lot of choice. We have private health insurance. There are a few good hospitals around so I guess I would look into an OB first?
My SIL had her two children at the North West. Also a friend of mine had her baby at the North West. So I can ask them. And another good friend went to the Mater. I'll ask around.
This is one of my reasons for not keeping quiet about TTC news - there are too many questions to ask people!!! I'd rather everyone just know!!!
Thanks for the info so far. :)
One more thing. When you think you are pg and have done a HPT etc … do you just see a regular doctor for them to do a pg test? Once it's all confirmed do you then need to book your OB?
A friend told me that once you find out you are pg the doctor will immediately ask you which hospital you want.
Hi Fee
I too am from Brisbane and I've heard that certain private hospitals are booked solid with 30-40 people a month on waiting lists to get in. So I would recommend researching ahead of getting a BFP so you know where you would like to go, that way as soon as you are pg you can ring and book.
I rang the hospital I wanted to go to (from hearing advice from friends and family who had delivered there) and asked for a list of ob's who deliver there. I then picked one I had heard of and who a friend also recommended to me and my GP knew of. I booked the hospital the same day I saw my dr for a positive BFP. I booked the ob first though because until someone agrees to take you on, you can't book the hospital.
It all depends if you private or public.
Hope this helped.
Jorja
Fee,
Yep, once you get a BFP, go to your GP, get them to confirm it (via one of their tests and /or a blood test) and then they will usually suggest OB's or get you to pick one, and from there they give you the referral.........
From there, book into the OB as soon as you can: it usually helps too if you EDD that the GP gives you is EARLY in the month as most OB's only deliver a certain amount of babies a month, so if your EDD is late on the month, they can already be full, IYKWIM? (So if your EDD is 29th of the month, it may be worth a fib to say the 1st of the next month!!)
Once you are booked in with the OB, then you can call the hospital and request all the booking oin paperwork...............
HTH.......
Okay another question. If you are interested in particular hospitals and would like to research them, how do you go about this? Just ring up and ask for info? Can they send you a pack or something? Check websites?
And obviously I will ask around (friends etc).
Wow how interesting! Thanks for the tip! All this info is terrific. :):
Hi Fee
I live in Brisbane and am also thinking of TTC toward the end of this year. Thanks for asking the very same questions I was wanting to find answers to! And thanks to everyone who is posting replies. Until I found this website I had NO IDEA how complicated organising to have a baby appears to be!
It really depends on where you live, which hospitals are enarby, where your OB works etc..
If you have an OB/GYN or GP who practices obstetrics, who you like, then you can normally try to book in to whatever hospitals they deilver at.
I know in Melbourne that a lot of the private hospitals have waiting lists, i.e a girl I know rang at 6 weeks to book in at 3 different private hospitals, and has only just been confirmed at 19 weeks.
If you don't have an OB, but private insurance and know which hospital you want to go to, you can book in there and then get an OB who delivers there.
Personally, I have private insurance but am doing shared care GP/midwife 7 going public at the local public hospital.
This is mainly because my GP practices obstetrics, so unless there are complications I won't need an OB.
There are also no private hospitals within 45 miuntes of our house, but a public hospital 5 minutes away, with 10 double birhting rooms and DH can stay with me as long as the double room is available.
Fee,
The more homework you do now the easier and smoother it will be later.
I had already decided that i wanted to deliver in a private hospital with an OB, so this was step 1 for me. I then researched the private hospitals in my area and chose the 3 i would consider. I then started to find out which OB's would deliver at these, this was mainly via word of mouth. So i had a list of 3-4 names of OB's initially.
I went to the GP to confirm the pregnancy at 5 weeks, she gave me 4 referral letters for the OB's i had on my list and then it was my responsibility to ring them up and book myself in for an initial appt.
I chose 1 off the list that i liked the most and made the first appt with him. His reception asked me where i would like to deliver and said she would book me in stratight away. So even though this was done at about 6 weeks pregnant i am still on waiting lists for these hospitals. So yes, booking in early is essential.
Given more time i would have liked to see 1 or 2 more Ob's to compare, but soon realised that due to the hospital waiting list situation, i needed to make a decsion quite quickly.
Because i chose the private hospital and OB path i think some of the decsions i had to make needed to be done sooner than later, not sure what it would have been like going down some other route.
Good luck
So how did you research the hospitals? Ring them up and ask questions? I really have no idea where to start.:
Fee:
~ Ask around anyone who has had any prodecures in the hosptals.....from maternity to gynae, get their feedback
~ Check out the hospitals websites (they do vary a lot though, in richness of info)
~ Ring the hospitals and explain your situation and ask them to send you the patient admissions guide/maternity details
~ Ask your GP
HTH.........
Thanks Lucy. I've been having a browse on some hospital websites but there isn't very much info. And also I'm not really sure what sort of info I'm looking for!!!
What sort of things were important to you when choosing an OB/hospital?
Fee, when you start looking for maternity hospitals you will realise there are not as many as you might think and if you narrow it down to private ones then even fewer. I live close to the Melb CBD, about 7kms or so and their were only 3 private maternity hospitals to choose from. It should not be much different in Brisbane.
My sister-in-law used 2 of these for the birth of my niece and nephew so i had first hand experience there and i know a few people who had used the other hospital on my list. So word of mouth was my main "research" capability.
What you can also do is ask for a tour, im pretty sure most of the hospitals do these.
The types of things I looked for were:
~ Labour facilities/approach to labour/birthing suites
~ Midwifery care
~ Private room availability: I figured that if I was in pain/tired/confused/emotional, that I would need as much privacy as possible!!
~ Can partners stay? Are the welcome? Do they get fed?
~ What is the hospitals "rooming in" policy with regard to where the baby sleeps?
~ What is the policy on breastfeeding support/education. What is their policy on formula feeding? Is their policy rammed down your throat, or is "mothers choice" fully supported?
~ What other ancillary services are offered?
Not many of the websites will offer all this info by any stretch, but these were things, on having #2, that I was interested in.
(As I mentioned earlier, in Darwin there was no choice at all, but the maternity ward in the Darwin Private Hosp. was a great experiance for me, so my future expectations are based on what I had there!)
Try adn visulaise what you want, and then ask around to see what the hospitals near you offer, and pick one that seems to match as closely as poss?