Help, new mum to be.... transition from USA to AUS... very lost.. :(

Hi all,

I just need someone to talk to and hopefully get some questions answered..

I'm very afraid of this pregnancy and I know I shouldnt be but its my first and everything is new and scarey.

I have just come home from the USA to have my birth in Australia but I have no idea where to start, I'm about 30 wks pregnant now and I am going to Sutherland hospital today.. but I have no idea where to start with questions as what I want what I need what I should find out etc, I havent had any classes at all, the OB's I was with in the USA were not very nice and I was almost in tears all the time so this is a major reason why I wanted to come home - less stressful.

I am really interested in a water birth, perhaps St george birth centre? I have heard does these??? I love being in the water and I swim every day so it just is very therapeutic and relaxes me alot! I think this would really nice but I'm not sure how it all works..

I've noticed alot of people are talking about being booked in to these places etc... I'm not sure what happens here as i havent booked in anywhere except I have seen my normal doc and she gave me a referral form to either sutherland or st georges hospital.

Anyways my husband is also not currently with me as he is in the military and wont be able to come back till a week before the baby is due.. which is also quite stressful as I'm all alone, I do have my mum with me and she is a great support but I really really need help and advice as to what i should ahve done or been prepared for... we didnt know that I was going to head back to Australia till about a week before I booked my flights.

I'm also ONLY on medicare so what costs am I looking at???

Any help would be greatly appreciated..

thanks so much


Kizzie
:)

Hi Kizzie :)
Congratulations on your pregnancy!

If you are with medicare, you will be going through the Public system. IMO there is nothing wrong with the public system here, I'm sure many BB members would agree with me :) This will mean you will have a lot of midwife care, as opposed to ob care.

My main advice, don't be affraid to express yourself :) Tell them how worried you are, talk talk and talk some more. They will explain everything to you! And if you are still unsure, talk some more or ask to see a different midwife/doctor. I even took a note pad with me to my appointments, so I wouldn't forget the questions/concerns I had, and the answers I got for them! hehe.

I can't help with which hospital would be best for you, as I'm not in your area, but I'm sure there will be a few women who can help. I know some hospitals don't allow water births, but will allow you to labour in a bath (then birth the baby out of the water). The shower is also a lovely place to labour in, all that hot water is nice on a contracting belly :)

My favourite book to read while pregnant was, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. If you can, get your hands on a copy! It's a great book filled with beautiful birth stories and great tips.

HTH and good luck with everything xxoo

Hi Kizzie

I am neither pregant nor in Sydney, but I just wanted to welcome you to BB - and back home to Australia!!

It must be a huge thing for you to confront, being pregnant with your first, alone and in a new city!! I can't even imagine how you must feel.

The good news is you have come to the right place. BB is a wonderful community and there are lots of women on here who will be more than willing to help you as much as they can with advice, support, information and friendship. There are quite a few defence force wives/partners on here too. I think there is a special thread. (I am not one of them either!). I am also sure there will be lots of women in here from your area.

I am not sure but I think the hospitals you mentioned are public (someone else will be able to confirm this). If so, there should be no costs to you. Medicare will cover it all.

Good luck for your pregnancy. And, above all, dont be scared! :)

take care

n2l

Thanks so much for your quick responses ladies, its nice to get some good positive feedback. I hope this afternoon goes well with the hospital and I'm going to use your advise TellyTubby and write all the questions I can think about now and take them with me.. the hard part is.. I dont know what else I should be thinking about, I think if you are going for your 2nd birth etc it must get easier as you know what you want and you know what you dont want... but is there any place on these BB forums that show you like an example of the birthing plan questions etc.. so I dont have the birth then afterwards go I wish I knew about this or I wish you could have told me I could have had that kind of thing. If you know what I mean. Thanks so much for your guidance so far!

I dont know why but I think being a first pregnancy every other woman has been gracious enough to share with me their scarey experiences !! and I'm afraid to read anything as I'm very bad for pain.... when I went for my first blood test I passed out then vomited afterwards... not nice I know but I'm not interested it getting the epidural etc. hopefully some gas or an IV would be nicer lol...

In my first 4 months of the pregnancy I had sickness about 4-6 times a day. That bad the strain caused a subchorionic bleed which healed up afterwards but still wasnt a nice experience! But it will be worth it in the end !!

Then I got told I might be a high risk for pre-eclampsia because my blood pressure was always really high.. but since being back home in Australia its always in the 70s which my doc is very pleased about and wants it to stay.

*sigh* there is so much they dont tell you about being pregnant.. all the invasive procedures they do etc... its all so scarey when you arent informed. My mum isnt realy a help as she had me and my sister over 21 yrs ago in the UK soo an Australian birth is all new for us!

I'm due to have my gestational diabetes test early next week and again i'm afraid I will pass out lol.. I think its mainly all mental, as physically its not that painful I just psych myself up too much!

Welcome. I am from the Sutherland Shire but gave birth at St George Private. The best thing might be to do a hospital tour of Sutherland and St George hospital. They just did up Sutherland and it looks really nice! I did do a tour when I was pregnant with DD but I can't remember the hospital.

