Hospital as LMC?

I am seeing the hospital team as I also need to see an obstetrician. But I also had to find myself an independent midwife. I find it a bit annoying as when I go to my hospital appts I see a midwife and then the OB. Then a week later I have to go back to my midwife.
But I guess every hospital is different.

I was told I need a independent MW also as there aren't enough hospital MW's available here.
As far as I know, when you have the hospital as your LMC they don't supply you with a particular MW, you may see a different one each visit. But at least you know you have that extra care available if needed.

We started off with an independent LMC and have since been on the hospital high-risk team also as a result of twin pregnancy.

For the hospital visits , we don't get to see the same midwife or registrar everytime. We found it quite tedious to be answering the same questions everytime we went to visit. Now we're in 3rd trimester we seem to have a bit more continuity of care , along with getting to know the doctors a lot more also.

I have complete faith in the hospital system, however it's the regularity of who you see, and the sometimes hours of waiting that has convinced us that next pregnancy we'll be going privately.

I have kept with my independent LMC also , based on the fact that we had already built up a relationship with her and even though my birth is now definitely going to be a c-section and pre-term, she is still going to be there as a support person on the day.

ETA: having an independent LMC also guarantees that you'll get the same midwife for post natal care. I'm not sure how it works for Hospital LMCs

Edited by tishy

The friend who's birth I assisted at had the hospital as LMC as she developed severe gest diabetes and needed insulin etc. I found it really frustrating that when she was admitted to WAU to be induced she saw several different registrars and midwives, and then when she transferred to the delivery unit she had two different midwives, and the registrar was supervising the whole DU so when we needed her she was delayed. They contracted her postnatal care out to a local independent midwife.

If it was me, I'd avoid the hospital if at all possible. When I was pregnant with the gremlins I needed specialist cover as I was considered higher risk and ordinarily that would mean transferring to the hospital team as Tishy did, but we elected to fork out for a private OB and keep our independent midwife and I am really glad I did. I had complete continuity of care from the same m/w and OB from start to finish, at the birth and postnatally.

It did cost us $2000 (which Southern Cross covered) but when I worked out the hours I would have spent waiting at the hospital for appointments (they never run on time) and the value of quality, continuous care, it was money well invested.

I have Ultracare 100 and they cover up to $1000 per claims year as a loyalty benefit after a certain number of years membership. Coz my pregnancy crossed over 2 claims years I was able to claim 2 lots of $1000.

The other good thing about going private was that all my scans were done privately so I got heaps of pics, ad I mostly had the same sonographer every time, plus no long waiting times.

I've had it since forever pretty much, Mum and Dad pay the premiums coz my grandparents used to pay theirs when we were young, but I never really made any claims on it till I had kids!

my midwife said she wouldn't take care of me and refered me to the hospital midwives because I have a history of seizures. I really don't want a hospital midwife but it took me forever to find someone available so even if i could find a way out of having to have a mw from the hospital i think i wouldn't be able to find an available indepentant one. GRUMP.
Glad to hear there are at least some good experiences from mw at hospitals.

I had a hospital mw also as had to see an OB too and used to time all appointments to the one day, seeing diabetic clinic also..

Will have to for this pregnancy too.. :)

I think I would like to have the midwife I saw at the hospital for my LMC. She was superb during all the tests and later D&C, where as I only got a letter from my previous LMC independant MW yesterday 2 weeks after my D&C... not even a phonecall from her before the op nor after. Dont think we clicked very well, yet i clicked very well with the one at the hospital.
Will be back for appt on 20feb so might see what options there are. I think I will have to go back to them initially when i get pregnant again anyway after these past problems.

khhast if your in Palmy then I have dealt with most of the OB's in Palmy if you want some idea of them I can let you know, just let me know.