A bit gutted :(

Well, from reading just snippets of news and info about the homebirth thing with midwives, I had kind of written off being able to have a homebirth once I fell pg, so didn't look into it much more.

Now that I am pg, I looked into it again, only to find out it ISN'T illegal for midwives to attend a homebirth :( Now I've found out it's too late to transfer to a health fund that will cover a private midwife :( and the $$ play a big part in whether we can make this happen or not :( And from what I have read we'd be looking at $3000 or $4000. My OB (after medicare claims) is probably only half that or less, so i can't even justify the cost by comparing that.

*sigh*

The main thing that is really appealing to me about the homebirth is the continuity of care.. as in.. having the midwife with me the whole time, instead of just popping their heads in now and then at the hospital.

Now I don't know what to do :( Does anyone know what the average cost of a midwife would be in the Blue Mountains?

Hi Liz

Why not have a chat to a couple of midwives around your area? Most midwives have a payment plan, and some may even reduce their prices a little.

Thanks Alan. I probably will have a chat with a couple. I have a gazillion questions anyway I think, as I'm still tossing up whether I'm 100% comfortable with it yet. I tend to evict my babies early, and what if half way through the pregnancy it turns out I'm not low risk afterall or something... it'd be too late then to see my preferred OB wouldn't it?

Whichever way I go, I'll be having a doula this time, so that should help my birth be more active etc hopefully!

Wish you were around here Alan! Fancy a holiday in January? :) haha. Mind you, I'm sure I'll feel the same confidence in a local midwife once I actually meet one :)

Have a chat to a few. All i can say is that the money is worth it!

I would definitely have a chat to a few and see what options are available to you. As Alan mentioned, some midwives do have payment plans, but it does still mean you're spending upwards of $3k still.
Good luck hun :hug:

I think you would just have to weigh up the costs to how worthwhile you think a hb would be for you. DF and I have no PHI but will be paying for one anyway, because for us, the 3 or so grand it will cost us for an IM will be SO worth it, money well, well spent. I can understand your concerns about having to need an OB halfway through. Aside from bubs coming a little early, did you have any other complications during your pregnancies? Just as an example (we have had a LOT of time to plan/discuss things lol) DF and I plan to hire an IM from the word go. WE plan to have her do our pre-natal checks AS WELL AS at the hospital; we would like her to attend those appointments with us. That way, if something transpires during my labour which would require me to need hospital care, they have everything on record, all the info about myself and baby throught the pregnancy, so they will be able to treat me accordingly. Just another thing to consider :) I second what everyone else has said and have a chat to some IM's and see what they have to say about your concerns etc.

Good luck hun and again, soooooo over the moon for you :dance:

Oh noes, Liz! Hope you can organise something that works for you. I'd better check out my PHI or for sure DP will not agree to a hb!

Just a question, if this bub decides to make a grand early entrance as well, does that mean you can birth at home and both stay at home afterwards? Do mws have some kind of a cut-off for how early you can be?

We payed over 4000 for ours and it pretty much came from baby bonus :( It was worth it, as far as I'm concerned, particularly if it means giving me the confidence to freebirth the next one ;)
I didn't find ANY PHI that covered PM's so we ditched our insurance.
We had less than no money and I refused to be forced into hospy for lack of money. It's a personal call - how much does it mean to you and what are the reasons? If they are core values, you'll find a way to do it :)