St George Birth Centre does do water births and I have heard that it is awesome but I think they are hard to get in contact with them. Doesn't hurt to ring up and see if you can get in.

I'm having my bub at Sutherland soon. The midwives have a been great. And you can have a waterbirth there. They have a few rooms with large tubs.
It won't cost you anything to be a public patient there.
Def do a tour, they do them every Saturday afternoon.
Hopefully hubby is home in time. I'm in a similar situation too.
Good luck!

@ Mel_Cur Thanks!! and did you have any trouble with being in the shire for getting admitted due to distance??

@ Ezy May - Thankyou... thats good to know about the water tubs... I wonder if you have to book them out or how they work... like what if everyone wants one at the same time I do, how does that work lol... I dont know the chances or likely hood but I will ask this afternoon,

good to know about the tour too I will ask them about that although I wont be available this saturday hopefully I can book in for next week.


I hope your hubby is home too, I'm just going to try and keep my legs crossed lol!!! :lol:

Welcome to BB... this place is a wealth of knowledge and the best thing is everyone is willing to share. If you have a question... just ask...

There are heaps of birth stories, these may give you some idea on ways you'd like your birth to go

Good Luck with your visit today and don't worry, you'll be back in two weeks so if you forget to ask something you'll have plenty of time to ask again :)

Welcome to BB and welcome home to Australia! Congratulations on your pregnancy.

There are some great articles about birth at Birth Articles. Specifically, the article Birth Plans - Is It Worth Writing a Birth Plan? contains a link to a birth plan template.

Also, if you search the pregnancy/birth forums, I'm pretty sure there are threads where members have posted their own birth plans. If not, you could always start one asking people to share theirs :). That's the beauty of BB, we all help and support one another.

A book I found really helpful was "Creating Your Birth Plan" by Dr Marsden Wagner.

All the best.

thanks very much Tuesdays Child... I really appreciate that link I have read 3 articles already and feel soo unprepared haha! But I will be reading alot more when I return back from the hospital.. they have got alot of valuable information in them so thankyou for pointing me in that direction!

Let us know how you go today Kizzie :)

Also, here is a link to birth stories - Birth Stories

You'll find that the majority of members on BB think of birth as something beautiful and exciting, not something to be feared. A lot of good stories and experiences written in there. If you have a search I'm sure there will be plenty of water births aswell :)

there is also a thread about birth plans and members have shared theirs. it would i guess be in the labour and birth section somewhere....

some of the main points that people like to have in their birth plan are things like no internal examinations and immediate skin to skin contact and delayed cord clamping. and of course what drugs etc they DO and DONT want. in my case i also specified that i did not want to be offered drugs that i would ask for them if and when i felt i wanted them :)

congratulations on your pregnancy by the way!! i can highly recommend a waterbirth as i had one for my second birth and it was amazing! so i would ask about that option :)

Hi! just wanted to say welcome back to Australia, and don't feel alone because with first birth EVERYONE has no idea what's going on! But like others have said, u've come to the right place! The other thing to consider is looking at having a Doula (Birth Attendant), they are there to support YOU, to 'mother the mother'. You do have to pay for these, the rate varies, I know mine charges me $500 which includes a few visits during pregnancy and a couple after as well as she'll be there for the entire labour. My husband actually found her invaluable when our first daughter was born, she was able to kick him out to get some fresh air and he knew I was in good hands :)

I won't lie, having a baby is normally painful, but it's pain for a PURPOSE! It's like a marathon runner getting sore muscles and feet...they're achieving something at the same time, so are we when we are going through labour, we are bringing a baby into this world! And the pain is honestly instantly forgotten when u hold that beautiful baby in ur arms!! There are a huge variety of pain management options other than drugs too, water is definitely a popular one, massage, heat packs, TENS machines, different labouring positions, I know some people also use Calm Birthing and Hypno Birthing techniques, may be worth reading up about them too if that interests you :)

As for the questions, just write down any you think about, u've still got time to ask more questions as u think of them :) Congrats on your pregnancy all the best and hope you can get the Water Birth you are after!!!
Beck

ok back from my visit, oh what a relief...much nicer than the USA.. :clap:

Very happy, met a lovely midwife who was so relaxing to talk to I felt I could ask her anything - completely different attitude to USA. They are more abrupt and are always in a rush... they made my hubby and I feel like we were in the way. So another reason I why I wanted to come home.

Was lovely and EzyMay you are correct with the water births, some rooms have corner tubs and others have extra long and wider ones, and the midwife was even supportive of the water birth said everyone she has had turned out fantastic.

I was there for 2 hrs answering questions and then my mum and I had a load of questions too and she was only too happy to answer them, didnt feel like she couldnt be bothered etc it was truly a wonderful experience, its actually changed me and my train of thought as I'm now starting to get excited!!!

I have lots of tests next week to catch up on the Australian side as its different in USA, but I feel confident about them!

