Pregnant- hospital booking countdown?

[lauhaus]

Just found out I'm preggo- so how soon should I book a doctor and a hospital bed? Can it wait a few weeks (husband wants to wait to tell his parents in person) or should we do it asap?

Thanks!

[dumbdonkey]

what does booking a doctor and a hospital bed got to do with telling the parents? the doctor and hospital wont call the parents for you.

[shri]

Congrats!

You'll find a lot more info on our GeoBaby forums - http://www.geobaby.com/

Find a doctor, figure out the hospital (private / govt) and join a baby group ... all on GB.

[Gruntfuttock]

Probably best asked in Geobaby.com but are you going private or public?

And how would your parents-in-law know that you'd started making arrangements anyway?

[Claire ex-ax]

I think it's okay to have a doctor confirm it and that everything is okay before the in-laws are informed.

Definitely check out geobaby.com - you'll get plenty of recommendations and advice there.

[lauhaus]

Thanks all!

Got a login error with geobaby- but I'm sure I was going about it wrong.

Reason for waiting is that my parents in law are local. We are doing research but we value their opinion & would like their help communicating with the doctors/hospitals. Husband's cantonese is good but not medical terminology good...

[usehername]

If you're going public you don't need to worry about it, you'll be assigned a hospital based on your location.

If you're going private it would be worth making enquiries soon but the bed shortage issue is much less of a problem now, so no big rush.

[Claire ex-ax]

Understand, but your priority should be a doctor you are comfortable communicating with... and just generally comfortable with. You don't necessarily want to have one of them there at every appointment because it's an old family doctor or language problems. There will be plenty of time for them to be involved, such as choosing a date for the caesarian and the baby's name.

[lauhaus]

Good point-
I suppose there is such a thing as too much grandparent involvement!

[usehername]

Incidentally most (all?) good private OBs have excellent English, so language won't be an issue.