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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Chances of getting a paid for private room after birthing in C&W NHS labour ward?

22 replies

rollerbaby · 06/05/2010 22:23

Hello - does anyone have any experience of this, and if there is generally availability if people choose to stump up the eye watering nightly rate?

I'm keen to avoid the postnatal ward hell but obviously there are no guarantees this way.

Would appreciate any thoughts.

OP posts:

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chestnut100 · 07/05/2010 10:44

hey honeymoo, great question, and I am wondering the same. Do you have any idea what the nightly rate is? I think I would be willing to pay anything. Even my midwife has advised me to get off the postnatal ward as quickly as possible and get home! scary!

BythewayItsStillMe · 07/05/2010 10:48

Oh if I had to have my baby at C&W again I would definitely find the money to pay for a private room.

I had DS at 4am and when I was moved to the postnatal ward I just cried and cried and begged DH to get me out out of there. After fighting for it they let me go home at 2pm.

Sorry thats not much help with your question but just wanted to share my experience of that place!

seeker · 07/05/2010 10:48

Are you sure? I had one after my first, and actually felt very lonely and isolated. Stayed on the ward after my second and enjoyed the company. If it's your first baby I'd keep an open mind.

The funny thing was I didn't choose to have one after dd was born, they just put me there. I think it was because I was so old and so posh and they assumed that would be what I wanted!

Nymphadora · 07/05/2010 10:52

Our hosp is about £40 a night I am so much having one. I nearly killed people on a 4 bed ward

fabhead · 07/05/2010 10:57

I was on the PN ward at St Thomas' no private rooms available, apparently. It was hell on earth and without a doubt the worse experience of my life after my father's death. I know that sounds dramatic but it was awful. With ds2 I left shortly after the birth and different hospital, but if I ever had to stay again I would fight, almost to the death, to get a private room, cost almost no object. Better to go home same day if you can.

BythewayItsStillMe · 07/05/2010 11:23

The only thing I regret about going home so quickly was that my midwives that did the home visits weren't supportive with breast feeding, I felt so alone. If I'd stayed I might have had more support with it.

But, I wouldn't change my decision to leave asap.
The post natal midwives made me feel like crap, I witnessed one woman who's baby cried solidly being told by a midwife 'Do something with that baby!'

Original poster

rollerbaby · 07/05/2010 12:38

The general PN wards sound scary as hell - particularly if you are in a vulnerable medical situation. I'm having a doula so hopefully she can help get me settled, but really don't like the idea of being left to cope - either by MWs or my DH.

I rang the Kensington Wing and the going rate is £800 a night (prob cheaper at the Ritz!) but I don't care if I feel like i need it, then I would pay it. That said, if I can go home relatively quickly, then we'll do that instead.

Has anyone done this????

OP posts:

EldonAve · 07/05/2010 12:47

£800 a night is for a private room and private care ie private MWs/nurses

Just a private room won't cost that much

QTPie · 07/05/2010 12:53

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

mummytime · 07/05/2010 13:02

I requested one for my second two DC, however as they didn't come on time, there wasn't a room available in either case.
My notes in both cases had "Mum needs to sleep", I couldn't with all the noise on the general ward. I willed my Iron to be high enough in the first case for me to get home quickly. In the second I just told them I would sleep a lot more at home with 3 kids than in hospital.

Good luck in getting one when you need it.

fabhead · 07/05/2010 13:49

Is it your first? Generally it can be hard to get them to agree to you going home on the same day if it's your first - that said, if you and the baby are healthy and not born just before/after a shift change it is not impossible. If you are happy that the baby is well and you are ready to go just put your foot down and insist. They will probably try and scare you and say it is dangerous to go without a doctor checking the baby and signing you off, none is available now today, all in emergencies etc etc but I found that when I said well I am going anyway (live very close to hospital, was early in the morning so i knew the midwives would come that afternoon) a doctor miraculously appeared.

