Obstetricians - Are they a waste of money?

[Mum2OneSweetBun]

Hi All,

Might be my hormones but I have so much complaint about my obstetrician (not going to name names).

Firstly, my meetings with her feels so rushed. Most of the time she doesnt even ask me if I have any questions. You wait so long in the office and then feel like she just wants to get rid of you.

Now, she's cancelled two of my appointments because of her personal issues.

And that has got me thinking whether she will make it to deliver my baby or not.

I feel that the 3k I pay her definatelly is not worth it.

I think I will go public for my next baby.

My whinge for the day =) Sorry for having to put up with it =)

Cheers!

[Kazbah]

I don't know - I've been having the same thoughts and want to go through a midwife for the next bub, but my hubby likes the OB. Even though the OB missed the birth.

I guess if there are problems that's when you want them, but you never know do you?

[meow]

I guess you need to look at why you were seeing an OB in the first place. If you needed that level of medical care then I'm sure it hasn't been a waste- it just feels like it because of things at the moment. I hope you get to see more of her soon- just be stubborn in your appointments and keep asking questions if you have them!
I haven't seen an OB as I don't have any health concerns so for me it probably would have been a waste.

[BellyBelly]

My Ob missed both my births too LOL

In this day and age (and country) you are not going to get substandard care. I think some people get fooled into thinking by going with an Ob that they get continuity of care. But they are not there during the labour, midwives are (usually ones you have never met) and in an emergency, if your Ob isn't available, someone will be. You wont be left in trouble no matter what care option you have chosen. Also you want someone to be there for more than 5 minutes during pre-natal visits where you feel that you are central to the care, in control and nurtured. Not a number.

I think you are better off investing in your own independent midwife or doula, because you will see them for appointments before the birth, in your own home, in your own time and they will be there with you for the entire birth. Enter the doula/private midwife you have 50% chance less c/s, less epidurals, forceps, inductions etc... yet enter the Ob you are more likely to get all those things.

Answer is very simple for me, for a low risk, healthy woman. An advantage of having an Ob is if you are not comfortable with homebirth, but you want a birth which is difficult in the public system, like breech or VBAC because you can negotiate ahead of time what you want and make sure you have an Ob who is in agreeance with your wishes.

The pro's I see for a private midwife:

* Visits in your home - no waiting!
* Doesn't matter if you are in your jarmies or slippers
* If you have children they get them involved too, getting them to help with the heartbeat etc
* See the same person every time
* Longer visits
* A woman who's likely been there before
* She's trained in helping to keep birth normal and to minimise any interventions
* She will be with you the whole birth, regardless
* She will be someone you know the whole time (wont know hospital midwives)
* No surprises - you will know what to expect. If you end up with a breech baby, VBAC etc, you wont get the rude shock that your midwife doesn't support it and feel that its all too hard to change.
* You've chosen her so you will like her and her philosophy. She can't catch the baby but she sure can help you have a much better birth. How you labour effects the outcome of the birth. Why have a carer there to fix when you can have someone there to prevent in the first place!?!

[Sammiejane]

THey are expensive,
but there are a couple of reasons that we decided going with one.
will list them for you
* No training Drs
* Have appointment with same person each time
* Private OBs are Consultants, usually you would have a resident or registra delivering bubs if going public
* Build a rapport with the one person and can discuss needs/wants/desires with that person and not have to exlain it over and over.

I am a nurse that works in the public system and for the most part would avoid private hossys opting to be treated as a priv pt in public hosp, but in this situation it is different.

My Ob goes away on conferences A LOT and i am always concerned that he will miss the birth. Discussed this with him last week and he told me that he only works in with OB's that share the same values as him and that if i did go into labour and he was unavaiable, the Dr's that cover him will get a good handover of me and the pg and will respect the birthplan that i have.

In saying this i do sometimes wonder if it is worth it... I always like the MW approach as they do most of the work anyway, so after i have this bub (not ling to go ) i will re-evaluate!

[Kazbah]

My OB and I had a huge blue about the possibility of breech - for him, it was an immediate C/S which I didn't want (I didn't have breech though, so I guess moot point).

