Does anyone have any experience with private midwives?

[YorkieGirl18]

We are trying to decide whether to go with them and I was wondering what other peoples experiences have been for anti-natal, birth and post natal private care and if you would recommend it.

I am classed as a high risk pregnancy due to various complications, so I will probably have to deliver in hospital and I am aware they can only act as a birth partner not an actual midwife in this instance. Has anyone experienced this and do they feel it helped?

The anti natal package provides for daily home visits after the birth and weekly visits until 6 weeks. I understand on the NHS you only get 1 home visit. Are the added visits beneficial and does anyone under NHS care wish they had had more?

Thanks you for any insight you can give!

Do you have onetoone Midwife's in your area op?

Post birth in the NHS you are under midwife care until day 10 unless you have other issues - how many visits you have depend on how quickly you come out of hospital. If you are unhappy with feeding or another issue you can ask them to come every day post birth. Normally after day 10 your HV will take over. It’s normal for you to meet the HV at your home pre-birth so they would be a stranger.

I had a tricky birth and had difficulties feeding and HV came out weekly for several weeks. I can’t remember how many weeks but DD was definitely older than 6 weeks. My friend’s sister had two under 2 and was struggling and she has a HV out most days for several weeks until she felt more confident.

I suggest you find a local parenting group on Facebook and ask what the antinatal care is like in your area.

I'm with one2one midwives and they're amazing. Not private but has very private feel to it. Look at their website.

@pregnantforever No we don't unfortunately. I have looked at them when I was researching and they do look good. My husband wouldn't consider moving south so we could use them though, he's so mean! haha!

Thanks @Jackshouse that's really helpful! It's my first baby so I don't really know what to expect in terms of care also I don't know that many people who have had children recently and no one in my area. Joining a FB group is a really good idea! I hadn't thought of that!

What are the HVs trained in? Are they similar to Community Midwives?

HVs are not trained to the same extent as midwives but can be very helpful (occasional bad experiences aside).

NHS provides a home visit on the day uou go home (or the day after) and on day 5. If all is good you get passed on to the HV team, but they will stay if you need. My DD struggled to put on weight and the midwives were fabulous. The same community midwife I had through my pregnancy came 3 times a week for ages. She was a life saver.

HV are as qualified as midwives. They are qualified nurses or midwives with additional training in supporting families with children from birth to five. Some people don’t rate them because they don’t give definities because quite often there is no right or wrong in a given situation just what you think is best for your family. They should work with your support your family.

I haven’t seen the HV team for ages because DD is nearly 3 and I don’t need help. But the nursery nurse attached to the team came out at 2 years by appointment to do her 2 year check. In the past they have come out and chat about sleep issues and said they would ring me daily mon to fri if I wanted support with sleep training. I decided it was not for us after one night and they were supportive of that decision. If I needed for anything then I just need to ring them. They also run a weekly weigh in sessions but as DD sees a dietitian we have not been to that for years.

HV are for your child so can’t answer questions about post natal health but are interested in the whole family so they look out for and advice on PND and gave me advice about healing after c section but if you have concerns about your healing then you would see a GP not a HV.

I used independent midwives (Yorkshire Storks) for my second pregnancy, and they were wonderful. The pre natal and postnatal care was excellent, and far better than the NHS care I received with my first baby, but I have to admit that the greatest difference was during the birth itself.

I have friends who used them and transferred to hospital for the birth, and who were very positive about the care in their situation, but I don't know anyone who planned a hospital birth from the start. Having said that, people I know who had them for more complex pregnancies spoke very highly of the time they spent explaining the complicated medical stuff and working around it, but I have no personal experience of that.

I considered it because I am relatively high risk (particularly high risk of PND) but I also want a c section and I feel like they would be of less use in that situation.

@broomstickOfLove Can I ask in what way you feel they were better than the NHS care and how they made a difference to your birth? Did you give birth at home? Would you use them again?

Sorry for all the questions I'm just really trying to weigh up the benefits. It is quite expensive (in general - not for the service) so I really need to know if I am making the right decision.

Thanks!

As a PP has already stated the number of midwife visits will depend on your circumstances. We had issues with feeding and my DD struggled to gain weight so we got more midwife visits because of this. We remained under midwife care for 3 weeks before getting transferred to the HV. The standard number of visits is a guide only and they will only transfer you over once they are happy everything is well etc.