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Public or Private???

Hey. I'm 5wks and 5 days. First time being pregnant and know nothing! Not sure if I should go private or public. I'm on the Gold Coast. I have heard the gold coast hospital is really good for maternity, but I like the idea of having my own room.
Anyone for any recommendations??
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Have you seen the doco 'business of being born'? If u haven't u should download it. It will help u with your decision of obstetrician v's midwife. Also some beautiful footage of babies being born, will bring a tear to your eye (in a good way)
Good luck with everything :)
I'm going public because the private hospitals here have much higher rates of ceasarian then the public because the private doctors have other patients to see and there is only the 2 hospitals up here. So public definitly seems to be the better option for a natural birth.
I'd suggest researching rates of things like that for the hospitals near yourself. This is my first too and that is what I was suggested to do by my sister.
Hope that helps :)
Hi all... Just want to say don't base your choice just on Caesar rates - private will always have a higher rate because many women have elective Caesars which qld public hospitals won't do so they have to go private. I used to live on the gc and I am a nurse - Pindara was always a good place to have babies and close to the public hospital too incase anything goes wrong. Goodluck with your choice :)
Hmm it really depends on ur situation. I went private cause I had a 'high risk pregnancy' I had twins so I needed to have my own Dr an Ob, but if u don't have any foreseen problems I'd go public just because even if u have private cover you'll still b out of pocket. As for sharing a room you'll only b in 4 a couple of days & if it's not busy there's a good chance u won't have 2 share anyway
I'm due in 2 days and giving birth at John Flynn on gold coast. It's a great hospital so far and we get our own private room with double bed so hubby can stay. I'm going all natural, no drugs no vaccinations for bub either and they have been completely supportive of our choices. I think I'll end up being overdue at this rate and there has been no talk of induction or c-section at all-which is something I really want to avoid. It is more expensive though than going public and you need to have already had private health insurance before getting pregnant. Good luck.
Public is fine and I think private is over-priced if all you're after is a private room. (Spend the $ on a nice holiday before baby is born instead!) But also depends on how long you are planning/need to stay and what sort of post-hospital care you'll get. My hospital sent a midwife round to my house for 5 days which was much better attention than I had been receiving in hospital.
I went private because you see the one obstetrician the whole pregnancy, you get a private room usually that your partner can stay in, you get a longer stay in hospital which benefits you because you get to figure out how to care for your baby in a more relaxed way, you get more attention with breast feeding, and I recently had my second do the longer stay gave us a really great 4 days of bonding before having to get back into the hustle and bustle of having two kids. I've had both naturally so the caesar thing doesn't apply to my situation.
Thanks everyone! I appreciate that. It's given me some more the think about. So many decisions to make!! :)
I agree that it depends on your local hospital. Most health funds have a 12 month waiting period for pregnancy so you will need to have had that organised in advance.

I have private health cover but we decided to not have pregnancy cover as the public hospital in our area is has the best facilities (NICU and birthing centre). If your baby is having probs at the private hospital near us then you get sent to public NICU anyway.

As a private patient in a public hospital I will get my own room and can have my own Ob if wanted (although we chose to go with midwives anyway).
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