Giving birth in New Zealand

[Laino]

Thinking of leaving here and nmoving to N Zealand for a couple of years (Bay of Plenty area) and maybe planning another baby over there. A friend of a friend has mentioned that they have a stange 'old fashioned and quirky' appraoch to childbirth. I'm curious to know if anyone out there has anything they can tell me......have a 2 yr old dd and still b/feeding once in the morning......

Absolute rubbish! Australia and NZ are supposed to be the pick of countries in the world in which to give birth according to midwives I've spoken to from around the world. Lots of options available and a very modern approach, I should think.

I've just given birth in Australia, having had my first ds in Ireland and it was (although I have no complaints about my first experience) a much less "old fashioned" approach.

If by "old fashioned and quirky" they mean that you get a decent hospital stay if you want one, the same midwife throughout your pregnancy to 6 weeks after the baby is born (and you get to choose him or her)and pretty high breastfeeding rates - then yes we have that.

You would be no more unusual for breastfeeding a 2 year old than in the UK.

Ha ha @ 'old fashioned and quirky' ....

Put it this way: Having had one child in the UK and one in NZ I would NEVER EVER consider having a baby in the UK again!

As threebob says, same midwife from start of pregancy to 6 weeks after birth (best system EVER - you develop a relationship with her AND she comes to your HOUSE for every visit in those 6 weeks) ... LOTS of support for VBACs etc ... Lots of support for breastfeeding (although one of the hospital midwives was a bit crap on that one but my midwife sorted it) ...
In the hospital I had DD in I got a PRIVATE room as I had a c/section (unlike the 9 of us crammed into a 6 bed ward when I had DS) ....
It was like being on holiday