independent midwife. how much?

[hairymclary]

have been considering hiring an IM this time round, but have no idea what they cost or where to find one. help

It probably very much depends. I am in London and have hired one for £3k, she was £2.5k 3 years ago. I think this is probably as cheap as it goes though.

As for where to find them there is a website www.independentmidwives.org.uk which has a 'find a midwife' option.

FWIW although it is expensive it was money very well spent in my opinion, and I didn't start ttc this pregnancy until I had the money saved up for the IM.

I am on the south coast and a friend of mine is an IM and she charges around £2800.

Am in North-East London and mine is £2,250 (got an MBE for services to midwifery and everyfink !!)

hmmm i have til october to save up about 3k then. this may not work lol

They're coming down in price which is interesting. The fee used to be more like £5k. There must be more setting up.

Mine was £2.5K, three years ago. She just quoted a friend of mine £3.2K. Good value though.

I am in NE London.

You want to go here Independant Midwives Association

I paid just under £3K. It was the best money I ever spent! One to one care in my own home, it was lovely; also meant DH could be involved in appointments because we chose the time!

Good luck with your search

I'm in SE London and have paid £3.2k. It is definitely a great money well spent and I would recommend it to anyone. Do make sure you interview a few as you will be spending quite a lot of time with them.

I was told the going rate is about 2.6k but I paid a lot less as my income was very very low, it was still 1/8 of my annual take-home pay and worth every penny. If you're genuinely skint, many IMs are sympathetic and will try to help you come up with a payment plan and some may reduce their rate. It's well worth talking to one. But they have to live too and to give the quality of care - and guarantee to be there for your birth - they can't take on many clients each year year, so it is asking a lot for them to drop their prices much.

I was quoted 3.8K in Norwich (not exactly a heaving metropolis!), but thought this was too much and am going with NHS...

We were quoted £2.5k near Glasgow.