But for a cohort of soon-to-be mums in the NT, the day falls during a time that has been clouded by anxiety, stress and disappointment.

Since Healthscope announced that the private maternity ward at Darwin Private Hospital will close on June 6, the NT Government stepped in to try and help.

In the CLP’s proposed private maternity packages, mums will give birth at Royal Darwin Hospital and then have the choice of afterbirth care packages.

This includes a post-natal retreat package in a hotel or a return home sooner package with 24/7 telephone care.

While the post-natal retreats work in larger cities, health professionals and families have questioned the realistic nature of the offer and the “vague” information offered.

For Jess McCluskey, who is pregnant with her second child, she said: “The information is ambiguous.

“It just feels like we’re being dragged along.

“This will be our last pregnancy, and I really would like to enjoy it like I did with the last half of my last pregnancy when we went private.

“I had the comfort in knowing exactly what I was going to be doing, what was going to happen, and where I was going to go.

“And now we’re in this really unknown place. You can’t really enjoy it because you’re just thinking about that end game.

“In 13 weeks, where am I going to be doing this? What’s it going to look like?”

Births in hallways ‘in last year’ refuted by NT Health

At Royal Darwin Hospital, Health Minister Steve Edgington, said more than 2,000 babies were delivered each year.

With the private maternity ward closing, this number will rise by over 250, which Mr Edgington said was within the capabilities and resources of the public hospital.

But among local mums, the reports of understaffing and the RDH six birthing suites already struggling to accommodate all those in labour, there have been tales of mothers giving birth in hallways.

When pushed for an answer, NT Health said this has not happened at the public hospital in the last year.

While unable to confirm any births in hallways, this masthead was told by staff at RDH that there have been many cases of women labouring in waiting room chairs in the maternity ward.

A room has been found in time for the birth, but in some cases, it has been a close call.

It is a concern that has been mentioned again and again by mums moving to the public system.

Remembering the day the closure was announced, Jess, who is due in August, said: “At the next appointment with the obstetrician, I said to her jokingly – at the time, I thought it was a joke – that the first time being pregnant I was scared of the pain and the unknown of the birth itself.

“And this time I was scared about giving birth in a hospital corridor.

“Now it’s a real fear.”

‘We’re stuck in the middle of it’

A petition calling on the NT Government to provide better solutions that was launched over Healthscope’s announcement has reached over 1,300 signatures.

Jess is one of the many women and families who is petitioning for more support and answers.

While they know the decision was made by Healthscope, Jess added: “Unfortunately, we’re stuck in the middle of it.

“How can we fix the problem if we don’t acknowledge it’s there?

“You can’t really switch off from it.

“I’ve come to accept that this will probably be a public birth with my private obstetrician and that what we’re doing right now, it’s probably not going to change anything by the time I have this baby.

“But hopefully it changes things for everyone else that comes after us.”

Aquaman Actress faced difficult delivery with daughter

New mum and Darwin-based actress Sophia Emberson-Bain, who has appeared in films Aquaman and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, has been enjoying snuggling at home with her nine-week-old daughter.

Particularly given the many complications she faced during her pregnancy.

As someone who has fibroids – non cancerous growths that form in the muscle wall of the uterus – Sophia knew getting pregnant and any possible pregnancy might be difficult.

After visiting Repromed in Darwin, she and her husband were told to get a second opinion and flew to Brisbane.

It was there she was told she was carrying about 2kg of fibroids.

Sophia was then told by the fertility expert: “You’re four months pregnant with fibroids.

“You need to get them taken out.

“And I would say that within three months, if you don’t naturally fall pregnant, I would strongly recommend that you do IVF.”

After the fibroids were taken out, Sophia and her husband started the IVF journey in Brisbane and returned to Darwin.

A few weeks later, they found out Sophia was pregnant.

Over the course of her pregnancy they faced a lot of complications.

From struggling to get an essential seven-week scan which is required for those going through Monash IVF to experiencing a threatened miscarriage, Sophia was told to be cautious.

At aged 36, she was at risk of pre-eclampsia and had to take various pills and visit the private hospital for iron infusions.

Her daughter ended up arriving five weeks early and due to needing help breathing, was in the special care nursery at Darwin Private Hospital for three weeks.

Sophia said: “I was able to be in hospital for the whole time which was great because one of the complications was she wasn’t feeding particularly well and had to have a feeding tube.

“But they also wanted to help me breastfeed and help her to get strong enough to breastfeed. So every three to four hours, I was trying to breastfeed her.

“I’ve spoken to friends who have had similar situations but they haven’t been in the special care nursery for three weeks. They’ve been discharged from the hospital and had to drive every three to four hours.”

‘Backwards step for women’s healthcare’

Given her positive experience, Sophia said she was really “disappointed and saddened” by the private ward closure.

Speaking over her new daughter’s gurgling, she added: “It just seems like a backwards step in women’s healthcare.

“The Anthony Albanese federal government has announced that they are trying to improve women’s health care and they’ve announced all of these measures to do that,” she said.

“And then the Northern Territory are allowing – and I use the word allowing – for a private maternity hospital to be closed.

“I think the government have been extremely short sighted and are just coming up with short term fixes for the closure of the private and there’s been no long term discussion about what will happen.

“I think the other thing to think about is it doesn’t just affect women and children to be and families. It will affect the whole of the territory.”

No matter how much they have made Darwin their home for the last seven years, Sophia said if she were to fall pregnant again, in the current climate they would not stay.

She said: “I would be forced to give birth interstate and that’s just because my pregnancy was complicated.

“I need and I want someone to have that continuity of care the whole pregnancy so that I can be monitored and my baby can be monitored for a safe outcome.”

Federal funding and upcoming announcement for mums

As previously reported, when Healthscope’s private maternity services in Hobart were also facing closure, in February the Albanese Government said they would provide $6m in funding to support the expected increase in demand across services.

When no similar offer was made for Darwin services, many people have questioned why.

One of the reasons appears to be that the NT Government has not asked for federal funding until after the end of the federal election caretaker mode.

This is despite the government being aware Healthscope was having problems in September last year.

When asked what date an application for funding was made, the Minister for Health, Steve Edgington, did not provide a specific day.

“The Northern Territory Government has acted to fill a void left by Healthscope which announced in February it would close its maternity services in Darwin,” Mr Edgington said.

“We stepped in for Territorians as Healthscope stepped out.

“Private health funds have obligations to those Territory families who have paid premiums to pay for these services, not the Territory taxpayer.

“NT Health has had ongoing conversations with the Federal Department of Health on the matter of Healthscope closing their private maternity services in Darwin since the announcement in February.

“I have written to the Federal Health Minister looking at maternity services for all Territorians.”

Amid reports of the NT Government failing to secure private providers for their announced packages, when asked if they were still viable, NT Health and the Health Minister said they would be making further announcements later this week.