Need advice about choosing a hospital for birth

[meitaimama]

I've just found out I'm pregnant with baby no.2 and have to decide where to give birth.... We really don't want to pay $4000 for a home birth so it'll have to be either Flinders medical centre or the Women's and Children's. We live half way between the 2. I just read this thread about problems another mum was having (presumably with flinders) and am feeling a little freaked out.
Advice Needed - I'm stuck with the public health system

It sounds like I may not even be able to give birth in the birth centre at either hospital if it's already fully booked and anyway according to their website 30% of women who start out in the birth centre at flinders and up developing 'complications' and being transferred to the delivery ward for more medical attention - this seems an absurdly high figure!

I gave birth to dd at the WCH and it was OK but I'd had all my antenatal care at the QEH and didn't know any of the midwives at the hospital. I had several complications (most significantly a posterior bub, which entailed 8 hours of pushing to no avail and and epi and forceps in the end) and over the course of a long labour we went through 2 shift changes so we had no continuity of care which was disconcerting.

I am really desperate to have an active, natural birth this time, barring extreme emergencies, and I'd also like to have the option of having my 3yo dd at the birth in the care of a support person. TBH I think seeing me give birth would be less traumatic for her than being separated from me for a night!

Any advice about where I should go and what I should do? Is one hospital better than the other? At the moment I have an appointment at flinders, just because they were the only place that could fit me in before we go away for 5 weeks to India at the end of Dec.

Thanks!

Sarah

[Lysianna]

Oh Gosh Sarah, I'd love to do anything I can to help!
I had all my ante natal care at flinders BC before freebirthing my son (now 19mths) *Most* of the mws I saw for appts were informed of my decision upfront, you can imagine I got a mixed response. All the way from "dontcha know women can DIE during childbirth" (in front of my 7yo too!) thru to "ok, well you seem really well informed, let me sneak you a vial of synto + syringe, just in case" I cant remember that particular midwife and *ehem* ya didnt hear it from me. She was one of the people really pushing for the community midwifery program. Isnt that up and running now? Publicly funded?
Any hoo, feel free to pm if you want to chat about your options, Im only 10 minutes from flinders.
PS. all 3 of my girls witnessed me giving birth to their brother!

[justincredible]

can i just suggest that it *may* actually be a fair bit less than the $4000... I am pretty sure that the mw's in your area are a bit cheaper than that, so it may be worth ringing to check with them.

Other than that, I have no idea sorry mate.

[moo]

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

All I can suggest is that if you do decide to take the hospital path, please do hire a decent natural birth loving doula.

An OP baby should be detected by any competent CP well before labour. Further, any competent CP would also have you in active positions during labour in attempt to turn an OP babe. There is so much you can do to help an OP baby turn, just do a search on the forums here for some good threads and a link to the spinning babies website. I promise you that labour and birth are soooooo much simpler with an anterior babe. hth

[monstermon]

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!).

[monstermon]

oh, and just quickly.... on having your child present at the birth... I think it can be a really beautiful thing. It was something I worried about at first, but my midwife said she had never seen a child get distressed at a birth, and our experience was just that. Being in our own home, they could come and go from the birth area as they chose. DS was less interested until the final moments, as he had a shorter attention span, but DSD stayed in the room most of the time, and her job was topping up the pool with warm water...

Reading stories about babies being born helps (Hello Baby is a beautiful one), talk about the sorts of things that you might be doing, etc.... We didn't have any extra support people for the kids, but we had an extra midwife. If you were going to be in a hospital setting you would probably need a support person for your child as you will be needing your partner, and your child probably won't be able to take themselves to the loo etc...at home it's a bit different as it is their own space..

The thing about child birth is that children don't have pre- conceived ideas about what it is or what might happne, and it is the people around you that really normalise it for them.... While I was in the birthing pool, I did make some noise from time to time, but our midwives were quietly sitting at the table, and DP was sitting next to the pool with his hands on me.... this really set the tone for DS and DSD.

[meitaimama]

Thanks for all the advice! My 2yo dd loves 'Hello Baby' and is very into playing 'giving birth'! I can't see us free birthing (my dh would get too freaked out, even though he is a RN who has actually delivered babies alone when working in remote communities) but I'll see if we can get into the community midwife program. I'm just worried that we won't get in under the quota/catchment area but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and in teh meantime check out Homebirth network etc.

Sarah

[monstermon]

i had another thought this morning too.... if you are due after July 1st, the baby bonus goes up to $5000, so if you went with an IM, you'd still have $3000 left.....

there are quite a few good books on homebirth (I spotted a Sheila Kitzenger one in my googling this morning), but this is the one that cemented it for me:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Birth-Adv.../dp/0967044405

it is American, so american stats, but still very relevant i think...

anyway, goodluck with your decision...whatever you decide will be the right choice, but i think exploring all options is very worthwhile so you can be confident in your choice.

oh, and I forgot to say.... CONGRATULATIONS on your pregnancy...

[lucky_mummy]

Congratulations!!! Mmmm you said something last Wednesday, can't remember what, that made me think that you might be thinking that way soon.

I haven't talked to you yet about your birth story Sarah, so I say this without knowing. But I would give away all of my baby bonus just to have my own midwife or advocate, regardless of whether I am birthing at home or in hospital. But that is because I know what I am like in labour, we are all different, and births can be different. But as Monique said, it may not cost as much as you think.

As for the hospitals, I have heard that WCH is better for birth, and Flinders is better for after.

Linda.

[meitaimama]

Thanks Linda! Like you, I know what I'm like in labour now ndw and definitely have ideas about what I need to do - mainly keep walking! I think I am going to go to the first appointment at Flinders and be labelled a 'difficult' patient right away with a long list of questions/demands....

Oh, I also meant to tell you that after our conversation about how I don't get +ive comments about bfing any more, I had some nice comments from 2 women while I was Bfing dd on the bus that night!

Sarah