Private vs NHS?

[snoopy8]

Has anyone had a baby in a private hospital? Can you please share your experience? Was it worth the cost? Did you have a vaginal/csec birth? How do your think it differs from a NHS pregnancy/birth? (Sorry lots of qs!)

*how do you think it differs..

Hi snoopy8, I had a baby last year at Lindo wing, I had elective csection. Some of the reasons I chose private over NHS were:

• To make sure I get a private room and bathroom after the birth( this is possible on NHS but not guaranteed. In the NHS hospital where I live it's first come first served for private rooms)
• I wanted a consultant that I choose to be in charge of delivering my baby. I wanted to have natural birth originally but later decided against it and my consultant was happy with my decision and I knew he will be available 24/7 to deliver my baby.( NHS wise if you go into labour in the middle of night and you want a csection they MIGHT recommend you to wait till morning for your csection. This depends on the hospital though. Some hospital might be happy to do planned csection in the middle of night and some don't.)
• midwife care i think it's same in both private and NHS, they will help you with baby things and breast feeding.

To be honest we are not rich and it was a big cost but I think it was the best money I've ever spent (we just have to wait a year or so to buy a car)
Please let me know if you have any questions, happy to help.

I had a all my postnatal care and a normal vaginal delivery at the Portland. The local nhs options were dirty, overcrowded and that last place I would have wanted to give birth. I chose private because I wanted to know I would get a clean, private, en-suite room where my husband could stay, no nhs postnatal ward for me thank you! I wanted to be sure I would get the pain relief I wanted, when I wanted it (I did) and a midwife I already knew and who knew me. I wanted good food, a nursery where the baby could go at night with no pressure to breastfeed if I didn’t want to. I got all that and more, it was wonderful. My appointments were made to suit me and I had plenty of time and it felt truly woman led. I am thankful we could afford it and would do it again.

I meant I had all my antenatal care private, postnatal was a mix of private and nhs

Thank your both for your responses, the reasons you mention are very much what attract me to going private.

I had a traumatic birth experience with my DD, I was induced, but didn't dilate, after 4 nights on a hospital ward with barely any sleep I was finally placed on the drip and she was forceped out. She and I were in a lot of pain after, my DD had a lot of bruising on her head and face.

I don't blame the NHS staff for what happened, and they did the best they could in the circumstances. I got my DD safely and that's really all that matters. BUT id like it to be different next time.

@Ella32 can I ask why you chose to have a c section? Did they try to disused you from doing that? I think I would opt for c section next time. How long were you there for before you were discharged?

Thank you again! I'm not pregnant yet but we are planning to ttc our second in the next few months (fingers crossed)!

@MrsApplepants you mention a nursery where the baby could go at night. was this to let you get some sleep? Would they bring your baby if it needed you or would they feed it for you? Could have kept the baby with you if you'd wanted to?

About why csection, I asked my consultant which one he prefers and he said, both vaginal and csection birth have side effects and problems so I have to do my own research and decide. So me and my husband both researched it and read some books and came to decision that csection is the best for me and my baby.

The only thing my consultant said was he doesnt recommend csection if I want to have more than 2 babies and that I have to wait at least a year between pregnancies.

Reasons for csection: i have so many reasons why but the important ones were that I didn't want any injury to my pelvic floor and my baby. Also as I'm older(35) I had more chances of assisted birth or emergency csection.

My consultant was very supportive of me choosing birth method.

I also asked to do my csection as late as possible so baby is bigger and healthier so I did the csection at 39 weeks 6 days.

I didn't have any breastfeeding issues and my baby latched straight away and a year on I'm still breastfeeding.

In private hospitals you can stay as much as you like, it's similar to a hotel, they call it checking out. I checked myself out after 3 nights.

Lindo wing also have a nursery for babies and they look after your baby so you can get some rest and you can ask them to feed your baby every 3 hours or bring the baby to you for feeding or keep the baby in your room. It's very flexible.

Thanks so much for all the information, I really appreciate it :)

Re nursery, yes this was so that i could get some sleep. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to and can keep the baby with you all the time if you prefer. If you use the nursery and are BF they will bring baby to you for a feed, or if FF will either feed it in the nursery for you or bring it to you, whatever you want them to do.

Also, another thing I liked about going private was that I knew I was not going to be induced, if baby was late, I would have chosen to go straight to c section, no hassle or arguments. I fully believe many nhs decisions are taken because of cost or lack of available resource, when you are paying this removes these obstacles and you get truly woman centred care.

