Antenatal care London - looking for advice

[MiamiBeach104]

Hello ladies,

I'm about 7 weeks pregnant and need to decide on antenatal care to chose from (it was not planned so haven't had a chance to do much research on the options available to me). Luckily I have private insurance. So currently I'm thinking between Great Portland Street on private or St Thomas on NHS.

I live closer to St Thomas than Portland Street. Portland would be much nicer in terms of facilities but it is not my biggest concern. I guess my overall priority is the expertise and equipment I would have access to if things go wrong.

What are your thoughts on both options? Some advice would be much appreciated.

Apart from the initial shock I'm feeling well and just hope my baby will get through first trimester alright and I will end up having a nice bump to look after soon :)

Congratulations on your pregnancy. You should check your insurance as most policies don't actually cover you for any maternity services.

I gave birth at St Thomas' (NHS) and have nothing but praise for the care. They are also one of the countries top teaching hospitals so their facilities are excellent. I would highly recommend.

Hey congrats on your pregnancy!!!
I have no personal experience to go on for either of these but what I have heard from doctors I work with is that the Portland have very minimal facilities to care for a sick baby. St Thomas’ will have great facilities no doubt and are attached to the Evelina children's hospital.

See if they are doing virtual tours or can assist you with the concerns you have.

Xx

Congratulations. As pp said check your insurance ASAP as most won’t cover pregnancy. Personally I wouldn’t bother with private. But anyway I’ve given birth in Thomases and it was excellent in terms of clinical care.

Most private medical doesn’t cover having a baby- usually those places charge a hefty fee

Thanks for the answers. I've checked yesterday and my medical does cover everything so it is not a problem.

I think I'm leaning towards St Thomas. Just in case if things go horriblly wrong the help will be at hand

If your insurance covers absolutely everything (you must have bloody good health insurance if routine pregnancy is covered!) and you are low risk I'd seriously consider private. I can't fault the care I had on the NHS when I needed a c-section but I can't say that staying somewhere like the Portland in a private room wouldn't have been bloody lovely too.

@wimbler I see what you mean. Lovely private room would be pretty cool. But it would take me about 1 HR getting into Portland by train and then underground. If I had to go onto the office anyway this wouldn't make much difference.

St Thomas is just 30 min on a train.