hey liz! we found ourselves in a similar boat in that the cost of a HB was beyond us. but in talking to dear friends there was a snippet that she said to me as we cooked at the BBQ, you will find a way (to afford it). and that was it for us. despite that we have no savings are in our first year of mortgage we have been scrimping and saving for every appt with the IM...and IT IS worth it! each appt (at home :dance:) lasts for way more than an hour, they include teh other kids in the fun and basically are there FOR you and your family. I spoke to my IM about the early arrival scenario and she is happy to deliver at home from 36 weeks if there are no growth concerns etc. remember that IM bring a whole bag of goodies with them to stabilise both you and bub if the need arises (oxygen, syntocin etc etc). if you are concerned about needing care in the event of something untoward happening, you can do what we have done and have a 'planned homebirth back up booking' with the local public hospital. that way, if you do need to transfer for whatever reason they know who you are and have all your medical/pregnancy details there and then (we have a RWH pregnancy booklet etc that my IM and GP fill out for each of my appts).
for the fees, in our case we pay per appt. because this is my 2nd pg and everything is travelling smoothly we have opted to have appts on a 6 weekly basis (with email/phone in between if needed) until 28 weeks, then we go back to 'normal' spacing. i have felt comfortable with this arrangement. also, other $$ options are to see if your midwife has a rate for visits to her house. mine has a slightly reduced rate if you go to her, so maybe for some appts that could be an option?
the 'big' bill for the IM is the birth planning appt at 28 weeks and the bill for the backup midwife. DH and I have been saving up for this and in fact, hasnt been too scary as we have had loads of time to put our stash of cash away ITMS (appt is the 30 week one). that way we can pay the $1400 for both IMs then.

i also second checking out if they have payment plans. many IMs do, as they really want women and their families to get the best birth possible as they truly recognise the power and benefit of it...

My charges usually come to between 2.3k and 2.5k.
I am free in January.
My birthday is in January.
Blue moutains are very pretty.
Hmmmmm

Cassius
I also encourage the kids to be invilved both during the antenatal visits and at the birth. Check out my photos on FB you can see a 2 year old cutting the cord

Liz - WRT your out of pocket costs for an OB, is that based on your last pg or have you checked again? Medicare rebates decreased significantly a little while back and lots of people are finding that theya re a lot more out of pocket now than 12 months ago.
Im not sure of the exact details but I do remember seeing a few threads about this..

Just popping into congratulate you Liz

:blush: I only just recently finalised payment to my IM's! I think they knew we were resisting the payment plan thing, cos DP was sure we'd be able to pay for each appointment at the time. I feel bad because I know they're not on salary.
Appointments definitely are not restricted to an hour and my DS is convinced all midwives are called Helen and Nicola (oh, and Lynne and Santo from Chrissy Butler's book!!). He was definitely comfy with their presence and didn't feel restricted - as you would have seen from our HB photos and his 'ottering' in the birth pool!

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I also encourage the kids to be invilved both during the antenatal visits and at the birth. Check out my photos on FB you can see a 2 year old cutting the cord

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LOL - you wouldn't believe it.. but that VERY thought popped into my head today as i watched my kids cutting off some of nanna's knitting wool LOL! I thought.. hmm.. i wonder if they could cut the cord! And it would mean a lot to me to have them at the birth. Tallon wasn't at Kayla's because of it all happening unexpected and he just stayed at the babysitters.. we thought we were just going for a checkup that morning because I'd been sick the night before and felt a few tightenings.

Thank you so much everyone. I've discovered today that my mum wouldn't really be terribly supportive of a homebirth.. but then I seem to have gone against all of her grains with most of the stuff I've done so far LOL.. so she's not opposed to it, just simply stated that she'd be worried if I did it. I have told her the benefits, and told her that I also want to clear things in my own mind as well by talking to a couple of midwives.

Maya - I rang Australian Unity today cos they have private midwife cover.. and with prior arrangement will cover a homebirth, but there's a 12 month waiting period :( Which is why I'm spewing I stopped looking into these options earlier. Oh well.

Pandora - no I haven't checked the latest fees and rebates for the OB. I'm actually figuring if I don't do homebirth, I might just go public with a doula.

TBH one of my main goals, if not a full on homebirth, is to just be able to labour at home and rock up at 10cm haha. My waters broke with Tallon and I ended up doing all my labouring in hospital, and of course with Kayla being prem I was in hospital the entire time too. So even just to do most of my labouring at home.. I'm assuming with the doula.. would make me happy :)

I think deep down it is what I want to do. I just need to allay those little niggling fears.. but then there's niggling fears for hospital too.. so I'm just a bit nervous all round to be honest! haha. I also feel like there's so much to think about at home.. where I'm going to do it.. how to mess-proof etc etc. But it really really does appeal. I would be pretty upset tho to plan a homebirth and have another prem :( I might be able to negotiate a 36 weeker at home.. but within myself I wouldn't like to have any earlier at home. My herbalist and I are onto it tho.. spoke to him today about whether he can help me get to term.

i know we can use the maternity payment, but that kinda needs to help out with a few other things too... will have to rethink all our carseats etc. I know it'd be well worth it, but money isn't something we can really ignore.

