Private v NHS

[WorldWindOfEmotions]

Hi,

I just found out I'm pregnant. I'm Irish and a lot of my family and friends have gone private at home. I'm currently living in London and none of my friends have been/are pregnant here so everything is a first for me! Any thoughts on private v NHS over here?

All advice greatly appreciated!

If you can comfortably afford to go private, then go private. That's not to say the nhs service is bad, but the nhs is understaffed and under pressure.

Thanks for the response. Any idea on cost of private roughly?

I am expecting to pay about £12k for consultant led care assuming a natural birth. This is about in line with what we paid first time round (taking into account increases in hospital fees.. Though first time we ended up staying in a few extra nights because of issues with LO which added another £1500-2000).

Where abouts in London are you?

I'm in Harrow. At home you can go private for a consultant with more regular scans etc, especially in the last weeks. That consultant also guarantees to be there for the birth. Basically you're paying for continuity of care. But you have the baby in the general mat hospital, it's not private. It costs c3k

I went with the nhs, it was brilliant until the baby was born. The antenatal care was.. Not great. So if you can work out a way to pay a bit extra just for the antenatal care, that would be worth it.

worldwind I was disappointed to find out that there was no system of private care in nhs hospitals here too. If you compare like with like the private women's hospital Mount Carmel in Dublin charge ?5500 + consultant fees of about ?4000 for their package. That's still cheaper than private maternity in London.

Like you it's the continuity of care I'm after but unfortunately where I live there's no choice but the NHS. I'm only 15 weeks but so far the care has been very good.

We looked into a private midwife but couldn't justify the 4k tag for our preferred one so went for an out of area hospital.

Antenatal care was ok but impersonal really.

Labour was fine although in fairness I got their at 7cm so was swift!

Postnatal, if we could have afforded it I would have gone private for - the support is woefully contradictory and impersonal.

It depends on the hospital. I had excellent NHS ante natal care with my twin pregnancy. I saw the same consultant each time (8 times), he was brilliant and really listened and didn't rush me. I had scans every 4 weeks and fortnightly after 30 weeks. My c section experience was near on perfect, the same consultant delivered my twins, the midwifes and pediatricians were very good. The hospital had a brand new Women's Centre. I also had a private room. I paid nothing for this care. Look into your local hospital before emptying your pockets.

I had an independent midwife for my second baby. It cost 3k and was worth every penny. However, independent midwives generally aren't allowed to deliver babies in hospitals, so are only really worth it if you would consider a home birth. Also, due to insurance stuff, they won't be able to work independently after next October.

Aargh, meant to say that the postnatal care was not great. That's the bit i should have paid for (I could have done with a cup of tea and a warm shower after the (shudder) manual removal of placenta thingie, not a night in a noisy ward, lying in a pool of congealed blood, a drip, and no one to help me to the bathroom.