Maternity insurance for future complications

[EPfds]

I need some advice: I lost a baby on the NHS, which provided appalling, almost non-existent care throughout my pregnancy, which resulted in a premature birth and neonatal death of my baby.
I want to go private with future pregnancies since I’ve lost all trust in NHS mat services and know I will need specialist consultant oversight/treatment throughout the pregnancy, much of which will be preventative, so not what the NHS normally does: waiting until a problem happens and trying to fix it after things went wrong.
I can’t afford paying thousands for private consultants and am now wondering whether I can take out private health insurance that would cover such maternity care.
I’ve tried looking up quotes but they all only included acute medical treatments in the case of illness, not covering a pre-existing condition such as an incompetent cervix that needs to be measured weekly, or a preventative cervical stitch.

If anyone has taken out such an insurance or knows more about this I’d be most grateful.

@CaramelWaferAndTea

Hi, have you thought about going for pre conception counselling - not at your local hospital perhaps but at somewhere that specialises in preterm birth. The charity Tommy’s should be able to help with a list of clinics. Places like St Thomas’s, Queen Charlottes, Manchester, Birmingham women’s, etc

That’s a nice thought, thanks for the suggestions, but counselling won’t help avoid a similar outcome sadly. Tommy’s, Sands and Bliss leaflets were given to me when my baby was dead, I’m sure they are nice but it was just too little too late and they couldn’t have helped me.

@ElderMillennial

You can be referred to the hospital before your booking in and 12 week scan scan. I did it through the bereavement midwife by calling her soon after I found out I am pregnant again but I'm not sure how you get in touch with the bereavement midwife in your area. Do you have a Sands charity group near you? Or otherwise contact the hospital. There is definitely provision for this especially if you have a high risk pregnancy or previous loss.

That’s interesting, I didn’t realise bereavement midwives could make referrals or flag you for future specialist mat care. I will look into that, thanks.

@EPfds DM me if you want more info :) it's possible to get insurance that will cover this but by no means is it cheap, it's just not as expensive as paying upfront for private

@brushlaptop

Hey, I'm so sorry for what happened to your baby, that is beyond awful and the NHS has a lot to answer for.

I had a private birth (emergency c section) for my first birth and it was 22k. I am insured now by Bupa global with the top package (think it's called Bupa Global Elite) for private maternity, I am 32 with no medical problems and it's about £900 per month with a 10 month exclusion clause on maternity (from the date you take the insurance out, they only pay for maternity from 10 months from this date). So per year it's £10,800 which is how long I will have it for. So we will save around 11k by doing it via insurance for our second baby. I hope that helps.

Hello, this sounds still very expensive but obviously better than the around 20k+ I suspect it’ll cost if I went private entirely. What does your insurance cover? Any consultant care and c-section? I would 100% have an elective private c-section, the money for which I have, but the antenatal care is what gives me headaches. I almost certainly wouldn’t be able to afford bi-weekly private specialist cervical scans and a private cerclage surgery on top of that.

[quote brushlaptop]@EPfds DM me if you want more info :) it's possible to get insurance that will cover this but by no means is it cheap, it's just not as expensive as paying upfront for private [/quote]
Thanks very much, will do!

@EPfds it covers Bupa fee-assured consultants and hospitals. I live in London and when I was researching consultants there were only very few it wouldn't cover entirely. It covers lindo wing, Portland, Kensington wing, etc. Covers the whole c section. If you have a consultant in mind you'd like you can look them up on the Bupa website. It could be worth giving them a call and getting a quote.

I don't know what cerclage surgery is but best thing to do would be to call them go through what you need and get a monthly quote :)

If you’ve had cervical surgery and a late miscarriage or extremely preterm birth I would think you need either an abdominal or cervical cerclage for certain without the need for cervical tracking scans when pregnant. Depending on where you are in the country there should be a specialist who this can be discussed with pre-pregnancy. It could be that this is a private appointment initially but then with an agreement that you can be referred into the NHS once pregnant via the usual channels but flagged up as urgent.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Lots has already been said about needing to self advocate which I agree is a good plan. I would add two things.
First, what's the hospital that takes complex pregnancies near you? For where I am there's one hospital that's the go to for care if you have complications.
Secondly, can yoy advocate for one to one midwife care? I had a dedicated midwife. They're hard to get because services are limited but your history of complications plus the loss you suffered may be enough. It's worth asking. Trying ringing and asking your hospitals what they can offer and fight your corner. Good luck.

