So much for birthing 'choice'!

A girlfriend of mine is now 6 months pregnant with her first child and today expressed how scared and upset she is over the treatment she has received from her private OB and how she is pretty much 'stuck' with him for the birth.

DF lives in the Top End and upon finding out she was expecting made contact with a GP who informed her that if she wished to be a private patient she would need to book in with an OB as soon as she could. Where she lives there are only 3 OB's to pick from, 2 of whom only deal with private patients and the third who does public and private patients. She was unable to book in with the first 2 (she was 7 weeks pregnant at the time) so she went with number 3 who I will call Mr C. Mr C did not see her until she was 4 and a half months. At her first appointment she took in a list of questions to ask. She was given 15 min of his time and after asking her first question he told her 'Buy a book'. He then spent the rest of the time telling her what an OB does and what he charges. He gave her no other information. He did not give her the 24 hour number of the maternity ward that she could ring at any time with any question. He answered none of her questions on pregnancy care nor took any interest in her concerns over the issues and worries she had regarding a family history of complicated births. All he did was take her temperature and blood pressure.

DF has been back for 2 other appointments and received similar treatment and given little to no information. She has looked at all her other options with no luck. It is too late to book in with the community midwife program (due to high numbers already booked in), she can not birth in the new midwife led maternity unit at the public hospital (fuly booked), she can not get in with any of the other 2 OB's (fully booked). Her only other option is to go public... and you guessed it, have the same OB she is seeing now as a private patient. So they only thing she is really paying for is a private room in the private hospital as opposed to a shared one in the public. So much for birthing choice in the NT!

What sort of system is 'fully booked' when half the expecting mothers are only 7 to 10 weeks pregnant? You pretty much have to plan conception and 'pre-book' just to have a tiny amount of choice. It is ridiculous that in this day and age in a capital city of Australia you have next to no choice in how you want to bring your baby into this world. One of our OB's even has the nickname 'Caesar King' (guess why :rolleyes:).

To add to DF's situation her DH will be deployed overseas at the time and won't be back for 6 to 8 months! And people up where we live can't work out why many expecting mothers actually go interstate to birth their babies.

I would. How awful for your friend to suffer those 'choices'.

That's terrible! Does she have any family interstate? Seeing as her DH will be away at the time she might be more comfortable somewhere else with a supportive OB or private midwife? Obviously big changes to make and not easy decisions, but the being well supported by her caregivers will make a huge difference in her birthing experience (which you already know!).

Hope she finds a good solution soon xo

From what I know she has family interstate but is not very close to them, I get the impression that there has been some sort of falling out regarding her DH. We did chat this morning though and it looks like her sister will come up for the birth.

Would she consider having a private midwife?

To the best of my knowledge I don't think there are any in Darwin.

*sigh* it is so disheartening isn't it? No one should have to fight at a time when they should be just focussing on growing their baby. I hope that it all works out for her though. Does the public hospital have a midwive care program at all? That would at least lessen her chances of a fully interventioned birth.

Does anyone aside from BB know about this? Can your friend (or you) flag up the hospitals, the Ob in question, the MPs... people who CAN change this? If you don't complain to the right people, nothing will happen.

BTW, freebirth is ALWAYS an option. I know it's one that not everyone wants, but if my choice was Ob or freebirth, I'd be taking the freebirth option.

Best of luck to your friend.

I had DD2 in Darwin and I think I had 2 obs to choose from!! (9 yrs ago) I was lucky in thet my ob- Jenny Mitchell was brilliant I cannot speak highly enough of her, she helped me have my nicest birth of all, very private, unassisted and calm.

Oh God, i'm 7 weeks pregnant and now i'm freaking out, lol.
My Gp was a bit like that guy actually. She's some russian chick and she was terrible with my questions, fears, she didn't even tell me when i'm supposed to go in for my first scan, btw, can someone private message me and tell me when thats supposed to happen please??

ive always gone public and thats not exactly a "choice"of mine either.. however i dont think id be wanting to see any OB i saw the hospital OB and didnt like the woman.. i saw my GP at 7weeks had BT, saw him again at 17weeks to get the paper for the ultrasound.. then everything was normal booked in with the public hosiptal midwives at 37 weeks only to be told at 38weeks my appt was double booked can they move it too 39weeks saw the midwife had strep & blood test, 3 days later saw the OB (who took my BP told me bt was fine) 3 days later bub was born..
its just my personal opinon that OBs and antenatal care is overated and spawns more fears etc than is helpful. (although there are some wonderful people out there...)
your friend has a choice she could go public and go home the next morning or hour if all is ok..
or hire a doula?

OMG, how stressful for her. I am glad she has you to talk to about it.

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Her only other option is to go public... and you guessed it, have the same OB she is seeing now as a private patient.

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But does she have to see an OB at all? Is she high risk?
If she goes public it may not be through a special midwife program, but they have to take her and she would likely be seeing the midwives for most of the appointments (unless there is a problem, or unless the Darwin public hospital system is radically different to Sydney's...)

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OMG, how stressful for her. I am glad she has you to talk to about it.

But does she have to see an OB at all? Is she high risk?
If she goes public it may not be through a special midwife program, but they have to take her and she would likely be seeing the midwives for most of the appointments (unless there is a problem, or unless the Darwin public hospital system is radically different to Sydney's...)

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This is what I was thinking - if she goes public he would be her OB if there are complications only. If she has a normal pregnancy and labour she wouldn't see him at all. Her appointments would be with middies and they would catch her baby. She may have one appointment with him at 36 weeks since many hospitals do an OB appointment then regardless, but that would be it.

And if she did end up with him at her birth at least she wouldn't have to pay him ;)

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And if she did end up with him at her birth at least she wouldn't have to pay him

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Oooooh, yes! Paying him for crappy care must feel like such a slap in the face. That reason alone would be worth it for me!

I'm with RH. I know that freebirthing is still considered an extreme sport (and that's how I consider hospy births :P), yet if she's got ambulance cover, she could do this provided her sister was on board (nothing worse than a fear-monger during labour!), and go to the midwife appointments in the interim if she was felt it necessary.
Otherwise, I'd be dropping this Ob like a hot potato - he clearly considers himself to be a bigger asset to birthing women than he actually is.

Yeah, drop the Ob.

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This is what I was thinking - if she goes public he would be her OB if there are complications only. If she has a normal pregnancy and labour she wouldn't see him at all. Her appointments would be with middies and they would catch her baby. She may have one appointment with him at 36 weeks since many hospitals do an OB appointment then regardless, but that would be it.

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True! I went public, and I only saw an OB twice- once for five minutes as a routine thing because I have SVT, and then during labour because there were complications. If she's not high risk, maybe go public and stick with the midwives as much as possible.

And dust has a good point too- some times private ob care can cause much more fear than is neccessary. A woman in my mothers group is the same size as me- 5'2" and about 55 kilos and her dh is the same size as mine (6'3" and 100 kilos). She was booked in for a c-sect at her first ob appointment simply because the ob said her baby would be 'too big' and she was 'too little'. And that was that. Even when bubs measured up at 7 pound at her last check. She didn't argue- after all, if the ob said it is true, it must be, right?? But she regrets it now.

I know, it's disgusting. And unfortunate that there are no independently practicing midwives in Darwin.

I would consider going public. Even if you had some sort of complication I am guessing you are more likely to see the obstetric registrars than the consultant anyway, although there are no guarantees they would be any nicer or more supportive.