NEW mums are more satisfied with public hospitals than private when it comes to follow-up care after childbirth, new research shows.
THE study of 6400 Queensland mums found those in the public system had 34 times the odds of being visited at home by a health professional within 10 days of leaving hospital than those who opted for private care.
Report author Yvette Miller from Queensland University of Technology, who undertook the study with the University of Queensland, says it’s a misconception that private hospitals guarantee better quality care, especially after birth. “For pregnancy, labour and birth, private women generally rate their care as being better than women in the public system,” she says. “That completely reverses when you look at postnatal care.” Postnatal care is vital to the ongoing psychological and physical health of the mother, says Associate Professor Miller. “The impact of good postnatal can have a long-term impact on things like depression, bonding, feeding and confidence of parents,” she says. In recent years government policies and direct subsidies to insurers have increased the proportion of women opting to give birth in the private sector. About 30 per cent of women now use private hospitals, compared with 25 per cent in 2000. In the public sector women are generally cared for by midwives. In private hospitals care is primarily delivered by obstetricians and the role of follow-up care is then delegated to a paediatric specialist or GP. “We need to provide women who birth in the private system with better quality postpartum follow-up care,” she says. “Until we address those gaps for women in the private sector the least we can do is make sure that women understand what they’re choosing exactly.”