Private Maternity Care

[Andsoitbegins88]

I’m very newly pregnant and particularly anxious about giving birth having had a few people close to me have things go VERY wrong. I know many more people have positive birth experiences, but I’ve decided on balance I would prefer consultant led private care.

But, I don’t live anywhere near any private maternity hospitals! Has anyone had any experience with having the bulk of your care local to you then moving over to private care later in the pregnancy? Travelling to London/Watford for the actual birth is one thing, but I won’t be able to do it for all of the prenatal care.

I know private/NHS can be emotive and I’m by no means slating the NHS, this is just the right choice for me.

Hi op.

I have some experience of friends and family using private care and on occasions things have gone wrong and the private unit have not had the resources or facilities to help and they had to then be transferred to NHS via ambulance

This strengthened my decision to use NHS although I could have gone private and although the birth was great there was some complications after birth but I was in the right place for surgery

Also in my experience of my friends and colleagues who opted for private care... its a quick jump to c-sections and bear in mind the associated costs

Obviously you will do your research and I hope you have a safe and uneventful pregnancy and birth hope you dont mind me sharing this even though I didnt go private myself

Similar to @MoonBase10 . Have heard stories of private maternity ward where patients are left ignored for hours as there just aren't the staff to look after them. The private recovery rooms looked lovely, but looking back I'm glad not to have traded that for more attentive/omnipresent staff.

Would you consider sticking with the NHS but hiring a private midwife or doula?

I had a traumatic birth first time around and have hired a doula second time around.

The advantage is that (covid restrictions permitting) they will be able to stay with and support you, wherever you are, whether at home, NHS birth centre or hospital, or private hospital.

You'll have a wider range of medical professionals at an NHS hospital bringing a wealth of experience; i looked at going privately and found you are blue lighted to NHS if anything goes wrong. Private hospitals seem lovely for aftercare but for the birth itself you may be better off in the NHS. Plus, of course, private consultants often work for the NHS too, so you may be paying for he exact expertise that you could have gotten for free. Nothing against private at all, I have private health insurance myself, but for giving birth I personally think it's less risky to go NHS.

We looked at doing this too and I started off with the NHS in the expectation that I would end up going private - in the end, I was totally blown away by the NHS and how good it was. I was classed as higher risk and had lots of support and my midwife was exceptional. I had an ELCS which made things a bit easier to organise but I chose the consultant that I wanted to perform it and saw her throughout pregnancy so it was no different to private care really.

You can start off NHS and move to Private at 28/30 weeks. it's not a problem. it depends how far away you are. if you are in labour do you want a 2 hour long drive to a hospital

FYI Watford closed its private maternity 5 years ago

Thank you for all experiences shared, very open to hearing them all!

@mynameiscalypso that’s interesting, I’m not ruling out NHS and will definitely start with NHS care but our local hospital doesn’t get great reviews unfortunately- maybe I’ll be lucky! Wasn’t aware you could pick your consultant on the NHS, either.

@Bells3032 clearly my knowledge of private care options is not up to date! Thank you

@mynameiscalypso can I ask if you are based in central London? Your experience (with the ability to choose your own consultant, etc) sounds lovely but quite atypical based on what I've read about online.

OP, I did a lot of research into private care and while what you want to do is certainly possible, as far as I could tell there's not much difference in price between full antenatal private care and just private delivery. Not sure if that's a factor for you at all but it would be for me.

@katekane Yes, I'm in London. The trust I was with has introduced a case loading model which means you have a dedicated midwife and she was able to facilitate things like consultant choices etc.

I agree with PP, if your main reason for wanting private maternity care is because you're nervous about the birth, then I think you're perhaps a little misguided as the facilities and sheer volume of nurses / doctors / midwives available to you should anything go wrong, are considerably more vast in an NHS hospital. There is considerable history of women being transferred to NHS hospitals either during or after difficult births, because private hospitals simply didn't have the capacity of staff or doctors with the right experience to be able to facilitate a lot of emergency procedures.
There are a lot of benefits to private maternity care, but being nervous about the birth and wanting peace of mind of the best aftercare possible, private hospitals are not the way to go.

Thanks @katekane, that does make a difference. That said, it’s also a geographical consideration as most private maternity is SE centric - which I am not!

I’m very newly pregnant and particularly anxious about giving birth having had a few people close to me have things go VERY wrong.

I’m one of those people and very glad I gave birth on the NHS because I needed emergency treatment afterwards and three of my children have needed NICU which wouldn’t have been available at a private maternity hospital. Some NHS hospitals allow you to pay for an obstetrician for private care.

@mynameiscalypso It's nice to hear there are trusts in London where that's possible. The ones closest to me only offered caseload midwives if you wanted a homebirth.

I gave birth privately in London (was lucky to have it included on health insurance) and I couldn't recommend it enough, the postnatal care was incomparable to anything my friends received on the NHS. I can't understand how there would be a midwife shortage - there were 3 women for every midwife on my floor (postnatal care) - and I stayed for 5 days post-birth (DH has a bed in the room) with professional staff on-hand 24/7 to help establish breastfeeding, answer literally any question I had etc.

The hospital I used had a NICU and also intensive care for me if anything went wrong, and I was never ever pressured in any way into a C-section (had a vaginal birth). The whole experience was great and I felt very cared for and listened to. I am in another country now and if it wasn't for covid I would go back to London to deliver in this hospital (I'm currently pregnant).

Private antenatal care I think just meant I got more appointments and more scans, but was far more similar to friends' experiences on the NHS. It's the postnatal care and birth options (eg anaesthetist pretty much always available) that I think are the biggest difference from the NHS.

If you want to ask me any questions, feel free to DM me. I don't know why these threads always descend into scaremongering about private maternity care.

Thank you @sadhermione, grateful for you sharing. With no personal experience it’s hard to defend against the previous posts but I was also quite surprised to read of shortages in private care, whereas I know there are shortages in NHS care.

I will message you, thanks again.

DHs colleague's wife died during childbirth at under private care. Things can go wrong in private or NHS.

One thing to bear in mind is that prices stated in private care packages are just the beginning. Add in consultants fees, any extra scans or additional procedures during pregnancy etc., and the average cost of a private baby is around the £15-20k mark.