having a baby in OZ
Jun 23rd 2006, 6:07 am
#31
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by TillyG
Butting in but CONGRATULATIONS!!! I hope you're all doing well 
I posted this the other day to show her off!
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380221
Jun 23rd 2006, 6:08 am
#32
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by stevemich
Thanks!
I posted this the other day to show her off!
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380221
I posted this the other day to show her off!
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380221
Jun 23rd 2006, 7:50 am
#33
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Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 143
Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by mr&mrsjames
We hope to be traveling to Oz within the next 3 months and we have just found out my wife is pregnant, i would like to hear about peoples experiences with having babies Australian Hospitals, and is it worth going private.
I think it would have cost about $5000 (the government pay $4000 for having baby here anyway) but the real score was that only 2 months before the birth we were able to sign up with a private fund that covered the costs. Reason was that we had been with a fund in the US and they said they could do it as a transfer provided that we were not without cover for more than 30 days. We had been by then but they offered to backdate!!
Anyway, congrats and good luck!
Jun 23rd 2006, 8:57 am
#34
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by RReed
Larissa!
Thank you for all that info. You are a midwife's dream. There is nothing better than supporting a woman who has done her research and knows what she wants. I wish more women felt able to do this instead of listening to old wives tales or trusting the 'experts'.
Rachel
Thank you for all that info. You are a midwife's dream. There is nothing better than supporting a woman who has done her research and knows what she wants. I wish more women felt able to do this instead of listening to old wives tales or trusting the 'experts'.
Rachel
Take care x
Jun 24th 2006, 6:15 am
#35
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Re: having a baby in OZ
One thing I'd like to add is that private probably has more c-sections partly because people pay to elect to have a c-section or are in a category where they need it - and, have the insurance to pay for it.
Jun 24th 2006, 8:20 am
#36
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by thatsnotquiteright
One thing I'd like to add is that private probably has more c-sections partly because people pay to elect to have a c-section or are in a category where they need it - and, have the insurance to pay for it.
Jun 24th 2006, 9:26 am
#37
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by arkon
Hi, We were in the same situation and I'm sorry but I don't have time to re-type all my posts on the subject but here are a few of my posts in no particular order of our experiences having a baby here. In summary if we had to do it all over again it would be in the UK in a NHS hospital.
POST 1
I'll give you bad service, how about when we were told by the medical experts we were having a down syndrome baby and should consider our options? Wife goes for the Amnio test which in itself has a 1% chance of causing an abort. The needle is about to go in and the amnio test doctor notices the numbers on the previous test don’t look right. She aborts the test and re works out the numbers. The new result says the baby is more than likely fine with odds of down syndrome greater than 350 to 1! Had she had the test it would have been a 1 in 100 chance of an abort. We went through a couple of weeks of hell because an Australian imaging expert added the numbers up wrong, in fact we were told they were added up so wrong they couldn't possibly have been right and should have been noticed on day 1.
POST 2
I'm probably not the best person to ask as I think the entire way the health system works and is paid for out here is utter tosh.
To try and answer, I'm not really sure. If you go to a doctor that doesn't bulk bill for a consultation for example he will ask for anywhere from $50 to $200 for the visit which you pay on the spot. Go next door to a doctor with a bulk bill sign and for the exact same consultation just show you Medicare card and you might not have to pay anything.
The reason I'm being vague is as the wife was pregnant when we arrived we had a whole gamult of experiences when it came to paying for doctors and scans.
We had one doctor who didn't bulk bill charged us $70 to confirm the pregnancy. Another doctor who did bulk bill charged us $50 but we could claim $30 back from Medicare. We got some scans for free and others cost us $170 with $50 back from Medicare. We had a post natal check cost us at the reception $180 and we were told we would get some of it back in the form of a cheque from Medicare:- it gets daft here, we were then asked that when we got the cheque sent to our house it will be made out to the doctor so we have to post it to them when we get it.
So all in all a complete mess. BUT it does seem cheaper and you might not even end up paying anything if you go to a bulk biller.
POST 3
PS. My cousin had a baby out here using only Medicare and bulk billing and it cost her only $10 for the baby. We on the other hand still using Medicare have forked out about $700 so far and I'm still waiting for the bill to come in.
POST 4
Just a small piece of info we found out the hard way via a cousin who also had a baby a few weeks ago, they don't do episiotomies out here, they let you tear and tear bad! This was a particular concern for my wife as my cousin was left very badly damaged after her 1st Sydney born baby, so much so that she had no choice but to have a c-section for the 2nd.