Its sorta annoying that to get into the private hossy I want, I must have an OB, and if I have a private MW then they aren't allowed to catch. hrumph.

[Claire]

IMO for low risk women they are a waste of money. Midwifery care at your local public is better for you. Having used an independent midwife I'd rather spend my money that way again.

[meow]

For low risk women- yeah I was shocked how much an OB costs! A friend of mine has one and I was thinking you could have a home birth for that much money!

[fionas]

I think it depends on the woman and her priorities. I personally had experienced public hopsital care with a miscarriage and wasn't impressed. That, added to the fact, that I definitely wanted a non-shared room made me want to go private plus I didn't want to hang around for appointments and see different people each time.

I sometimes did feel rushed at appointments but my pregnancy was very normal (despite being over 35 and being seen as a higher risk).

But having had my ob at the birth, I can understand why appointments ARE sometimes rushed - he may have had a woman in labour that he needed to go to so couldn't do much hand-holding with me during a regular appointment.

My ob was fantastic during the birth and I can't tell you what a relief it was to have someone I knew there when I had to have forceps. OK, some would argue that if I'd had a doula the chances of having an epi and then forceps would have been greatly reduced but it was my decision not to have a doula despite knowing all the benefits. I think next time I would be much more open to having a doula but I would still like the reassurance of having the same ob if something did go pear-shaped.

My ob does deliver breech babies vaginally and has the lowest caesar rate in Melbourne. Before me, he delivered twins vaginally. He is VERY pro-vaginal birth and the midwives told me that a different ob would have ordered a caesarean in my situation and not used forceps.

So for me, having him as my ob was the right decision but everyone's different and I don't think private obs are all necessarily worth the money. Many, quite clearly, are not so women really need to weigh up all the pros and cons and NOT think that going private is definitely best.

[paradise lost]

3K!!??!?!

That would have been kind of wasteful for me, since i only met mine once. Luckily in the UK it's all free.

[happymel]

Hi Phoenix, sounds like you have had a really bad experience with your OB, trust me they are not all like that. I have moved from Syd to Perth to Syd in this pregnancy. We saw a private OB in Perth, who was rude, pushed us through and i basically didnt have much respect for him. I went public when we got back to Sydney. I just thought after that "private" experience that i would try the public health system. BAD IDEA!!! For me anyhow. I was given substandard care and my babies were placed at risk, not to mention having an arrogant doctor who was rude and unprofessional- long story, but he is actually a professor!! And i expected more.
I eventually changed over to a private OB after insistence by my GP, and he is fantastic, i have so many positive words to say about him, nothing negative what so ever. His management fee is 3K which is reasonable, $1700 of which we get back anyway. My babies are now being closely watched and he expects me to deliver much earlier than my due date as one baby isnt growing so well. I have trust and faith in him and would recommend him to anyone.
I think all experiences are different, and you may just be unlucky and get that one rude or whatever doctor.... You just have to have to confidence in changing docs if you can, but if you have already paid the money then i guess thats out. I wish you luck, but remember all experiences arent bad, just some.
Best wishes, Mel

[Arimeh]

I wasn't too impressed with my OB at appointments - but he was great in my c-section and did a fantastic job - hardly see the scar!!!
But I switched OB's and am much more comfortable with this one. I picked going with an OB because I had heard too many bad stories about the public hospital where I live, and wanted to go to the private hospital.

[kristy J]

I realy like my Ob hi is in windsor a great dr. i had him for a c/cect for DS i was a public patient. for my twins im having another c/cect and he did a fantastic job so wanted him again was so happy when i found out apart from my sergery visits $60 and then i get some back. he sends my hospital bill strait to HCF no out of pocket costs. i may only have to pay a MAX of $400-500 for my anethsatist. but he said he will try to book my date with someone who will also send their bill to HCF not me. so im so happy with that.

he is strait to the point and honest with me giving me any info i need. with every appointment even involving my DH and son if he can.

so happy i recomend him to all....

