Those with an independent midwife - did you mix with NHS care?

[Fagin99]

I'd be interested to hear from those of you who have employed an independent midwife - did you combine your antenatal care with the NHS appointments?

I'm a little concerned as apparently hospitals are still only allowing one birth partner in (which would be my husband), so if I only saw a private midwife at home who then couldn't join me for the birth, would the birth in hospital actually be more stressful if they had never seen me in person before and didn't have electronic notes?

Alternatively, was it a hassle mixing both NHS and private antenatal care?

Sorry if they're silly questions. I'm 10 weeks with my first pregnancy so it's all new to me! Thanks in advance.

Is there a reason you want to go private? Have you had previous issues or concerns? Is your local NHS Trust requiring improvement or are there any worrying cases? I'm not really questioning the why, in fact it's none of my business but my local NHS Trust is absolutely incredible - amazing doctors and midwives, they've got an MLU, a central delivery suite and theatres. They do home births of course too. If there was something wrong or worrying, they have a fetal medicine department and a NICU. I feel so happy and reassured and don't know any of the benefits of going private. Many hospitals are now adopting a "continuing care" process where you see a team of midwives throughout your pregnancy and then there's always someone from that team who will be in the hospital or community at anytime when you go into labour and if they can, they'll look after you so you have someone familiar. This is a fairly new thing but you could check out if your nhs midwifery team are following this model? My midwives aren't yet but will be soon. My midwife at my first labour was amazing, I'd never met her before and was totally at ease. They're qualified and experienced and I don't think it makes much of a difference whether you've seen them before

Hi, I have an independent midwife and yes, I’m combining it with NHS care. I’m planning to give birth in the birth centre of my local hospital, and secured permission to have my independent midwife with me as a second birth partner (alongside my husband). The NHS care so far has been great and I have no complaints. The reasons I wanted an independent midwife in addition were:

• I get a lot more time with her to ask questions and discuss things in depth
• I wanted someone I knew to be with me in labour (vs a midwife I may not have met before) and who is a professional to act as an advocate for my choices (she can’t formally play a midwife role in the hospital for insurance reasons)
• She will come to our flat to be with me in early labour and advise when we should go to the hospital
• She will be providing four weeks of postnatal care where she will help us with breastfeeding, how to care for the baby, my physical healing etc. She’ll come to us almost every day for the first week and then taper off, but will be available for me to call her anytime during the four weeks.

So far it’s been a great combination. My appointments with her have been a great complement to the NHS appointments - we meet for 1.5-2 hours and go over the conversations I’ve had with NHS midwives etc and any test results, I ask tons of questions, she brings books and articles for me to read, we spent lots of time drafting my birth plan etc. Everyone I know has also said that the four weeks of postnatal care sounds amazing as the NHS postnatal care is quite bare bones. I think it’ll be particularly helpful in getting breastfeeding established for example.

To add - I definitely would suggest you continue with NHS care. It means everything is properly joined up with your medical records, and means they have all the relevant info if you give birth in hospital (which is a real possibility even if you’re planning a home birth). Plus you might need consultant appointments or consultant-led care, which an independent midwife can’t provide. If you go private for everything it’s also really expensive paying for all the blood tests, scans etc!

It hasn’t been a hassle at all combining them, it just means you have more appointments overall - but the independent midwife ones can be arranged at a time to suit you, which helps.

Hi, I had an IM and yes combined with NHS care - think that is the best way as then the IM is additional plus you have everything in the system. I was hoping for a home birth but it was not to be and the IM was a good advocate/support in hospital. Also they proved invaluable in the PN period, when NHS care is very thin on the ground. It was the sheer amount of time you get with them, very helpful.

How much does an IM cost, please? Roughly...

As long as notes are comprehensive then I don't see a massive difference.

I had never seen the midwives who were around when I was in labour before. All they knew of my antenatal health was what was written in my notes.

Thank you all so much. You've all really convinced me that it's worth it and that it's good to combine it with NHS care.

May I ask - did your NHS midwives ever make a negative comment that you also had a private midwife, or were they supportive of it?

Thingy, prices generally range between £1.5k-£5.5k depending on what you want. Many private midwife websites have price lists that you might find helpful.

My NHS midwives are totally fine with me also having an independent midwife, no negativity as far as I can tell. To be honest, both my NHS midwives and my independent midwife are very on the same page about everything. Some books you read written by independent midwives / home birth advocates imply you’ll have to fight for reasonable things in a hospital setting (like not being flat on your back in bed, or optimal cord clamping), and that hasn’t been my experience at all.

Thank you, that's really reassuring (and helpful) to hear.