Nothing went to plan with our birth... but WA's public health system got it right

Man plans, God laughs.

Throughout the birth of my daughter Ruby over the Christmas holidays, this Yiddish proverb rang in my ears again and again as our best-laid birth plan unravelled.

We wanted a natural birth with no drugs.

Due to reduced foetal movements and issues with the placenta, my wife Carmen was induced at 36 weeks and 5 days, enduring hours of ever more intense contractions until the scales tipped to an epidural and a c-section.

We wanted our newborn to stay with us in the ward. But issues with blood sugars and body temperature meant she was whisked to ICU, with a tube inserted into her nose and a drip tapped into her arm.

We wanted her to come home with us as soon as possible. Instead, she spent nine agonising nights in the ICU with Carmen snatching sleep in nearby accommodation and me commuting back and forth along the freeway.

We didn't get anything we wanted in the birth plan.

But we got a beautiful healthy baby, and what everybody who uses WA's public health system deserves - the absolute best care from doctors, surgeons, nurses and midwives (in our case those from King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Subiaco).

They say you don't understand a lot of things until you become a parent, and by the same token you can't understand most things until they happen to you.

With this in mind, I know that WA's public health system gets a kicking when things go wrong (I've done some of the kicking myself). And while I strongly believe rigorous debate and scrutiny of public services is a good thing, I also believe it's important to give credit where it's due. 

Aside from one flub over using formula over breast milk, I cannot fault KEMH's staff. To a man and woman they were dedicated, effective and caring, and did all they could to make our stay as easy as possible.

And it wasn't just my family that got this level of care. KEMH is a public hospital, so it was a crossroads of life. And sitting beside Ruby's bed in the ICU, I had a box seat to observe a huge spectrum of people and circumstances that came through the doors.

There were babies born at 22 weeks that seemed so fragile a shadow could hurt them, others with jaundice, lung development problems, low birth weight, exhaustion.

There were parents who visited their children from the moment opening hours began and then there were parents that never visited their newborns. There were babies who never made a peep and others born to drug addicts that never stopped crying as doses of morphine dripped into their veins, weaning them into the light.

Every baby was different. Every circumstance was different. But what remained a constant was the love and dedication of the KEMH staff. I got the feeling that if a fire was to break out in the ward they'd die at their posts.

It was heartbreaking to leave my wife and child behind every night as visiting hours ended. But with KEMH staff on watch, I knew so strongly that everything would be taken care of.

When we took Ruby home, our doctor joked we had gotten off lightly. And he was right - there were plenty of others worse off than we were. But no matter where we stood, we had all won the lottery by being in Australia.

At the same time as our hospital stay, family friends in the United States were going through their own trial with a premature birth and their baby in the ICU. Unlike us, hanging over them was the constant knowledge that every minute was costing them money - that at the end of their stay they'd be handed a baby and a huge bill.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to KEMH staff. But I am very grateful I did not have to pay anything extra. That my taxes are enough to cover it. I cannot imagine what it feels like to have decisions about the health of your child and spouse influenced by money. Because I would have gone bankrupt to get them out. Done anything. 

We say we are so lucky to have this health system. But I disagree. Luck has to do with the virtue of our birth. The rest is down to the incredibly hard work of dedicated professionals and the vision of leaders over many decades to create a health system that is a remarkable achievement of civility. They made our luck.

I know that everyone's experience is different. That some births go smoothly. That others are far more difficult. And that not everyone gets to take their little one home.

But I want to thank the staff at KEMH for what they did for us, and I know there are many people who feel the same way about having a robust and accessible public health system in WA and Australia.

It can always be improved, sure. But it is a jewel of our society, and must be protected.