I never knew you had to research and find your OWN obstetrician - I can hardly spell the profession, let alone know how to find them or what qualities to look for. Thus, I chose the two private hospitals close to home (Epworth Freemason in East Melbourne, and St Vincent's Private in Fitzroy) and looked up who delivers there. That narrowed it down. Then, I looked on these hospital websites, and they have lists of the obstetricians that have delivering rights there. THEN, I called up a few (ok, seven) to see:
1) if they were available to deliver at my expected due date (7 January 2014) - so couldn't have someone who was going to take the school holidays off and go sun themselves on an island somewhere, or someone who was going to a conference around that time.
2) what their fees are. Each doc will decide what they want to charge for outpatient visits- Medicare covers some, and then you pay the gap (should the doc claim over and above the medicare funded fee). Some docs are no-gap. The average out of pocket fee for the whole pregnancy is, on average, between $3000 and $3500.
From my conversations with these clinic secretaries, I discovered that some obstetricians specialise in high-risk pregnancies and won't take you on if there are no problems. Fair enough, and I'm very thankful that I am not needing these services.
After speaking to the secretaries about booking in a time to meet the doctor, they sent me information packs with the financial agreement and forms to fill in before attending the appointment.
Turns out there are LOTS of online reviews about obstetricians - do some online research! I crossed a few off the list that way, as I knew I didn't want an arrogant obstetrician, or o
now... I just need to research what questions to ask him or her at the appointment!
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