Hi all, hubby and I have just been granted our Visa (today!) and are also trying for a second baby... I'm curious as to the maternity care offered in Australia - I can't seem to find anything on the Medicare website so wondered if there was anyone out there who could tell me how it works out there? I'm really interested in how the care compares to the UK - whether you get scans included in the care package...? How often do you get checked over by a midwife, if at all..? What are the medical costs.. if anything? etc etc Can anyone help with this? Emma x

Don't know a great deal about this except you get a baby bonus ($4000 I think) for having your baby here!

Hopefully someone else can help with the rest.

Congrats on the visa! (and the baby)!

I had a baby last year, I had private insurance so I had to see a certain doctor (luckily one that was also recomended by my friend who had used him) and he was also there at the birth. I went for checkups every few weeks, think about every 8 or 10 to start with (I had a pretty easy pregnancy) and at the end it was fortnightly, then weekly, then twice a week (I was overdue!). I had my baby in the private hospital and could stay up to 4 nights - but came home after three (had enough of the breast feeding nazis as I called them!). Had a health visitor who came a week later - no midwife visits and after the first visit I had to take my baby to the clinic, the next check up was at 6 weeks (ditto my and baby seeing the doc again).

If you go with Medicare (i.e. public) although you will not get your choice of doctor at the birth you will get midwives visit you at home (my friend had this).

The main benefits I can see of going private are:

* You get your choice of obstetrician at the birth (unless he happens to be on holiday of course!)

* You get a private room

Even going private you still have to pay for your check ups and claim a portion back from Medicare, although there were a couple that he bulk billed - the private cover is only for the in hospital bit and covers everything (provided you have the right policy) - mine cost me $100 excess and that was it; all pain relief was included (I had pethidine, gas and air AND epidural!) and extra doctors (one who did the epidural, one who came for a second opinion as to whether forceps / cesarean required). You will also have to pay for scans and again you can claim part of it back.

Hope that is some help but feel free to ask if there's anything I've missed or something specific you wanted to know.

Oh yes, and you do get a baby bonus (I believe it is going up again this July) which is tax free and comes in very handy as you probably wont get paid maternity leave unless you are very lucky!!

Looks like it will be $5000 from July 1st.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/interne...y_how_maty.htm

If you take out PRIVATE medical insurance there is likley to be a 12 month period before you could claim for maternity so you may only have access to MEDICARE (public hospital system).

The Baby Bonus is useful for buying a new Plasma TV. You may want to look into the rules to see (for example) whether offshore pregnancy meets the requirements for payment.

Nice one about the baby bond! We're moving in May and plan to start a family asap - well, we've put it off for so long what with knowing we're moving!

Other threads on here have discussed having a baby in oz and what I picked up was that medicare is just as good as private, if not better in terms of having baby as natural as you want - it said there was the risk of private docs to do more forceps births and cesareans (oops - spelling!!) as they want you to fit in with their timings more. It kinda made me think to just got for Medicare, sounds a lot better than the UK either way so I'm pleased about that!

So FluffieFaerie / Emma, when and where are you moving to? Congratulations on the Visa - best feeling ever getting than sticker in your passport!!!

You may (or is that might?). It depends on where the pregnant lady is living.

Ozzidoc goes apoplexic!!! :curse::curse::curse::curse:

Hello I had my 2nd child in Adelaide (Medicare) - absolutely 1st class hospital never felt 2nd rate due to not being private- I am classed as extreme high risk preg - we had been in country approx 12 mths. Care amazing,rooms like a hotel no comparision to 1st baby in Ireland. Good luck

This is a really good read. I would be interested in reading the opinion of someone who has had their baby using the Medicare public system.

Our daughter has just turned 1, we have only just started our process, just started the skills assessement but hopefully want to go for the 175skilled independant PR visa, once we've been there for around a year then we'll try for our second baby.

Do you automatically qualify for the baby bonus when you have a baby there? We have a maternity grant but only people on benefits or low incomes can have it here in the UK. Would it matter that we wouldn't have been there for very long?

What about afterwards? We receive childbenefit of nearly £80 a month which absolutely everyone with a child is entitled to - is there a similar scheme in Australia? And again, do you have to be in Australia for a certain amount of time before you are entitled to claim for such benefit?

hi, i had a baby in tweed hospital may 30th 07, and i have to say it was fantastic, a little different to begin with as you are seen by doctors for antenatal instead of midwives, but no problem! very attentive and clean, and the night of labour was great, they were very proffessional and caring and very nice to hubby bringing him cups of tea etc, i was very lucky as my labour room was overlooking tweed rivers and ocaen, very soothing!!!!!!! it was my 3rd baby so they let me leave 3 hours after delivery, but no pressure to, and the midwife still came to see me for 5 days following, then the health visitor ther after, then even better $4000 in the bank for your trouble, which as long as you are a permanant ressie and are registered withcenterlink and have a tax file number you are fine, we also found that centerlink payments were very generous, but we have 3 kids, and i wasnt working due to maternity, but it worked out more than when i was working p/t, hope this helps if you need anymore info no prob

oh, we lived in currumbin, southern gold coast, and the baby was born northern nsw.......

Hey your baby was born the day before my birthday!

Here isn't so great really, we were on a shared midwife scheme, so didn't see the same midwife consecutively for any appointments, always a different face so didn't get that time to bond with any midwife in particular. Was at my 32 week check when the midwife (who I'd seen twice previously) asked if I had any babies already - if only she'd checked my notes!!!

Hospital here was ok, paint peeling off the walls, curtains falling down etc. I guess it was ok to have a baby but would be nicer to think that it could be better elsewhere!

Thanks for sharing your story x

yeah i had my 1st baby like that in the uk, 2nd was in a birthing center which was fab, very spoiled.... but when we got to oz i wanted to have a home birth as we had no family there to look after my other boys, but that was $4000 so my baby bond would have gone on that, so thought it was cheaper to get my mother in law out on the plane instead, which cost us nothing!!!!! and she timed it great, 1 week after her arrival he came. but cant fault the tweed hospital it was lovely, where are you now?

The system here is very different (and in my opinion not as good) as the UK.
As a midwife who has worked in the public and private system here:

Private
*you know your dr, who may or may not arrive at the end of your labour
*it is less safe because the medical back-up is not available 24/7 in the hospital (the midwife has to ring it in when needed)
*you miss out on a lot of antenatal education - the drs are too busy to do it
*you have a nice room and ?food
*you are hugely more likely to have a c-section (80% in some hospitals) and/or other unnecessary intervention (to make money) = greater risk for you and baby
- I had to leave the private system because I felt it was unsafe and women and babies were being unnecessarily harmed.

Public
*accommodation not so great
*midwives lead the care in birth = therefore they are more experienced at it
*cheaper/free
*if you need medical assistance it is there in minutes
*far more likely to have a normal birth and less interventions (to save money)
*some places do have birth centres and community based care- depends where you are

- I have also left this system because I was unable to practise in my full scope.

I am now an independent midwife.

Good luck
Rachel