POST 1
I'll give you bad service, how about when we were told by the medical experts we were having a down syndrome baby and should consider our options? Wife goes for the Amnio test which in itself has a 1% chance of causing an abort. The needle is about to go in and the amnio test doctor notices the numbers on the previous test don’t look right. She aborts the test and re works out the numbers. The new result says the baby is more than likely fine with odds of down syndrome greater than 350 to 1! Had she had the test it would have been a 1 in 100 chance of an abort. We went through a couple of weeks of hell because an Australian imaging expert added the numbers up wrong, in fact we were told they were added up so wrong they couldn't possibly have been right and should have been noticed on day 1.
POST 2
I'm probably not the best person to ask as I think the entire way the health system works and is paid for out here is utter tosh.
To try and answer, I'm not really sure. If you go to a doctor that doesn't bulk bill for a consultation for example he will ask for anywhere from $50 to $200 for the visit which you pay on the spot. Go next door to a doctor with a bulk bill sign and for the exact same consultation just show you Medicare card and you might not have to pay anything.
The reason I'm being vague is as the wife was pregnant when we arrived we had a whole gamult of experiences when it came to paying for doctors and scans.
We had one doctor who didn't bulk bill charged us $70 to confirm the pregnancy. Another doctor who did bulk bill charged us $50 but we could claim $30 back from Medicare. We got some scans for free and others cost us $170 with $50 back from Medicare. We had a post natal check cost us at the reception $180 and we were told we would get some of it back in the form of a cheque from Medicare:- it gets daft here, we were then asked that when we got the cheque sent to our house it will be made out to the doctor so we have to post it to them when we get it.
So all in all a complete mess. BUT it does seem cheaper and you might not even end up paying anything if you go to a bulk biller.
POST 3
PS. My cousin had a baby out here using only Medicare and bulk billing and it cost her only $10 for the baby. We on the other hand still using Medicare have forked out about $700 so far and I'm still waiting for the bill to come in.
POST 4
Just a small piece of info we found out the hard way via a cousin who also had a baby a few weeks ago, they don't do episiotomies out here, they let you tear and tear bad! This was a particular concern for my wife as my cousin was left very badly damaged after her 1st Sydney born baby, so much so that she had no choice but to have a c-section for the 2nd.
Jun 24th 2006, 10:13 am
#38
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by thatsnotquiteright
One thing I'd like to add is that private probably has more c-sections partly because people pay to elect to have a c-section or are in a category where they need it - and, have the insurance to pay for it.
This is not surprising when you consider private care as a business. A normal birth is very cheap - not a good earner. For every intervention the dr gets paid more by the insurance companies. A c-section is the big earner - estimated cost for insurance co = $17,000 in comparision to a few thousand $ for a normal birth. Another factor is that if a woman's labour does not fit around the drs commitments interventions can be used. I have seen an instrumental delivery (forceps/ventouse) used to speed things up so that the dr can get to his clinic.
Having said this. If you want an elective c-section a private hospital will provide you with a 'nicer' environment. ie. single room and posh food. If you want a normal birth with less unnecessary interventions public may be better.
Rachel
Jun 24th 2006, 10:25 am
#39
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by smurtaza
First of all use condoms for family planning,live overseas with your family and when you feel your wife is pregnant then rush to Australia for all the child benefits and a sum of $3000(maternity payments).
At a guess, smurtaza watched that tv prog the other night re 14yr olds getting pg (in Oz) for the $3k payment
Jun 24th 2006, 11:24 am
#40
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by smurtaza
First of all use condoms for family planning,live overseas with your family and when you feel your wife is pregnant then rush to Australia for all the child benefits and a sum of $3000(maternity payments).
What child benefit? I would be better off in the UK. Get $0 here. It is all means tested. $3000 Maternity payment is not much when you dont get Maternity pay from work.
At least there is statutory maternity pay in the UK.
Jun 24th 2006, 12:43 pm
#41
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by RReed
POST 4
Just for your information. Episiotomies create a greater risk of a bad tear than not doing one (the cut extends). Therefore any Dr or midwife would not do an episiotomy to prevent a tear unless they want to get sued. Women either tear or don't - risk factors include: size of baby, postion of baby, anatomy of woman, nutrition/health of woman, position at birth.
Rachel
Just for your information. Episiotomies create a greater risk of a bad tear than not doing one (the cut extends). Therefore any Dr or midwife would not do an episiotomy to prevent a tear unless they want to get sued. Women either tear or don't - risk factors include: size of baby, postion of baby, anatomy of woman, nutrition/health of woman, position at birth.