@HighwayCat

If you’ve had cervical surgery and a late miscarriage or extremely preterm birth I would think you need either an abdominal or cervical cerclage for certain without the need for cervical tracking scans when pregnant. Depending on where you are in the country there should be a specialist who this can be discussed with pre-pregnancy. It could be that this is a private appointment initially but then with an agreement that you can be referred into the NHS once pregnant via the usual channels but flagged up as urgent.

I’ve been told that I will need cervical scans with or without the cerclage as the cervix can tear if premature labour starts without the stitch having been taken out, and because the stitch couldn’t be enough and depending on premature shortening of the cervix I might need to be put on progesterone. I spoke to two private consultants specialised in prem birth and both said they’d want to do weekly or bi-weekly, and if the cervix started shortening, even daily measurements of the cervix. I’ve been wondering whether the best thing would be to do the abdominal cerclage pre pregnancy but have been advised against it, it’s considered an outdated approach apparently that has been modernised in last 5 years. That being said, it’s still an option I’m considering, but I don’t know how I’d possibly get the ball rolling for this pre pregnancy, who’d refer me for that kind of surgery before being even pregnant? My GP? Thanks very much for your input.

Thanks very much, that’s really helpful!

Progesterone after a cerclage should be standard without further scans as it’s a relatively cheap and low risk intervention in pregnancy. Having such regular scans post-cerclage seems excessive as aside from bed rest there’s little else that can be done, but everyone has different ideas based on different experience. What kind of cervical surgery have you had and how many weeks pregnant were you when you had your last baby? Were there any investigations which showed there was any evidence of infection? If you’ve had extensive cervical surgery a transabdominal is probably preferable, they are becoming more popular than they were. Where about in the country do you live?

@Tickly

I'm so sorry for your loss. Lots has already been said about needing to self advocate which I agree is a good plan. I would add two things. First, what's the hospital that takes complex pregnancies near you? For where I am there's one hospital that's the go to for care if you have complications. Secondly, can yoy advocate for one to one midwife care? I had a dedicated midwife. They're hard to get because services are limited but your history of complications plus the loss you suffered may be enough. It's worth asking. Trying ringing and asking your hospitals what they can offer and fight your corner. Good luck.

Thanks, you’re very kind. The hospital where I received my practically non-existent antenatal care was what’s supposed to be the country’s best hospital for premature births, St Thomas hospital. They even have an on-site specialist preterm birth clinic - I had ca 5 midwife appointments/scans metres away from it but never saw it from the inside. This might have changed by now but then, in 2013, the midwife referral route was totally broken. 4 different midwives who saw me had zero interest in letting a consultant take a look and just kept patting my hand. The NHS will probably always refer me back to that hospital. I’m not sure I can trust that lessons have been learned.

I had a specialist midwife after my loss and she provided additional advocacy during my pregnancy. I got twice as many scans and appointments for example.

I wonder if paying for a solicitor wouldn’t be more cost effective. This is care you need and should be covered by the nhs. If they aren’t providing it, a solicitor should be able to make clear they are failing you via PALs informally. I’ve never not had consultants respond when I had complained to pals (including in a pandemic) and that’s just me pointing out politely an issue with my care.

The specialist midwife was NHS provided I should say.

I also had a consultant appointment pre second pregnancy, to agree a plan. If it deviated I could then complain to pals (it didn’t thankfully, and was the same hospital that had been awful before. I think it made them more keen to do the right thing this time around)

@HighwayCat

Progesterone after a cerclage should be standard without further scans as it’s a relatively cheap and low risk intervention in pregnancy. Having such regular scans post-cerclage seems excessive as aside from bed rest there’s little else that can be done, but everyone has different ideas based on different experience. What kind of cervical surgery have you had and how many weeks pregnant were you when you had your last baby? Were there any investigations which showed there was any evidence of infection? If you’ve had extensive cervical surgery a transabdominal is probably preferable, they are becoming more popular than they were. Where about in the country do you live?

I see. I was told the frequent measuring is supposed to both monitor whether labour is imminent, and to ascertain whether or not to give progesterone. But it’s true, opinions vary on what the best way forward is. I had a botched teenage abortion that damaged my cervix, which was known prior to me getting pregnant. An infection was ruled out when I gave birth at just after 24 weeks, I had no other complications, my cervix just didn’t hold, I barely even had contractions, water never broke naturally.

@Parentpower20

I had a specialist midwife after my loss and she provided additional advocacy during my pregnancy. I got twice as many scans and appointments for example.

