The midwifery care provided by Nikau Midwives is free for New Zealand citizens, women with permanent residency, and those who are otherwise eligible for public healthcare. To check your eligibility visit the Ministry of Health site. The Government pays LMCs to provide your care. Pregnancy tests and all referrals for laboratory tests and specialist are also included in the service we provide. However, there are some choices which may involve a cost.
If you choose a private obstetrician as your LMC, he/she will charge you a fee. This is a co-payment – the obstetrician collects a fee from you in addition to the fee which is paid by the Government.
Please note that if complications arise in your pregnancy or if you are admitted to a hospital you will be attended by the obstetrician, anaesthetist, and/or paediatrician on duty at the time. Services provided by hospital specialists are free for women eligible for NZ public health care.
Ultrasound scans are a specialist service, and therefore, radiologists practising in private may charge you a co-payment (a charge in addition to the fee paid to the radiologist by the Government). Ultrasound scans for maternity related reasons and referred by Nikau Midwives are unlikely to incur such a fee other than the 12 week nuchal translucency scan (typically $40). However, if you choose to have a scan, and there is no medical reason for it, you will be charged the full fee for the service.
You may be charged a fee if you choose to have some laboratory tests which are not routine during pregnancy. If you use an ambulance service to go from the community to a hospital then the ambulance company will charge you a fee if you are outside the Wellington Free Ambulance area, which ends at Pekapeka.
If you choose a Pregnancy and Parenting Education Programme / Antenatal Class that is not funded by the Government, it is likely that there will be a charge. Class options on the Kāpiti Coast are listed here.
If you need to see your GP during pregnancy or in the weeks following birth for any problems which are not maternity related, you will be charged the usual consultation fee.