I've had two children at Queen Mary and overall had a positive experience. My first pregnancy was completely normal, my waters broke and I still had no regular contractions 24 hours later so their policy is to induce at that point. Due to the induction, the contractions were extremely painful so I requested an epidural and it was administered promptly. Also their policy is that if the baby is born more than 24 hours after waters breaking, the baby needs to be monitored in Special Care in case of infection - so she was up there for the first day which was rough since I wasn't expecting it, but the next day she was down in the ward with me and rooming in. The hardest part was her being in special care, but I know that IF she DID have an infection (she didn't), them catching it early would have helped her to get over it quicker and easier.
My second pregnancy was going well until I was 17 weeks and we discovered on ultrasound that my daughter had a form of dwarfism that at the time, they were not certain that she would be able to survive. They offered an abortion but we didn't want one and they didn't pressure us which I'm thankful for. I was monitored very closely throughout my pregnancy and before the baby was born, I'd already met with the NICU team and a geneticist who ended up diagnosing my daughter's condition. Their care was very good and I even stopped going to the private doctors because they weren't adding anything that I wasn't getting in the public system. My delivery with her was induced at my request at 41 weeks - they would have allowed me to go another week if I wanted, but my mum was here and I wanted the baby born before she went back! Again, I cannot fault my delivery (although I had an annoying nurse who, I think, was wanting a routine day and didn't like the complexity of my case falling on her - thankfully her shift was over half way through my delivery and she was replaced with a MUCH nicer nurse!). I knew when my daughter was born that I would be leaving the hospital before her, so I requested an early discharge and I was discharged when she was only about 15 hours old. She was in NICU for four months and overall, we had a good (but sometimes frustrating) experience there.
In both my pregnancies, my main frustration with QMH was that they were overcautious. I don't really think that my first daughter needed to be separated from me and taken to Special Care, I think she could have been monitored from the regular ward and taken up there if she had shown signs of infection. My second daughter, I think, could have been home at two or three weeks old rather than four months old. But ultimately, it's a MUCH bigger problem when doctors are not cautious ENOUGH compared to when they are too cautious, so I'm thankful that through it all, I've got two healthy daughters
If I was going to a private hospital, the ONLY hospital that I would consider is Matilda because to me, rooming in with my baby is MUCH more important than how comfortable the beds are, who actually does the delivery (even in private hospitals, the "doctor" is only there for maybe the last 15 minutes or so anyway) or even what the visiting hours are. And most of the private hospitals here have policies that I really don't agree with. So for me, it's a choice between Matilda and public.
And I agree with Carang - you aren't generally forced to room in with your baby, at least at QMH - many babies are in the nursery at various times. I put my first baby in there a couple of times to go and eat outside the ward, and they made it clear that I was welcome to use the nursery any time I wanted. I wanted her to room in though and she did pretty much the entire time I was there.
