Birth is no less painful or messy just because you're in a five-star hospital

This article was first published on 13 April 2011 at: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/birth-is-no-less-painful-or-messy-even-in-a-fivestar-hospital-20110412-1dc5b.html?comments=13#comments

Since when did giving birth become less about the baby and more about the ''experience''? According to their website, Melbourne's new five-star maternity hospital is committed to helping mothers cherish every moment of said-experience – from the first kick through to labour and delivery – with the help of flat-screen TVs, internet access and food from award-winning restaurants. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but shouldn't an impressive wine list be the last thing on the minds of mothers who are most likely in the throes of initiating breast-feeding?

But aside from coaxing would-be parents in with all their luxury hotel spin, The Cradle Hospital has reignited the debate about public and private maternity hospitals, claiming to offer a better standard of care than other hospitals because they have ''rested'' staff in-house, not on-call specialists as is the arrangement in other private hospitals, or senior registrars as are sometimes used after-hours by some large public hospitals. The inference of such comments, of course, is that women should be concerned about the levels of safety provided in other hospitals. One could easily assume that public hospitals – at the far of the spectrum when compared with facilities such as The Cradle – are practically dangerous (not to mention aesthetically displeasing) places to push out a baby.

First of all, it needs to be pointed out that Australian women enjoy some of the best obstetric and neonatal care in the world and there has never been a safer time in history to have a baby. Yes, things do sometimes go wrong during birth, but ploys such as these unnecessarily play on that fear to convince women to cough up more than $6000 in out-of-pocket expenses. Impending birth is guilt-ridden and scary enough without making you feel that you are a bad parent if you don't spend absurd amounts of money on your child, even prenatally.

I went into the birth of our first daughter full of the typical mix of nerves and excitement. When I suffered a sudden and very large post-partum haemorrhage soon after she was born, I was overwhelmingly grateful to be in a large public hospital. I might not have had a city view or canapes from The Press Club in my hand, but I was fortunate enough to be in a place with nearby intensive care facilities and extremely competent experts on hand. And the bill for this extended stay with specialist care? Nothing. Not the $2000-plus out-of-pocket costs that most private patients pay, and certainly not $6000.

Expectant mothers today are bombarded with choices (pain relief, elective caesareans, music optional) while also being burdened with expectations (this is how you must eat, look and behave while pregnant). It is no wonder that many women find this a very confusing and stressful time. We have set them up to believe that, for a price, you can buy some version of a relaxed, enjoyable, painless, intervention-free experience that is also something of a spiritual epiphany. Many new mothers feel understandably upset when such expectations are not met. Perhaps we'd be better off accepting and educating women that birth is – by its nature – often painful, always messy and sometimes unpredictable.

No one is arguing that parents shouldn't have options as to where and how they give birth. But it is important that pregnant women are supported with real data about the relative risks of the different models of care available, not subjected to scare-mongering by those in a position to make money from them. Women don't need marble foyers and 24-hour room service – we need increased services in rural areas, more support in establishing breast-feeding and better outcomes for indigenous mothers and babies.

Most crucially, we need a properly funded public maternity system so that all mothers-to-be, regardless of their ability to pay for a so-called ''five-star'' service, are provided with the very best quality of care available. Whether or not they choose to use it, no pregnant woman should feel that her well-being or the safety of her baby is being placed at a disadvantage just because she can't afford private health cover.

For me, despite a far from perfect birth, I still look back on the arrival of our first-born as one of the best days of my life – thanks to the help of a team of caring, highly-skilled doctors and midwives. Admittedly the quality of the decor might have been a bit drab and the sandwiches a touch dry but in the end satisfaction with the ''experience'' was essentially irrelevant. All that mattered was that we had a healthy, happy new baby.


Sarah McKenzie is a freelance writer.