Private care. This option involves choosing a particular doctor, usually a specialist obstetrician, or a general practitioner who performs obstetric care. You will see the doctor in his or her consulting rooms for your antenatal visits. The doctor makes arrangements with you to book a place in a hospital for the birth of your baby, and your postnatal care. This may be a private hospital, although some practitioners have admitting rights to public hospitals as well.
The costs of private hospital and private doctor care are shared between the government (a proportion of the cost is recoverable from Medicare) and private health insurance funds, and usually includes some out-of-pocket expenses for the patient as well. People who opt for private obstetric care will need to have private health insurance cover. Without it, the costs of private hospital care put it out of the reach of most people.
Home birth. Women may choose to deliver their babies at home, as women have done for many generations, and still do in some countries. In Australia it is usually with the assistance of a midwife, and there are some doctors who practice home birth.
Like the birth centre option, women may be choosing home birth because they feel it allows them more control over their labour, in a less clinical, and more familiar environment.
As the majority of women who have babies have no problems, it is an option some women prefer. The trouble with home birth, from the point of view of many in the medical profession (including the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists), is that not all women, even those with low-risk pregnancies, will have straight-forward deliveries. Unexpected complications may develop quickly. Obstetric or paediatric emergencies can be dealt with better in an equipped environment with experienced staff.
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