Did you mix and match NHS and private care?

[Audrey2013]

If you did, how did you do it?

Would like to hear your thoughts and experiences please!

[learnermummy]

I did, in so much as I hired an independent midwife but had all the NHS scans, blood tests etc. I gave birth at home with my own midwives. It was a great experience, independent midwives obviously have much more time to get to spend with you and to get to know you. There were the odd comments from NHS midwives along the way - ie 'are we not good enough for you?' but I think I simply replied along the lines of 'not at all, just trying to reduce your work load'!

[Audrey2013]

That's a good line, thanks learnermummy :)

[AmandaPayntedEgg]

I did slightly.

I had all the NHS care but used a private company for scans. I didn't fancy being allocated X random date and then sitting around for two hours when I was juggling a toddler and a part time job. I had a few comments from a midwife who told me I 'had' to have the NHS ones or they wouldn't have the information they needed. I simply said taht they information was all on my print out (it wasn't a 4D 'ooh nice pictures' set of scan I had, they were normal ones). I was also ready to point out that scans are, in any event, optional but she shut up. The other midwives were fine.

[Audrey2013]

Thanks Amanda! I am very keen to have my scans privately as well... Did you do your scans in London? How can I tell a normal scan from a, well, 'useless' one?))

[AmandaPayntedEgg]

Yup, south east London if that's near you.

I had a look round on the web really. The point is that you are looking for actual ante natal screening scans, not just the ones advertising pretty videos. Generally it was pretty clear which was which and I checked qualifications of staff too.

[AmandaPayntedEgg]

As far as I know, scans can't 'detect' downs syndrome as such. It's a statistical likelihood. 1 in 20,000 or whatever. That statistic can be made more accurate when the scan and blood tests are combined, which I suspect is what the Fetal Medicine centre does (it's what my place did). As far as I know, it has to be amnio or similar for actual detection/diagnosis.

Happy to be corrected if I am out of date though

[QTPie]

I had NHS care until 14 weeks (plus a private early pregnancy scan at 8 weeks and a private combined Nuchal scan and blood test at 11 weeks). Then, at 14 weeks, I switched to full private care: I was just not happy about the rushed antenatal care locally or the reputation of the local NHS hospital (so the rest of my antenatal care and birth were private). After discharge from hospital, I was transferred to NhS care again (for the immediate post birth midwife checks for the 10 days after birth): really wasn't impressed by that either. NHS care can be great, but not so much around here...

Some people have antenatal care on the NHS, but scans privately and them switch to private for just the birth and postnatal hospital care.

[AmandaPayneAteTooMuchChocolate]

Ah, ok Grapes. I wasn't at the FMC, but my place sent their bloods to them (or whatever lab it is they use - I remember my test had to be before a certain time of day to get the sample across to them) along with them doing their own scans. It is nice to have that extra reassurance about the accuracy of the statistics isn't it.