Rachel
At the end of the day both Australia and U.K are developed countries. You could have a good or bad experience in either country but overall you are better off than someone in a third world country.
Jun 24th 2006, 9:20 pm
#42
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Location: USA
Posts: 913
Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by joh117
What child benefit? I would be better off in the UK. Get $0 here. It is all means tested. $3000 Maternity payment is not much when you dont get Maternity pay from work.
At least there is statutory maternity pay in the UK.
At least there is statutory maternity pay in the UK.
You may get some family tax benefit part "A" as child benefit in Australia.As far as Maternity pay from work is concerned, the first thing is to get a job for survival.As per new ACTU advertisement government have the impression that there are a lot of work available in Australia but they don't know that a single job position is been advertised by 5-20 recruitement agencies simultaneously in aust.
Last edited by smurtaza; Jun 24th 2006 at 9:48 pm.
Jun 24th 2006, 9:41 pm
#43
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Both of my children were born at the Royal Canberra Hospital, with the first I had an episiotomy. I found the care I received both times first rate and it cost me nothing. Before the births I used to get my check ups done by my local GP who used to bulk bill.
Jun 24th 2006, 10:59 pm
#44
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Re: having a baby in OZ
We had 3 kids born in the UK and 1 kid in Aus - all public. Overall Aus was better.
Briefly:
1st born in St Thomas' London. The suite was good (we managed to get the pool room. The mid-wife forgot to connect the sintocin - 4 hours later I noticed that I had wet feet. Took ages to get a doctor to do the stitches.
2nd born in Guys London. The suite was minute (approx 6'x7') - they had to keep some of the machines outside of the door behind a screen. The mid-wife was awful. We wanted to collect some cord-blood and she went out of her way to screw it up.
3rd born in St Thomas' London. Although the suites were new, they were dirty. The mid-wife was good and she helped with the cord-blood collection.
4th born in Frankston Melbourne. The suite was the cleanest we'd been in. There were 2 mid-wives at the delivery. The only bad thing was that we got a low score on the ante-natal triple test and the doctor would not give us the results of the Nuchal scan. The next day we rang up the surgery to demand the result (as we had paid for the test) but the nurse just gave us the result when we asked for it. I think that the doctors don't like to have their decisions questioned - so you may have to work around this. Note: I think the UK leads the world on Nuchal scans so you'll probably find it a bit behind here. It is also worth asking for the drugs early (if you want them). The hospital at first refused to allow the blood cord collection but only because they didn't have a trained nurse. When I said that I was prepared to do it they were happy as Larry and even brought in a couple of people to see me do it.
Briefly:
1st born in St Thomas' London. The suite was good (we managed to get the pool room. The mid-wife forgot to connect the sintocin - 4 hours later I noticed that I had wet feet. Took ages to get a doctor to do the stitches.
2nd born in Guys London. The suite was minute (approx 6'x7') - they had to keep some of the machines outside of the door behind a screen. The mid-wife was awful. We wanted to collect some cord-blood and she went out of her way to screw it up.
3rd born in St Thomas' London. Although the suites were new, they were dirty. The mid-wife was good and she helped with the cord-blood collection.
4th born in Frankston Melbourne. The suite was the cleanest we'd been in. There were 2 mid-wives at the delivery. The only bad thing was that we got a low score on the ante-natal triple test and the doctor would not give us the results of the Nuchal scan. The next day we rang up the surgery to demand the result (as we had paid for the test) but the nurse just gave us the result when we asked for it. I think that the doctors don't like to have their decisions questioned - so you may have to work around this. Note: I think the UK leads the world on Nuchal scans so you'll probably find it a bit behind here. It is also worth asking for the drugs early (if you want them). The hospital at first refused to allow the blood cord collection but only because they didn't have a trained nurse. When I said that I was prepared to do it they were happy as Larry and even brought in a couple of people to see me do it.
Jun 24th 2006, 11:32 pm
#45
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Re: having a baby in OZ
Originally Posted by smurtaza
You may get some family tax benefit part "A" as child benefit in Australia..
Sorry, I'm not picking on your posts LOL. And I'm just a teeny bit bitter & twisted re the limitations on our visa. Back in the UK, the child benefit & tax credits only came to about £110 per month but it was handy when it came to buying shoes and "big" purchases... it even covered the cost of nappies in dire months. Now, we're having to find the money from other places and it's a tad tight... think I'll get on with potty-training DD as that'll save about $120 per month LOL