Private obstetrician or choosing public?
Fertility consultations at Genea Hollywood Fertility
Public or private obstetrician: what’s best?
Private versus public pregnancy care
When going public for your pregnancy care, your care up to 20 weeks gestation will be provided by your general practitioner. From that time onwards, you will go to the antenatal clinic at your public hospital. At these antenatal appointments, you will either see a midwife, a GP obstetrician, a junior hospital doctor or a specialist obstetrician. Anyone who went through the public system knows that waiting times at these clinics can be long. They also know that there is less time to discuss what you want and what matters to you, as you prepare to deliver your baby.
Other differences between public and private antenatal care become clear when you prepare to give birth. In the public system, your partner or support person will not be able to stay with you overnight. After the delivery, you will be discharged fairly quickly, within the first day for an uncomplicated delivery. Midwives will visit you at home to support you with breastfeeding and to help you out in those early days of your motherhood. After 6 weeks, you see your GP for a postnatal check-up.
With private obstetrics, the journey is different. You choose your obstetrician and you choose the hospital you will be delivering at. In the first trimester, you will see your obstetrician at around 8 weeks and the first ultrasound or pregnancy scan confirms your due date and the viability of your pregnancy.
The typical discussion topics of our antenatal consultations are:
- Down syndrome screening
- Routine antenatal bloods
- Folic acid
- Avoiding caffeine intake
- General lifestyle tips
When the day comes, your partner or support person is encouraged to stay with you in the maternity ward at the hospital. Following your delivery, you will usually spend 3-4 nights in hospital. Expert midwives are available 24/7 to help you. It means that you can return home with confidence looking after your baby and with breastfeeding
Benefits private obstetrician Perth
Benefits of having a private obstetrician?
Choose your obstetrician
Continuity of care
Tailored care
No two people are quite the same and no two pregnancies are the same either. I aim to provide the best possible outcome for each woman and their family with every pregnancy. For you, it might be a really relaxed hypnobirthing labour and vaginal delivery. Or you might think of an elective caesarean section or an induction of vaginal delivery so the timing fits for you and your family. You may be living in the country and share some or even most of your antenatal care with your local doctor, perhaps using telehealth to keep in touch until near the end of your pregnancy. You may even be uninsured for private hospital delivery but desire the continuity of private antenatal care and then delivery in the public system. You may wish to stay as long as possible after delivery or you may want to get home earlier. It is your pregnancy and you will know what is best for you and your family. I am here to work with you so we can tailor your antenatal and obstetric care so it meets your needs.
Minimal waiting times
Private obstetrician Perth
Delivering your baby at St John of God Subiaco Hospital
In our modern world, we sometimes forget that having babies still comes with risks. Things do not always go according to plan. We can plan for some of the complications but not for all unexpected situations. I believe that St John of God Subiaco Hospital is the safest place in Perth to have your baby. Our hospital has 24 hours a day, 365 days per year onsite Neonatologist cover.
At the hospital in Subiaco, there is a very high-quality Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, full adult ICU, theatre complex and interventional catheter lab.
If you are unlucky enough to have a rare and life-threatening complication there is no safer place to be delivering than St John of God Subiaco Hospital. Hopefully, that hasn’t scared you! It isn’t meant to. You can also rest assured that out midwifery, nursing and support staff are of the highest quality, highly trained, capable and above all caring.
You have your own private room
Your partner can stay with you
You can stay longer at the hospital
All prospective parents are at least a little nervous about delivery. You might worry about a difficult, painful or complicated birth. The average first vaginal labour and delivery will be no more than 8-9 hours and you will get all the help and support in labour that you need. The team consists of midwives, anaesthetists, neonatologists and of course your obstetrician.
For a lot of couples, the moment after birth is the first time they have ever held a newborn. After that, you learn how to care for and feed this new person in your life. It takes three days for your milk to come in, and mothers tell me that it makes a difference to be able to stay in hospital for 3-4 nights. The team helps you with breastfeeding and if your baby needs a few days longer in hospital, I will work hard to keep you together.
Shared pregnancy Perth
Shared pregnancy care?
You may wish to consider shared pregnancy care. This works in one of 2 ways.
- Firstly, if you are a country patient or living overseas but planning to deliver in Perth then you could do some or most of your antenatal care where you are living. Telehealth visits using Zoom are simple and easy to organise as needed. You will usually need to be in Perth from 36-37 weeks onwards where I can continue your care and delivery.
- Secondly, you may be uninsured for private delivery in a private hospital but value the continuity and ease of private antenatal care. In this situation, I can see you, liaise with your public hospital antenatal clinic, and then you can deliver in the public system.
