Finding balance, keeping yourself healthy and choosing an obstetrician who will guide and support you through your pregnancy is crucial to creating the best possible outcome for baby and you. As an obstetrician Dr Hassan’s aim is to support and guide you through this exciting time with compassion, caring, a non-judgemental and professional approach, while providing a personalized service to suit your needs and desires. She will create a personal care plan in order to achieve the best outcomes for you and ensure safe delivery for your baby.

Dr Suhad Hassan provide the following obstetric service:

Your First Consultation

Our recommendations for pregnant women is to make your first appointment between 8 and 10 weeks gestation, or earlier if their are any concerns.

Dr Suhad Hassan will thoroughly review your medical and family history, and previous pregnancies to recognise any risks in pregnancy. She will conduct ultrasound to confirm your due dates.

A number of routine blood tests are performed during pregnancy. These include bloody group, hepatitis, syphilis and rubella immunity. An ultrasound scan will be performed at most of your visits.

We will discuss your specific wishes and requirements enabling you to be provided with the personal care you desire and achieve the preferred approach to pregnancy, labour and delivery in a supportive and non-judgmental way.

Frequency of Antenatal Visits

In most cases Dr Hassan will see you every four weeks until 28 weeks. Then every 2 weeks until 36 weeks and then weekly until the birth of your baby.

However in emergency you may contact the practice to organise an urgent visit to ensure the well-being of you and you baby.

Antenatal Ultrasound

First Trimester Down Syndrome Screening

Between 11.5-13.5 weeks a Nuchal Translucency Scan is performed at a private radiology practice. It assesses Down Syndrome risk by combining an ultrasound of the thickness of a baby’s neck, mother’s blood test and maternal age. It provides a statistical risk factor not a Yes or Now result.

Morphology Ultrasound

Morphology scan at 19-20 weeks is to check baby’s organs are normal and enables us to view where the placenta is positioned.

Other Tests

Initial Antenatal Screening

Full blood count, blood group, rubella and hepatitis screening.

Glucose Challenge Test

You will be given a request form for a Glucose Challenge Test (GCT) at 28 weeks gestation and the result will be ready normally 48 hours later. GCT is a screening test for gestational diabetes, which happens in 5-8% of pregnant women. If your GCT is positive you will be asked to return for a confirmation Oral Glucose Tolerant Test (OGTT). A negative test is reassuring. If the OGTT is positive your pregnancy will need additional care and your will be referred to the Diabetic Clinic for further medical advice.

Labour and Delivery Management

As an obstetrician, I trained to act in the best interests of both mother and baby to achieve healthy outcomes. Additionally, as far as possible I will accommodate your wishes for labour so that as well as joy at the outcome you may feel satisfaction with the steps that led you there.

Feel free to bring along your partner / husband or any close friend or relative likely to play a supporting role during your pregnancy.

At this visit Dr Hassan and yourself will discuss your specific wishes and requirements enabling you to be provided with the care you desire. We explore your past medical family history and previous pregnancies to recognize any risks in pregnancy. In normal pregnancy a number of routine blood tests are performed. These include rubella immunity and blood group. We will perform ultrasound scan in this visit and in most of your visit at the practice.

Labour & Delivery Management

As an obstetrician Dr Hassan trained to act in the best interests of both mother and baby to achieve healthy outcomes. Additionally, as far as possible she will accommodate your wishes for labour so that as well as joy at the outcome you may feel satisfaction with the steps that led you there.

Postnatal Consultation

A postnatal consultation is scheduled for 6 weeks following teh bith of your baby. This provides an opportunity to discuss your health, both physical and emotional, since the birth. Your contraceptive needs will be addressed and, if due, a pap smear will be done.

On Call Arrangements

Dr Hassan works independently and she is on call for her patients during week days. In order to minimize fatigue and ensure that you always receive the highest quality of care, Dr Hassan chooses to share the weekend On Call Roster with three other obstetricians but endeavors to attend the delivery of your baby

All these doctors have equal qualifications and the cover arrangement works well.

Any leave for holidays and conferences will also be covered by the above doctors.

Fees and Billing

We have EFTPOS facilities and we accept cash, most major credit cars and cheques for payment. Full payment is appreciated at the time of your visit.

All visits to our practice are out-patient services and therefore refundable in part by Medicare only. Medicare refunds will vary depending on how your family is currently positioned relative to the Medicare Safety Net threshold.

We have facilities onsite for online medicare claiming if you are registered for this, which means your medicare rebate will be refunded automatically to your nominated bank account.

Obstetrics Fee

Dr Hassan participates in “No Gap” schemes with most private health funds. Which means you have  no out of pocket expenses related to your delivery regardless whether vaginal or Caesarean. If eligible, your account for all in-hospital obstetrics services incurred will be forwarded directly to your private health fund. As such, there will be no out of pock expenses.

It is important that you ensure your health fun covers you for obstetric services in a private hospital at the time you are due to deliver and that you have a “No Gap” cover.

Any ultrasounds performed at the practice do not incur an extra charge.

Pregnancy Management Fees

The Pregnancy Management Fee is a fee charged by all obstetricians for the management of pregnancy progressing past 20 weeks. It reimburses the obstetrician the cost of being on call 24 hours a day, to cover medical insurance planning for delivery, corresponding, and organizing other healthcare professionals and to coordinate your care. A certain amount of the fee can be reimbursed by Medicare and some private health funds may reimburse you a percentage of this fee. You may check with you health fun.

The Medicare safety net was introduced to ensure Australians are protected against very large medical bills. It means that once you reach your Medicare Safety Net threshold, visits to your doctor and medical test will end up costing your less. Safety net accrual commences in January each year and once the threshold is reached Medicare will pay 80% of your out-of-hospital out-of-pocket medical costs. (There are limits on some obstetric services.) In order to claim this benefit, couples and families must be registered with Medicare. To register for the Medicare Safety Net telephone 132 011 or visit www.medicare.gov.au.

No Private Health Insurance

Dr Hassan is happy to see uninsured patients with the option of delivering in a private hospital.

Other Expenses

During the course of your pregnancy and delivery the following services may incur additional charges:

For these services, accounts will be issued individually by the firms or practitioners involved. Where possible we will provide you in advance with their contact details so that you may obtain quotations.

Obstetric Links

Futher infomation can be found on the following websites. Always keep in mind that all information may be subject to some bias. Please ask us if you have any queries.