[Schmickers]

There are no doubt some great obstetricians out there, but statistically, if you have an obstetrician without any compelling medical reason to do so, you are increasing the risk to yourself and your babies, as opposed to having midwife care. OBs are trained to handle abnormal birth situations, and they carry this training with them, even in normal birthing situations. Those OBs that are able to overcome their training and vieew birth as a "normal" event I have no doubt are wonderful to birth with. But unless you can go on recommendation, you are really getting the luck of the draw when you go private.

Of course, this is no different in the public system - there are good midwives and poor midwives - however, midwifery training is much more woman orientated, and they are much more likely to support you in a natural labour, which is where the previously mentioned statistic comes from.

That is the reason why we choose homebirth with an independently practicing midwife that we can choose based on the recommendation of others. It's really a shame that obstetricians don't need to publish a "report card" - like schools do these days...

As far as public hospital versus private hospital, there is no way in hell that I would ever choose or recommend for any woman to give birth in the private hospital system. Now, I freely admit I might be biased, but I have never, ever worked in a private hospital (and I've worked in a few) where the health and wellbeing of the patients was the priority. The priority in the private health system has always been money - that is why they are private - and their first obligation is to their shareholders and stakeholders, THEN to the patient. As far as I am concerned, if you want good food, go private. If you want good care, go public. You CAN elect to be a private patient in a public hospital - this will often (although this is not guaranteed, in cases where single rooms are needed for infectious patients, parents with stillborn babies who need privacy, etc.) get you a private room, as well as other perks like newspapers, free television, free meals for partners, and sometimes other perks as well.

Perhaps we should set up http://www.ratemyob.com...

[kristy J]

Originally Posted by Schmickers

As far as public hospital versus private hospital, there is no way in hell that I would ever choose or recommend for any woman to give birth in the private hospital system. Now, I freely admit I might be biased, but I have never, ever worked in a private hospital (and I've worked in a few) where the health and wellbeing of the patients was the priority. The priority in the private health system has always been money - that is why they are private - and their first obligation is to their shareholders and stakeholders, THEN to the patient. As far as I am concerned, if you want good food, go private. If you want good care, go public. You CAN elect to be a private patient in a public hospital - this will often (although this is not guaranteed, in cases where single rooms are needed for infectious patients, parents with stillborn babies who need privacy, etc.) get you a private room, as well as other perks like newspapers, free television, free meals for partners, and sometimes other perks as well.

I get the best of both worlds a private patient in a public hospital. the midwife care and my own DR and Room.YAY.

Just to, All the hawkesbury hospital maternity staff are awsome, caring people to you all)

[Suga]

Depends on what type of care you want. My pregnancy is normal so I would like to have care by someone who specialises in normal birth - a midwife. I have chosen to go public through a midwifery group practice so I have mostly seen the same midwife through my pregnancy. Best of all it's free. I don't really care if I have to share a room... I hope with a normal birth I'll be out of hospital after a night or two and back home anyway (DH can always bring me food).

I have private hospital cover but chose not to use it. This shocks some people. I want to give myself the best chance of having a normal delivery so have made an active choice not to go to a private hospital with a published c-sec rate of 50% to 80% for first time Mum's. If I had a problem with my pregnancy requiring specialist medical care then I would choose an Ob.

[happymel]

Ditto Kristy!! Private patient in a public hospital, best of both worlds. I have totally lost faith in the public system, BUT, if i was low risk i think i would probably put a bit more faith in midwives. Being a nurse myself i sort of have a bit more trust in the profession.

[mrsmac]

I loved my obs and have been very happy with my experineces in a private hospital. In my last pg I had a fall and broke bones in my foot and had to have screws put in at 31 wks pg. My obs visited me every day in hopsital when i was there for my foot and was always available for me to talk about concerns with having to have anaesthetic etc. He told me at the very start that he was like an insurance policy in that I would only really need him if something went wrong but I was glad i had him as he was so reassuring with all the scans etc for my foot.
I had a great stay in hospital when R was born and had access to a LC who was brilliant unlike SIL in the public system who was sent home after 40 hours before her feeding was even established.
I think this will be a never resolved argument as everyone is passionate about their particular POV I just wanted to stick up for the great obs and private hospitals that are around.