Private Birth vs. NHS

[TheGentleMoose]

AIBU to ask your experiences on giving birth please whether private or NHS? And if you've given birth on both what were the differences?

I started looking at amenity rooms yesterday, and someone raised giving birth privately. I was under the impression that no health insurance covers birth unless for a medical caesarean. However, DP looked into it last night [our insurance is through his company] and thinks we could claim a vaginal delivery on the insurance. We've never used the insurance before so have no idea what it's all about really.

One factor to consider is that if you want an epidural you can usually get one on demand if you go private but if NHS it just depends on availability of the anaesthetist and you won't be a priority.

I'd be really surprised if your DH's insurance covers a normal delivery. DH and I have both got bells-and-whistles policies through work and it doesn't cover it
My SIL found one that did but it cost her £1k a month and there was a 12 month exclusion period on birth, so it would have cost more to take the policy out than just to self-pay

Private options are Portland (which does have a SCBU), Chelsea and westminter's private floor, St Thomas's private floor and lindo wing
Lizzie and John's don't do private maternity any more
All of them are roughly £10k, give or take £3k depending on the sort of room you want and your consultant
The changes to the private midwife insurance rules means you have to be consultant lead officially, although the amount of midwife involvement varies between each hospital

I do find the dogged insistence of being in the same building as NICU quite bemusing

You never ever see any mention of it on threads about home births or birthing centres or local hospitals
But as soon as someone mentions going private, it is the Absolute Number One Consideration and the single biggest factor for why private maternity is A Very Bad Thing

Nhs with my My first pregnancy but that ended in stillbirth at 35 weeks and while I want to be absolutely clear the hospital couldn't of done anything to stop that, I didn't feel like the situation was handled as sensitivity as it should of been.

So with my next pregnancies with dd and ds Me and dh decided we wanted to use the Portland, I had a consultant I saw all the way during my pregnancy.
The hospital has a calm atmosphere, midwives have time to help you with breastfeeding and any other queries.
Private room
Dh was able to say with me for my entire stay.
Food was lush, afternoon tea was fabulous ( not that it really matters)

I travelled 1 hour 30 minutes from home, and went to the Portland as soon as labour started I didn't have to wait to be a certain amount of cm.

My insurance covered childbirth but they gave us £5k if we went with the NHS- which we did and it was fine and we gave the £5k to the birth centre as it was fab.

In your case with underlying issues I think I would prefer to go NHS - are there specialists at the Portland who can deal with your specific issues?

The Portland has a neonatal intensive care unit onsite for babies born anytime after 30 weeks I believe

@sparechage

'I do find the dogged insistence of being in the same building as NICU quite bemusing'

I take a medication that is known to cause congenital disorders in babies. I also may have a seizure during labour - the baby may have seizures after delivery. It's not a dogged insistence in my case - it's a necessity to me whether I go NHS or Private.

Using the Lindo means you are on site for nicu anyway?

@TheAntiBoop Yes - the consultant practices at the Portland. I don't think it's guaranteed I will see the same person throughout my NHS treatment or for delivery.

Last consultant (NHS) which was ectopic delivers at the Lindo Wing. Very much like Chelsea and Westminster [have been an inpatient there for 4 months previously].

What about UCLH? Any experiences? I have a GP appointment later - I may ask him for his thoughts.

I do find the dogged insistence of being in the same building as NICU quite bemusing

I always mention it to anyone who asks my opinion on giving birth at home. I'd never give birth anywhere that doesn't have one and I wouldn't recommend it either.

OP, it was more a general observation. It comes up on every single 'private vs NHS maternity' thread, and has done here before you discussed your potential need.

In your situation, I would be looking at Chelsea and Westminster which has one of the best fetal medicine centres in London, and would be trying to get under the care of Guy Thorpe-Beeston specifically.

How many weeks are you, and are you already flagged as high risk/consultant lead?

I don't live near a private hospital that offers delivery but I would alway choose a hospital that offer c section if needed. A lovely colleague of mine had a perfect low risk pregnancy but it was only when they started monitor baby after starting induction they realised that there was a problem. Less than 10 minutes later her baby was delivered by c section.

