Choosing a birth place.

1) Private hospital

Pros :

• You choose a private caregiver who looks after you for your entire pregnancy
• Private hospitals generally have good facilities
• You have your own private room
• Your partner can stay the night
• You have help 24 hours a day while you stay in hospital

Cons:

• It is more costly, even with private health insurance you will still be out of pocket
• Statistics have shown that more medical intervention (e.g. caesarians) occur in private hospitals than they do in the public health system
• There are no facilities to deal with very premature babies so you will be moved to a public hospital if that situation arises

2) Public hospital

Pros:

• It's free
• Statistics have shown that less medical intervention occurs at public hospitals
  
• A lot of public hospitals have great facilities now with birth centres fully equipped with things like baths, fit balls, etc and mid-wives rather than obstetricians
• Public hospitals are better able to deal with unusual emergencies
• You have help 24 hours a day while you stay in hospital
  

Cons:

• You will see a different caregiver every time you attend a check up
• There are no private rooms
• Partners cannot stay the night

3) Home birth

Pros:

• No medical intervention - all natural birth
• You can choose to birth in a birth pool (hospitals will not allow you to give birth in a bath)
• You choose your midwife and they look after all your prenatal care and birth
• You birth within the comfort of your own home with whoever you want present

Cons:

• If a medical emergency occurs you need to get to a hospital
• It is costly
• You don't have immediate help on hand directly after the birth but you can contact your chosen mid-wife for advice

My Choice

I chose to go with a private obstetrician for my prenatal and birth care because I wanted one caregiver throughout my pregnancy and I had good private health cover. I found an obstetrician whose clinic had three other obstetricians who all shared the care of each other's patients. Throughout my pregnancy I had appointments to meet each obstetrician so that if my doctor wasn't available at the time of birth I would already know the other doctors, one of whom would be present. I chose a female obstetrician (and the other doctors were all female too) because I wanted my doctor to understand what I was going through and what birth was actually like.

I also liked the private hospital I went to which had birthing suites with huge spa baths, showers, fit balls, big comfortable beds which could be converted into birthing stools, plus more. The rooms looked more like a nice hotel room than a birthing room. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to use a birthing suite due to Em being in the breech position.

Also my private hospital was within a public hospital, which was important to my husband. It meant that if there was a big emergency I would be rushed a couple of floors away, rather than having to spend time in transit to another hospital. (Just before I fell pregnant there was a case of a woman dying after labour because of the time it took to transport her to a public hospital, hence why it was particularly important to my husband. It also means that if your baby needs special care they can be also be transported a couple of floors away, rather than to another hospital).

My final reason for going private was so that I would have my own private room (I am a light sleeper and I knew I would need my sleep) and so that my husband could stay the night. My husband being able to stay the night turned out to be very much needed when I was very sick for the first two days after birth and I couldn't get up to our daughter at all. He did all the nappy changes and brought her to me for feeding. Again the room was more like a hotel room than a hospital and we had a double bed to share. The staff were very helpful and there was a breast feeding room available during the day for women to go to for help from lactation consultants. Overall, I was very happy with my choice of hospital.