Re: Need advice about choosing a hospital for birth
Hi Sarah,
i'm in SA (Gawler) and you should be able to find an independant midwife in SA for around $2000. I'm birthing in June '08 and that is what my midwife will be charging.... and happily accepts payment once we receive our baby bonus.
My advice is don't rush your decision... if you are worried about missing out on a place in a hosp. or BC, then make those appts, but I would strongly recommend that you talk to as many people about your options as possible. We had a beautiful home birth with my DD with both my DS (2yrs 8mths at the time) and DSD (9yrs at the time) present. my DS was born at womens and childrens....
for us, and especially DP, it took us a while to come to our decision to homebirth. I had a few worries about it (all 'normal' ones..
), and DP had his own. I'd recommend discussing options with an independent midwife as well, especially if your pregnancy is low risk. The Homebirth Network morning teas are also great, even if you still decide to birth in a hosp. or BC, the morning teas are a great place for hearing positive birth stories, and just getting support and ideas on natural birth.
whichever place you choose to birth, you will face risks, and I think you need to be informed about what those risks are, and which ones you might prefer to face... for me, I was going to be 5 minutes drive from our back up hospital if I did need to be transferred, and I went and met some midwives there too, so that they had me on their books, but I never went back, and my midwife instilled such confidence in me that I could birth my baby, that really helped allay any fears and doubts that I had...
If you need any info on contact details for independent midwives you can get them off the Homebrith Network website (the SA one) or there are a few mums on the NPSA mailing list that have homebirthed who could recommend midwives as well...
I can highly recommend mine, who lives in the Adelaide Hills (happily travelling to Gawler for me!).