Second birth ds was born at 4am and I was home in time to introduce him to his brother at breakfast just after 8! I think I set the record, they were quite astounded at the hospital. Was far, far better though. I felt fully recovered later that day rather than weeks of exhaustion caused by 5 nights of no sleep and ritual humiliation in the post natal ward the time before.

bellissima · 07/05/2010 14:05

When I had DD1 at the C&W we were told that if we wanted a private room we had to buy 'the whole package'. But that was 11 years ago.

mtor · 07/05/2010 14:46

I was at C&W two years ago. I would go there again because of the wonderful midwives and the Drs but the aftercare and the wards was just awful in every single way. Apart from one nurse there was nothing positive about the experience. They said that I had to stay 5 days (!) and I went home after 48 hours. If I was doing it again I would spend the money on having someone to look after me at home and get out of there just as soon as it was possible.

moonstorm · 07/05/2010 16:12

Hope you don't mind me saying, but I agree with Seeker. I would have gone mad stuck in a room by myself!!!

tartiflette · 07/05/2010 16:25

Does anyone know what the various criteria are for giving people priority for single NHS rooms? (someone mentioned CS - is this a reason? what else?)

QTPie · 07/05/2010 16:44

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

tartiflette · 07/05/2010 16:46

Oh yes or something like HIV I remember them mentioning that actually when I went to look round.

CherryPie3 · 07/05/2010 19:26

OMG the p/n ward sounds horrendous .

I don't live anywhere near you as I'm in W.Yorkshire - the p/n ward at my hospital is just lovely. I (naively) thought they were all like that.

I'm sorry you're having to consider paying for a private room when the ward itself should be a lovely and supportive environment for you.

withorwithoutyou · 07/05/2010 19:31

No idea but do it if you can!

I planned to ask for a private room after DD's birth but was the middle of the night and was too shocked/traumatised from the birth to pipe up when they wheeled me up to the ward.

I had the screamer on the ward (poor DD had mangled head from forceps and was in lots of pain) so spent most of the night desperately trying to keep her quiet. She finally fell asleep at about 3AM and the woman behind the curtain was snoring SO loudly that even a pillow over my head couldn't block it out.

I hadn't slept for 48 hours by the time we got home.

6 days later we were admitted back into a hospital and put into a side room on the labour ward for infection control purposes and it was BLISS by comparison.

NellyTheElephant · 08/05/2010 19:07

Unlike some hospitals C&W does not have private rooms you can pay for in the NHS wards. If you want a private room you have to move to the private wing and have full private care so it will cost £800 / £900 a night.

I have had all 3 of mine NHS at C&W and really it is fine. I had good experiences each time (particularly my two elective sections), you hear a lot of horror stories, but it really isn't that bad.

tvfriend · 08/05/2010 21:45

Had my 2 at C&W too. In 2007 and 2009. I think you can pay for the private rooms IF there are any available but it is extremely unlikely there will be I think.
DH looked into whether insurance would pay for us after DS was born as he had to be in special care for a couple of days but there weren't any rooms available anyway.
I was in for 5 days with DD on the ward and for 9 days with DS on the ward and in private nhs rooms (they kept moving me in and out depending on whether someone needed it more than me). To be honest, I also felt a bit isolated in the private room (although it was nice to have an en-suite). If it had been my first baby I think it would have been even more so.
The postnatal wards are noisy but I honestly found it OK and it was nice to be able to see and chat to other mothers.

tvfriend · 08/05/2010 21:50

tartiflette- I think priority goes to those with babies in special care, mothers with twins, ill mothers etc (in no particular order). I was moved out when DS came out of SCBU but moved back in again when he got severly jaundiced and I was getting upset as kept thinking I was going to be able to leave. I was lucky to get the private room in the fist place- DS was 6 weeks early so the MW reserved the last free room before he was even born as she knew he would go to SCBU. I wouldn't have got it if someone 'needed' it more than me though.

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