Casey hospital

[Courtneygirl84]

Hey everyone, I am new here.... Hoping I am posting this is the right section
Has anyone given birth at Casey hospital? I am booked in to give birth there in January. I'm just a bit anxious, as I would like to have the option of having an epidural if I feel I need it.... But the midwife said to me when I booked in that they don't really like to do that (but they would give me one in an emergency) and if I wanted the choice, I should choose shared care with either a gp or obstetrician. So I found Dr Charry Hemmings (who I love), but I am curious, since she won't be at the birth, will they still allow me to choose to have an epidural if I feel I need one?

Or has anyone given birth at Casey recently and asked for an epidural... What did the midwives say??

Thanks in advance from a nervous first time mummy

[Castalilli]

I gave birth there in late Feb this year and I had an epidural, but I really needed it. They didn't offer me any pain relief until I asked for it. Ok, well, maybe I demanded it

They do prefer to be as low intervention as possible. If you go in thinking you will need an epidural, then its probably not the place to go. I'm not sure how things work with shared care. I did the caseload midwife care - it was fantastic - you get to know the MW who is likely to be there when you give birth because you see them so often, and you meet your 'backup' MW who is on when your MW isn't. I met a lot of the ladies there, and they were all fantastic IMO.

I don't have a bad thing to say about how my pregnancy and birth were handled. While they are considered a 'low risk' maternity hospital, they have all the emergency procedures in place if you need them (epidural/cesarean etc). Plus, if anything pops up throughout your pregnancy, they might send you to Dandenong/Monash if they know that there might be further complications so they can monitor you and the baby more closely.

Congratulations and good luck for the rest of your pregnancy and beyond