Be private or go public?

This is the biggest decision of the prgnancy - your health care provider - what do you want?

I did have private health insurance however I lived close to a public hospital with a good reputation for maternity so was not sure whether to go through the public system or private system…

I did my research and in a nutshell the difference is that in the public system you get the obstretician and midwife on at the time of you going to your apointments and at the time of delivery. Accomodation is in dormitory type rooms with other mothers so chances are you will be sharing a room…

In the private system you choose your own obstetrician who sees you throughout your whole pregnancy and labour/ delivery - you also get your own room at hospital and stay for a minimum of 5 days.

Under the public system Medicare picks up the bill for everything and the cost to you is minimal. In the Private system the out of pocket expenses were on average $3,000 (that is with a normal delivery) depending on your Obstetrician costs and health fund rebates etc…

After much deliberation we decided that as it was my first pregnancy it was safer to go down the private health route. So I got about looking for a local Obstetrician and Hospital.