@sparechange - Ah, I understand now. Thank you for the recommendation. Already flagged as high risk due to previous pregnancies and medical condition.

It's flippin hard to chose. The NHS have been brilliant so far. I can't fault them at all.

I had an NHS c-section with an independent midwife and she arranged for me to have a private room on the usual ward. She did my midwife antenatal care (including evening visits at home so DH could attend), came to my scans and consultant appointments, attended the birth with us (to support us, there was NHS staff there too) and visited daily in the ward to help with breastfeeding. We stayed under her care for 3 months after birth. It worked really well for us and she had a good relationship with the hospital.

I did and it was excellent.

Not covered on insurance but still worth it. Private room with a kitchenette, spare bed for DH to sleep over, personal nurse, good food ... it was a consultant led-birth with a planned c-section. I had a lactation specialist come and help as DD wasn't latching as well as other things that for me, made it worth the cost.

We have insurance which didn't cover this but would have covered emergencies. Is DH not confused about vaginal birth and what is covered?

I recently gave birth at St Thomas under the NHS.

Started in the midwife led home for home unit, own room, sofa bed for the other half, own bath room etc. The bath was great for managing the labour pain as I crept up to being dilated enough.

I had to be transferred to the main unit for the birth due to the risk of the baby swallowing meconium, however I was still in a separate room.

Midwife Ruth was amazing, stayed with me the whole time.

After birth they were able to put me back in the original room for the rest of my stay (overnight for monitoring due to the meconium).

The overnight midwives were brilliant for helping with establishing breastfeeding etc.

For a busy hospital the care was superb, I couldn't have asked for better, and doubt going private would have meant a better experience.

(I also really enjoyed feeling that I was mooning TM across the river at HoP)

Maternity/Childbirth (10 month waiting period)
Pregnancy and childbirth, including related complications.
Limit
Normal delivery/Birthing Centre/Home delivery (10 month waiting period)
Up to GBP 10,000 / EUR 12,500 / USD 17,000 per delivery

Caesarean section (10 month waiting period)
Up to GBP 20,000 / EUR 25,000 / USD 34,000 per delivery

Pre- and post-natal treatment (10 month waiting period)
Covered under Out-patient day-to-day care

Covered
Complications of maternity and childbirth
Paid in full
Treatment for conditions arising from pregnancy or childbirth which could also develop in people who are not pregnant are not covered from the Maternity/Childbirth benefit but may be covered by your other benefits. All benefits are per policy year unless otherwise specified.

^ That's from our insurance cover.

I need to call them, because the Obstetrician fees and the hospital fees go over the 10,000 but it looks like I can claim most of the hospital fees under a different category.

What does "waiting period" refer to in the policy wording?

I would say that my private healthcare (planned c section) cost near to £18k in total (back in 2014), by the time you've included: obstetrician's fees, hospital fees, epidural, all the scans and blood tests, and a few extra night's stay (at almost £1k per night).

Orlando - thanks for the figures.

Waiting period is the time between the policy starting and me getting pregnant (we've had it for more than ten months)

My first birth was awful and ds1 was in Special Care after and all v stressful. NHS hospital was not great.

If we could have afforded it I might have considered private for my second baby. But so glad that I didn't as he was born 45 min after we arrived at hospital and we went home within 6 hours, and for that easy labour this would have been exactly what I wanted to do - so private would have been a huge waste of money!

" I had a consultant I saw all the way during my pregnancy. "

Funnily enough, so did I as I had a high risk pregnancy. All my care was NHS in Barnsley Hospital

I think we paid £16k in total for consultant led care and a c section plus 3 nights stay

Just calling the insurance company now with some questions. Thank you for all the responses. I'm so torn.

For anyone else reading this at a later date I found this regarding NICU at the Portland
www.theportlandhospital.com/maternity/neonatal-intensive-care-unit/

I don't understand if this is a Level 1, 2 or 3 NICU though [I don't know about how these are classified].