I think you're probably right @MrsApplepants. Being induced was such an awful experience, especially with forceps at the end of it.

I think I'll almost certainly go private now if I fall pregnant again (fingers crossed) It sounds great and I just want some good memories to associate with giving birth!
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I gave birth at the Lindo Wing in March to our third baby having had my previous two on the NHS. We are not rich and have had to make lots of sacrifices to have the birth I wanted. I had a very traumatic birth with my second child and was not confident with the NHS care I was receiving and so at 32 weeks decided to give birth at the Lindo Wing with the most wonderful consultant. I was having a planned csection but ended up with an emergency one after my waters went early. Our baby required 24 hours NICU which was NHS (it is attached to the Lindo wing in st Mary’s) and I could not have asked for a better experience. The care was second to none, the csection was amazingly relaxed and everyone had the time to be kind and caring. The private room and bathroom was ideal and my husband stayed with us the entire time. Our baby came back to us after 24 hours and we were discharged 48 hours after birth (would have been 24 hours if we hadn’t needed NICU).
Our baby would have really struggled without a level 3 NICU and as such would have been transferred out had i given birth at our local nhs hospital.
I cannot fault the Lindo wing and all of the wonderful staff

I’m having an elective section in 2 months (nhs) but I’m just very interested in reading these comments. I live in Scotland so there really isn’t much in the way of choice to go privately. This is my first baby and I’m a bit obsessed with watching hospital videos on YouTube, tours of the maternity unit, one born every minute etc. It’s not til I was pregnant that I really thought about it but putting people on a ward when unwell is bad enough but when either in the early stages of labour to not be given privacy at literally one of your most intimate moments of your life and also after to have to sit on a ward with other women looking/feeling awful.. it’s really quite horrific 😩 The only positive at the moment is that visitors can’t come in (other than partners) but I can only imagine how awful it would be to be lying there bleeding, feeling like death and in walks a whole crowd of people you know to go to the bed across from you who have seen you at your absolute worst 🙈 I’m just keeping everything crossed for a private room and bathroom!

Interested to read these comments too and thanks for the info on the Lindo. @Mumofthree2021 may I ask who your consultant was there?
I’m currently due an elective at St Mary’s on the NHS though have a scan in 2 weeks to ascertain if I still have placenta previa (fully obstructing cervix); also I have a second placenta and baby is breech, so if all of this is the same at the 32 week scan then our insurance may consider me eligible for a c section privately, in which case I’ll transfer to the Lindo.
Tbh, rather hoping that it’s still the same so I can as have heard various stories about the postnatal wards on the NHS and none of which are that agreeable but we’ll see!!

@TheGlitterFairy I had my previous two NHS at st Mary’s and the difference in the postnatal care especially was like night and day.
We had Jasmine Tay as our consultant (I had mr Teoh for my last baby nhs) and jasmine was the most wonderful dr, she is so thorough and caring. She listened to what I wanted who j made the world of difference. She does a number of private births at Queen Charlottes and has recently started delivering at the Lindo wing. I could not have asked for a better dr.

Thank you for all the insights here! Can I ask if you're all London based? I'm in West Sussex so London may be a little too far away.. but struggling to find anywhere closer to me.

No, we are about 70 mins out of London driving. My waters went early and we found the journey fine and I was more confident there compared to my local nhs hospital x

@Mumofthree2021 did you find the journey home with the baby ok? I guess they just slept..?

Yep it was a very quiet journey. We made sure he had fed just before we left

Thanks @Mumofthree2021 for the info 🙏 interesting to hear that St M’s nhs is totally different to Lindo!!

@snoopy8 I’m west London and about 40/45 mins away from Lindo

I'd go private like a shot. Maternity and postnatal is like the bastard child of the NHS.

Does anyone on this thread have experience of getting their insurance to cover their c section? I did manage this a few years ago with my first due to a herniated disc but got no explanation and they initially resisted the claim as they said it was preventative /precautionary. But when is a cs not preventative of some harm? They have also said they will cover if the baby is still transverse at 36 weeks, which again must be preventive?
Also, has anyone had any experience of challenging the coverage amount for the consultants fee? My consultant fee is £6,000 but AXA will only cover £300 for two consultations, crazy! Especially when, if it was any other op they would cover the entirety.