This changes everything – managing your health needs during and after pregnancy

Having a baby is an incredibly exciting and equally daunting time for any family. As parents-to-be, there’s a lot to absorb in a short period. While you’re rearranging your whole life around the new arrival, taking care of your family’s health is a top priority.

Deciding how and where you want to give birth is a very personal decision and everyone is different. It’s possible you’ll take into consideration:

  • any previous pregnancy experiences
  • location of hospitals and other services like prenatal classes
  • advice from friends and family
  • information from parenting books and online resources
  • your current health insurance cover

Here are a few decisions you’ll likely make during your pregnancy

Choosing an obstetrician

This is likely the first thing you’ll do when you become pregnant. Whether you’re a private or public patient, you’ll be able to choose your own obstetrician. Your GP must provide you with a referral for your appointment.

Also chat with your GP about any preferences you have as not every obstetrician has the same approach, such as the rate of intervention with caesareans.

It’s very difficult to make any claims when comparing public or private obstetricians. On the whole, Australians are very fortunate with the level of obstetric care they receive and our hospitals are some of the safest in the world.

Accessing private hospital services

As you’ve probably discovered, the waiting period on pregnancy with private health insurance is 12 months before you can make any claims.

Depending on the level of family hospital cover you choose, services that may be covered include:

  • hospital accommodation costs
  • labour ward
  • intensive care
  • theatre fees

Remember, it’s possible you’ll need to pay any hospital excess and additional costs that applies to your level of cover. This may include:

  • drugs issued on discharge which aren’t covered by the agreement between your health insurer and the hospital.
  • any personal expenses like additional meals for a partner or family member
  • antenatal and postnatal services including lactation consultants, pregnancy garments or clinical Pilates  

A growing family needs cover that works for them now and into the future

When making any decision about your family’s health you need to feel confident you’re investing wisely.

If you want to see how family health cover could help during and after your pregnancy, you can use our online comparison service to do most of the work for you.

You can also call us on 1300 73 96 92, and we’ll help you find the best health cover for you from a diverse panel of health funds.

When you’re with us, your family is in safe hands.