Once your pregnancy is confirmed, the next step is to look into who will care for you during your pregnancy, labour and birth and the days soon after having your baby. You may already know who your want or where you want to go, or you may rely on the choices of friends or other family members. However, as with anything it often takes a little research to find out everything that is available and the options that best suit you.
Ideally, women should have as many choices as possible available to them when having a baby, no matter where they live. However, this is not always the case. Women living in cities and metropolitan areas usually have a wide range of options to choose from. Whereas women living in rural and remote areas (or some overseas countries) often find their choices are limited and/or they have to travel very long distances for their preferred care.
As a general rule, larger public maternity hospitals will provide the widest selection of choices for pregnancy care, as well as different options for birthplace (delivery suite or birth centre) and choices for postnatal care (routine care or early discharge). Private hospitals will usually provide a delivery suite for women who have their own obstetrician and routine postnatal care in the private hospital after the birth. These are discussed further in
birthplace choices class B. Of course each hospital will vary according to the services they provide and sometimes services are not made available (or have been discontinued) due to budgetary constraints (especially in the public system in Australia). Rural hospitals often have limited budgets and are not able to provide as many childbirth choices.
How many available qualified practitioners working in private practice in your area (obstetricians, midwives and local doctors) and the services they provide will also play a role if you are trying to choose your own caregiver.