We are going through the portland now for our first child and would highly recommend it.
It's too common in people thinking that giving birth must involve suffering.
We started off midwife lead and moved to consultant lead when things got complicated. It's not been an easy 9 months, but we have certainly have received a lot of support in those 9 months.
There was a fear we had before that, if anything went wrong, we would have to be shipped to a NHS hospital mid way through labour, but I can honestly say that this fear has completely gone away. We think that a problem can often spiral into a worse situation if not managed correctly, resulting in an emergency situation. At the Portland, things are managed closely. There are no suprise situations. They have time for you and understand you as they have been with you through the journey.
There was another fear that we lived too far away from the hospital, ~2 hour drive, and it would be hard to get there in time. Knowing what I do now, I feel like, if we were still going naturally, we would still be able to make it there in ease for our first baby (though this is not tried and tested). There are a bunch of early warning signs and we would have just stayed in London when we started seeing them.
One thing that I would recommend is that you don't stretch yourself financially. We are insurance led but for any future children, if we no longer had insurance, we would still 100% go down the Portland route.
This post may attract flack from other people, but don't take much notice if it's coming from someone who hasn't experienced it.