[kimliz]

Just thought I'd put my 2 cents in

I had both my babies in my local public hospital and both experiences were incredible. I went through the midwife program and both bubs were delivered by midwives in the spa bath no less. I have heard of private patients being given the water birth option when it came to cruch time. I also stayed in hospital for 3-5 days and had excellent help with breast feeding. I just told them I wasn't leaving till Imy milk came in and bub was breastfeeding well.

Obviously if you have a complicated pregnancy, private might be a better way to go, but I really don't know.

I also went public with my D & C yesterday (missed miscarriage) and I could not be happier with the way I was treated. Nurses definitely deserve more money.

Kim

[g_uzica]

I just this in recent topics.

In your case I would go public as St George Public it's a pretty good hospital and has been recommended to me, I am due to give birth in August and am going to St George Provate because I refuse to go to my local public area.

If I was living in the St George Public catchment area, this is where I would have gone.

I went public with my first (different to current catchment area) and it all went quite smoothly, but then I had no complications... I saw different midwives but I was comfortable asking any questions. The best part was that I could organise my midwife appointments on Saturdays when it wasn't as busy and so less waiting times.

Whether you go public or private you can have a bad experience on the day even though other people had a great Experence at the same place, so it's definitely up to you to which choice you are most comfortable with.

This post has been edited by g_uzica: 07/03/2012, 09:19 AM

[soontobegran]

Nat1976, I stayed 4 or 5 nights in a public hospital with my first and didn't even have a c-section, I just needed the rest and the help with breastfeeding. They don't kick you out if you still need to be there.

Unfortunately the ability to let you stay extra days is dependent on the hospital and it's throughput.
For an uncomplicated vaginal delivery you need a very convincing reason to allow a mother to stay a third night. It isn't as easy as saying yes. The hospital is funded for a certain length of stay according to the nature of the delivery.

I don't like this, I would be much happier going back to the days of 6 day admissions for vaginal and 7 days for C/S when mothers went home rested, without pain and have managed to navigate those horrible hormonal days when trying to establish feeding instead of being sent home in the midst of it to a very unsupportive situation.

[MelodyNelson]

I went public with my first and will again with this one (both at RPA). From what I've heard from friends that went private and then chose public for a subsequent pregnancy, the level of care they received really wasn't that much different. I thought the care at RPA was excellent.