I wonder if paying for a solicitor wouldn’t be more cost effective. This is care you need and should be covered by the nhs. If they aren’t providing it, a solicitor should be able to make clear they are failing you via PALs informally. I’ve never not had consultants respond when I had complained to pals (including in a pandemic) and that’s just me pointing out politely an issue with my care.

Thanks so much for your input, very sorry to hear about your loss. I hadn’t thought of the solicitor option. I assume there are specialist solicitors for this kind of thing? Glad to hear you had someone in your corner the second time, I know of other’s who had similar experiences but it’s by no means a given I think. A lot of variables that currently amount to my feeling entirely at the mercy of the same overwhelmed London hospital that contributed to my baby’s death the first time round.

I actually got referred to consultant care prior to getting pregnant, due to a pre-existing condition, which meant I saw the consultant very soon after I did manage to conceive. I was told to go through the GP again for the same procedure if I wanted to get pregnant again. Could you talk to your GP about doing this?

I mean, to an obstetric consultant.

[quote brushlaptop]@EPfds DM me if you want more info :) it's possible to get insurance that will cover this but by no means is it cheap, it's just not as expensive as paying upfront for private [/quote]
Please send me the details !

Hi, I’m sorry if you found what I said not quite right before, and I’m sorry for your loss.

If St Thomas’s is your local hospital, you can ask for a pre-conception appointment at their preterm birth clinic to plan your pregnancy. Similar clinics exist, with very frequent monitoring, at other big London hospitals including UCLH. You can ask to be referred by your GP before you are pregnant to make a plan about pregnancy, and you may choose for antenatal care to go to whichever hospital you wish. You can even see a consultant privately to discuss pregnancy options, and then book at their hospital for NHS care with additional scans privately if you prefer. At St Thomas’s or UCLH you can also have a private elective caesarean which may be less expensive than a private hospital.

www.tommys.org/research/research-centres/london-preterm-birth-surveillance-clinic

www.uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/find-service/womens-health-1/maternity-services/your-pregnancy/preterm-birth-clinic

I wish you all the best

OP it is possible to approach your GP and ask to be referred to obstetrics for pre-conception counselling. This doesn't really mean counselling like talking about your feelings, more looking at what happened last time and putting a plan in place for this time round. Before you spend money you don't have on private care it might be worth asking for this and seeing how comfortable you feel with them. It also doesn't have to be at the previous hospital. You can request to be referred elsewhere. I'm in Scotland so our referral is different but I think in England you get to choose yourself now which hospital you get seen at.

Also just to reassure you about maternity care during the pandemic, although I'm not in the same area as you I've had the same midwife my whole pregnancy. Met with the consultant just to agree birth plan and I think only had one less face to face appointment than normal. My care this time round has really not been affected by the pandemic at all.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

@stevalnamechanger
You can get a quote if you put your details into this- I have Bupa global Elite plan

https://www.bupaglobal.com/en/for-you/welcome2?cmpid=ppc-bgbu201UKBrandBMMen00001&utmcampaign=UK%20BAU%202020&utmmsource=ppc&utmmedium=google&utmmterm=%2Bbupa+%2Bquote&gclid=CjwKCAiAhbeCBhBcEiwAkv2cYzgMKOSYyGmMKw2O6FHSBIGeCF62jCcMLhDvl9SgK6K6rpnOEBxa3BoCU74QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

@CaramelWaferAndTea

Hi, I’m sorry if you found what I said not quite right before, and I’m sorry for your loss.

If St Thomas’s is your local hospital, you can ask for a pre-conception appointment at their preterm birth clinic to plan your pregnancy. Similar clinics exist, with very frequent monitoring, at other big London hospitals including UCLH. You can ask to be referred by your GP before you are pregnant to make a plan about pregnancy, and you may choose for antenatal care to go to whichever hospital you wish. You can even see a consultant privately to discuss pregnancy options, and then book at their hospital for NHS care with additional scans privately if you prefer. At St Thomas’s or UCLH you can also have a private elective caesarean which may be less expensive than a private hospital.

www.tommys.org/research/research-centres/london-preterm-birth-surveillance-clinic

www.uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/find-service/womens-health-1/maternity-services/your-pregnancy/preterm-birth-clinic

I wish you all the best

Oh I didn’t mean what you said earlier did t sound right, I know these charities have helped lots of people and are doing great work, I just meant to say - I primarily need another kind of support, the adequate medical kind. I’ll look into UCHL, and didn’t know I could ask to be referred to such clinics before being pregnant as others have also suggested, will also look into that, thanks so much!