Thanks again everyone. so much to consider :)

And yes Alan - I think you deserve a nice Blue Mountains get away in January! LOL. Just squeeze in one birth.. you'll be right ;)

The first time round I justified not following through with a HB because our house was too small. I was well over the myth that you need a big space by the time I had DD. I'm not a pacer! I had enough room. In the end I decided that for everything we had 'enough' :)
As for baby bonus, we could have used that money for immediate concerns, too, and what we needed we ended up procuring one way or another. If we didn't NEED it we didn't need it. Then I won a friggin organic Ergo and I knew providence was giving just a little bit back!
Don't worry anymore about the PIH - it's out of your hands now and there's no point stressing over it...plenty of other things to think about now ;)

Sorry i havent read the other replies, but here's what i think..

DS2's homebirth cost me all up of around $5700. This included antenatal, birth and postnatal ($4500), doula ($700), birth pool and other such things ($500ish). In the end, i did not use the birth pool (he came in the bath), midwives did not make it and doula did not make it. So half of it was pretty much wasted on nothing because he came within 2 hours from first contraction.

But i don't regret a single cent. The fact i could give birth a home (regardless if they missed it or not) is worth more than anything tangable.

With this bub, we are planning another homebirth with the same midwives. This time however they are charging me $5500 straight up, which i have already paid. This is because of 4 reasons. 1)they live 2hrs45mins from me, 2) we've moved farther away than last time so its a bit more, 3) i had to pay up front this time because unfortunatly they have had some women not pay in full after promised and 4) because i was doing shared care last time and this time i am paying them for every appointment.

We had to get a loan to pay for it this time.

There is a very high chance they will miss it again. However i have a different doula this time (due to our other one will have a newborn at the time) and she is a lot closer to us. But i still will not regret the money i have spent. Having free birthed (unintentionally) it doesnt really bother me if they miss it or not. But getting the antenatal and postnatal is invaluable. I also consider both to be very good friends of mine now. They think the way i think and i just clicked with them instantly. Each appointment goes for a few hours and it just does not even compare to the hospital system at all.

So those are my thoughts, and yes ultimatly it can just come down to not being able to afford it. Unfortunatly that is the way the aus government is hell bent on making it near impossible for us to birth at home. But most midwives can do a payment plan for you and some even let you pay with the baby bonus.

Goodluck in making a descion. *hugs*

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my DS is convinced all midwives are called Helen and Nicola (oh, and Lynne and Santo from Chrissy Butler's book!!).

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he he, my DD also thinks that all midwives are called Nicola LOL!

Spoke to a midwife today :) :) And feeling so good about this going ahead. Just have to confirm with DH the $$$$ but otherwise, I think it's the way we're going to go! I forgot that we will be doing our tax returns between now & then, so that will be a good boost to paying for it.

i don't think DH will say no... I've told him if he doesn't want me begging him for baby #4 he has to give in to every whim I have in this pregnancy or else I'll be saying "but I never got to do this.. or that..." hahahaha.

Just a question... should I talk to more than one midwife? or if I feel good about the first one, just go with her?

Aw Liz it's great that you've found a midwife that you feel good about. Thgat's the most important thing really, isn't it? I would say interview/talk to AT LEAST one more, even if it just turns out to be someone to compare how awesome your middie is to, kwim? So excited for you though hun! xox

We actually only interviewed one IM and were happy with her. Also, she lives around the corner. But it's probably smart to interview more than one. Also, sort out the payment plan ahead of time. We're paying $700 a month until it's paid ($4300 inc 2 IM's at the birth). Hopefully, PHI will give me the rebate I'll be asking for - just need to send off the letter. They were having issues with paying out after 30 June due to the whole midwife legality debarcle.