I am definitely very keen on a waterbirth and she is very positive that I can achieve this unless obviously there are health risks for either the baby or I. or if the baby is in destress etc,

She talked about pain medications etc as the only thing I have heard about is an epidural and I will almost pass out at the thought of that, so I'm currently going to look further into the gas and the pen.... something something lol!!! I havent heard of any of these before and I hope at the time I dont need it, but I'm really bad on pain so we will see how it goes lol.

Sutherland sounds sooo nice since its been done up and the midwife I was with had previously worked at St George so she gave us some info about there too. I'm more keen to birth at Sutherland now, plus they have double bed rooms with recliners or single rooms with recliners etc... sounds relaxing!... Anyways I'm going to be attending the tour next saturday.

Now the other thing she has mentioned to me - Antenatal classes for about 156 dollars, any advice on these? I know its my first but I have a lot of support around me and I dont really want to attend these without my husband... soo are they really necessary?

I've got to do alot more reading so that I'm not so scared !! and that I knwo what I'm feeling etc is normal and OK.

I'm very excited and I will be posting here regularly thanks so much all for your help.

Kizzie

Kizzie, glad you had such a positive experience today, awesome to hear.

DH and I loved our antenatal classes. We felt like we were being thoroughly informed, we were in the classes with a nice bunch of people. For us, they were in the evening, so we both could go after work. But we took the classes well before I really explored bellybelly, so I don't know, maybe someone else will post. Next time around, I think I'll read a stack of birth stories on here and get my head in a different place. Good luck and hope all goes well for the remainder of your pregnancy!

Kizzie I'm glad you had a good appointment! They are lovely, I'm looking forward to birthing there.

I haven't done the antenatal classes because I did them with my first at a different hossy. But a gf did them at sutho and said they were good.

You can't book a room with a bath. It's first in best dressed but they said to me you have a pretty good chance of getting one. If you have an epidural you can't be in one of those rooms anyway so I think they are fairly free.

Hi and welcome I did antinatal classes they are a good way to ask Qs in a group setting so anything you havnt thought of others might have plus you get to meet other people at about the same stage as you are

so glad to hear you had a great appointment! and can start feeling EXCITED about the birth now!! DH and I went to 2 sets of antenatal classes with DD, first one run by the Maternity Coalition which was AWESOME, so encouraging and informative. we paid for those ones. Hospital ones were at a public hospital so were free, and I didn't find them anywhere near as good, but we did them so we knew where the hospital stood on various things seeing as we were going with an OB so hadn't had any interaction with people in the hospital. Was definitely good doing both sets :)

Hi Kizzie, welcome back to Australia. I'm American and had my first baby here in Australia. It was wonderful and so much better than much of what I've heard about giving birth in the US so I think you made a good choice in coming here. I didn't have to pay a thing at the public hospital I went to in Adelaide and they took such good care of me. I couldn't believe how much Medicare covers after being in the US my whole life. I did a waterbirth too with my first, which was a good experience. We didn't get to Adelaide until I was about 30 weeks along and it was fine. It was a little challenging getting all my records transfered over but I didn't have to do it, the hospital made all those calls. I found a birth plan here on the BellyBelly website and personalized it a little. My hospital was really good about following it and I gave it to them about 6 weeks before the baby was due to make sure they were ok with it. I hope all goes well with your pregnancy and birth experience.

ok.... I have had my blood test and didnt faint.. woohoo... I dont have gestational diabetes!

I also have just found out today that I'm now a high risk pregnancy and they wont accept me at Sutherland hospital no more...

so please any feedback would be greatly appreciated on St George Hospital if anyone has been there good and bad.

I'm still in a bit of shock and disappointment as I had my heart set on Sutherland :(

What else can change on me, I've just settled from America and now I have to change again... far out!!!

I miss my hubby I need him home asap :( but still over 6 wks to go!

Thanks so much for your help and support everyone its so great to come on here and vent my frustration, confusion and happiness!...


xxxxxxxxxxx

yay that you don't have GD! that's fantastic news :) Such a shame they won't take u at ur hospital anymore, that strikes me as very strange! hope you have a great experience at ur new hospital!!

yeah.. apparently about 10 yrs ago this hospital stopped accepting high risk pregnancies because the other one which is pretty much same distance away is receiving the funding for the theatres etc. and Also because I have a high BMI and high blood pressure it apaprently means I'm more than likely to go in the night and at Sutherland hospital it takes approximately 45mins to get someone on call in??... sooo yeah bit of a disappointment I just hope I feel as comfortable at the new one and that I'm still able to attempt to have a water birth etc.. Sutherland hospital is alot newer as its recently been upgraded and St george is older but St George is more like the central Head hospital unfortunately :(

Oh well!

Also I received my results back from my scan last week and they said that the baby is in comparison of the size of a 35wk old baby... but im only in my 31-32nd week unsure due to docs keep changing the dates on me lol!!!

Should I be worried at all as no one is 100% of my due date due to the fact my last period was in August, and in September I had spotting so I didnt realise that it wasnt a period... therefore I didnt take note of the August one. I just know it was in the last two weeks of August.

Hmm.. all so confusing lol!!! :)

Its good to be back in Australia though 100% I dont regret it lol!

Kiz