Private midwives anyone...?

[loubylou8]

Hello All!

I'm 12 weeks preggers with my first child I'm seriously considering booking a private midwife - they are a lot of cash and it would be a big stretch financially (about £3K all in) so is it worth it?

What I want to try and assess is...

Is it worth it if I have a hospital delivery?
I am considering a home birth - is this nuts with first child?
Will having a private midwife actually reduce chance of tearing / intervention?

I'm a huge fan of the NHS and don't want anything I'm saying to suggest otherwise but I'm worried about the lack of continuity and the sort of 'pot luck' you get in terms of midwife at your birth who of course you won't have met before.

I'd love to hear others' experiences of this - not least as DH is very unkeen and thinks I'm being a ridiculous :-)

Thanks all

I am 18 weeks pregnant with my first child. I have opted for private obstetrician care in a London hospital. But have to say its very expensive and we are stretched.

I can't comment on having a total private midwife experience.

But I am in the process of hiring a private midwife for the postnatal care to ensure I don't fall through the private and NHS gap on discharge.

In my area you only get 2 NHS brief visits and sometimes they dispatch a healthcare assistant and not a midwife plus a health visitor. That doesnt sound a lot to me at all especially for the first baby. The private system lets you define what you want - how many appointments and what tests.

I'd suggest you google the private midwives in your area and see what they have to offer plus the costs and compare that to the NHS. I was really shocked at the difference in postnatal care between the systems. I was also pleased to see you can meet/interview the vast majority private midwives at no charge.

Hoping this helps a bit as I came to the postnatal care late! Focused on the pregnancy care and birth - forgetting the postnatal care and now having to go back to my research stage.

You have good choice in this area, Neighbourhood Midwives (used to be South London Independent Midwives and were very well known) are very active. They do home, hospital all sorts. With you whatever. My husband thought I was nuts but then said it was the best money we ever spent, he said I had postnatal euphoria.

What area are you in? There is an NHS funded (and therefore free to access) alternative midwifery service available in some parts of the country called One to One Midwives. If you google you'll find their website and details of the areas covered. I used this service with DD2 and had a very positive experience. You have one midwife who sees you for all your ante natal appointments. If you choose a home birth, your midwife will also deliver your baby. If you wish to go to hospital, or if you are transferred during labour, your midwife will come with you and advocate for you and act as a doula but cannot (for insurance reasons) deliver you in hospital. The same midwife will see you for your postnatal care until you are signed off.

I cried when my midwife signed me off - she lives very near me and I still see her around, she gives me a bear hug and a kiss whenever I bump into her . Having someone I knew well and trusted 101% meant that I had the most positive birth experience, which after my first baby was very healing. Knowing what I know now, if I had another baby and One to One was not available, I would for sure hire a private midwife and have a(nother) home birth.

Hi
Have posted on another thread about this. I remortgaged to pay my midwife, so will be paying off the cost of my care for a loooong time! It was the best money I've ever spent (had her for ds 2 and 3) as from the moment of booking all the worry that had been hanging over me like a cloud disappeared and I stopped fretting about the birth and the first few weeks, and focused on enjoying my pregnancies and feeling excited. It made a huuuuge difference to my experience of breastfeeding in particular.

I used Neighbourhood Midwives (they were called South London Independent Midwives at the time).

I had a bad experience with ds1 when I lived in london and just used the local hospital midwife service (which happened to be a big teaching hospital - saw somebody different every time, lots of problems). Bizarrely somebody in my NCT group was based at the same hospital and had fantastic service, managed to see the same midwife almost every time and couldn't say enough good stuff about them.

DS2 - I'd moved out of london and just after I knew I was pg, the local hospital got rated the worst for having babies in the UK. I was lucky enough to find a local independent midwife who lived about 2 minutes away. She was fab and took away a lot of the stresses and strains I had had first time around. I did have ds2 in hospital through choice but she was there with me and as they were so short staffed, she acted as my mw (usually they are only supposed to act as a doula in hospital, but as she had previously worked there and still did occasional locum work there, they were happy to let her be my mw as it freed up others to help others giving birth). I ended up going home 4 hours later, she popped in twice later on in the evening when I was due to feed in order to help (I wanted to bf ds1 but couldn't and received no support from hospital or community mw). She was so close she was able to pop in as and when I needed her and nothing was too much trouble, no question too silly to ask. Think she carried on visiting for about 8 weeks formally - more at the start, less towards the end obviously. Even then she still carried on coming to see him for a bit longer, just informally to have a coffee and cuddle (with ds2 not me!).

She was great and I really appreciated having her there - I'm sure I would have had a very different experience if I hadn't had her, and if I were to have another dc now, I would book her as soon as I spotted the line on the stick. OK maybe after I'd told dh but certainly she would be the second to know and booked up - long before we told the dc or parents etc!

I can highly recommend. If the choice was between having an independent mw or having a holiday (or even holidays for 3 years) both dh and I have said that we would go with the mw every time.

Thanks everyone, very helpful! I don't think One To One Midwives operate in my area but have written to them to ask. It seems amazing...

I used Neighbourhood Midwives too (Annie and Tina) for my last 2 pregnancies and cannot rate them highly enough. Yes it does cost but they do have various packages, however, i went for the full package both times and my husband and I consider it money well spent and we are not wealthy by any means.
I struggled to breastfeed with my 2nd (its amazing how different each baby can be) and without the help of Annie and Tina I would most definitely have given up. They are both a bundle of knowledge!

I had a doula who was a qualified midwife. She does a lot of home births but was also excellent at supporting me in the hospital. I was use her again in a heartbeat. She is Leics/Warks if that is close to you?

I paid for one for our 2nd DC (first was born in amazing calm hospital abroad!) but asked for the very minimal ie we met twice to discuss birth plan and get to know each other then I was guaranteed she'd be there whenever I went into labour and she knows the hospital I went into well (works in 2 London hospitals). It was only £600 which I felt more than worth it as I'd otherwise have been on my own apart from DH for the entire labour apart from a brief visit to induce me and later break my waters. (Private midwife kept more of a backseat role to be sensitive but was the only reason I felt safe, and brought me pain relief when is have otherwise had none).
I strongly recommend it as I was the only new mum on my ward of 6 that night who didnt seem traumatised and the staff looked over stretched as we barely saw anyone and the private midwife also battled to get me a labour room when needed as I was desperate and noone came

I had my first born at home albeit with NHS midwifes who were fab, 17 hours and the same one stayed as she wanted to see it through! Don't let anyone tell you that it's risky blah blah with your first. Do your research and believe in yourself if that's what you want. I would wholly recommend doing a HypnoBirthing course though. Had all three of mine at home, not a stitch, tear or even a paracetamol for any of them! Good luck.