5 * Babies Inside The Portland Hospital BBC 2 9pm (wed)

[seasidesally]

Really looking forward to this,anybody else ??

"Do you really think the top doctors in the NHS are waiting outside your room ready to save the day and rush in"

Often, yes, the doctors are on the ward, seeing patients or sometimes even (shock! horror!) sitting at the desk drinking a cup of tea.

I've had two babies on the NHS. One was an emergency section. the other a selective. Food aside, I really can't see a huge difference between what I experienced and the Portland births, except the food is better at the Portland and there's a fully equipped A&E for emergencies attached to the hospital i was at.

Didn't see all of this but I couldn't believe the passivity of the yoga teacher, doing 'ever so well' lying back in bed . I couldn't go near the bed when I was climbing the walls in early labour. I'd assumed she'd be into the Active Birth thing. Never make assumptions!
Found the sly digs made by some of the staff quite amusing but I'd think twice about going there now if I were acpotential client. Seems a low opinion of them prevails.
I don't generally watch OBEM and the like but I've never seen staff be anything but tactful about patients on that sort of programme.

You're assuming yoga mum was paasive, maybe she didn't want to be filmed up and about etc. Maybe she'd just been examined so was on the bed an that's when the film crew popped in for all of 20 seconds which is what we saw.

If I had a load of money, I'd spend them money on a private midwife for home and the rest on a daily housekeeper and cook!

I had my 2 ds at the Portland and it was amazing. The food was just a bonus, it was the kindness of the staff, especially Pat that made it so special. Pat was not alone with all those babies she had at least 3 others with her but I preferred to keep mine with me but she was always popping in to check and gave wonderful breastfeeding support. There is a room with a birthing pool and in answer to the previious poster the goody bag has the Panda, a bottle of champagne, a bumper box of Molten Brown, and your Bounty Bag with loads of other samples and vouchers.

That was me, asking about the goody bag - thank you, bella!

Pat was not alone with all those babies she had at least 3 others with her

Then why on earth didn't they show that, since the programme was basically a glorified advert for the place?

It feels like the people on this thread who have had babies at the Portland are all very pro it, which is interesting (including me).

I agree that what you are paying for is choice. I saw the same dr all the way through, from first appointment to delivery, which for me was really helpful. I also got really good support - I haven't seen the programme yet, but there was no anti-breast feeding feeling that I saw, there was a lot of support for breastfeeding and I had a nurse spend a lot of time with me very patiently getting breast feeding established with my first DC, which was much appreciated.

The levels of "luxury", quality of food and night time nursery are slight red herrings in my view.

I don't think I got a formal goodie bag but I do remember some bits and pieces of molton brown stuff and definitely a stuffed panda. That's Pandy Warhol, who is probably still on Dds bed!

I definitely agree that for me it was money well spent, but probably because it delivered for me the experience I was hoping for (I'm not a home birth type or a "oh look I've just popped them out" type). But it's definitely not worth paying for if its only giving you something you're not that fussed about.

So far we haven't seen a baby put to the breast although the South American lady possibly was breastfeeding. We have seen a lot of bottle feeding. Apart from Pat, the staff who work there full time don't seem all that supportive of anyone's emotional needs. But maybe that's just my impression.

I think the breastfeeding thing might be down to the mothers they showed not wanting to do it. I'm not sure how much it would be pushed to do it for a couple of days. As PPs have said, youre paying for choice. If you want to do it, you are helped, if you dont, no one tells you to do it. Although having said that, my friend had 3 babies on the NHS and point blank refused to breastfeed. She said they didn't push it once she said a firm no. She's quite formidable though!!

Do you not think it's a pity though, that they couldn't find a mother who wanted to breast feed? Or want a water birth?

I wonder if at least a number of Portland patients are funded by health insurance which implies some sort of medical condition and therefore more likely to have C-section and not breastfeed. I had that with DD on the NHS- planned C-section due to my health problems and did not FB due to taking medication

Tbh,15 years after ds was born how he was fed doesn't even cross my mind,it's such a non issue when you're dealing with staying out late, worrying about drugs, general teen moodiness! I don't find it a pity at all

Another one who doesn't feel the experience shown in this was very different from the one I received on the NHS in terms of my labour, which was absolutely amazing and that I couldn't fault at all.

My postnatal care was ropy though and not helped by the fact that my DD was born on a busy weekend where women were actually been turned away and sent to a maternity hospital further into London when they became full. This was actually Queens in Romford that has been mentioned upthread for famously killing women. I saw no evidence of negligence that would kill anyone but I was ignored, my blood transfusion was poorly done (the midwife administering it said she hadn't done one before and you could tell- she turned it up to full and collapsed the vein resulting in blood going absolutely everywhere including all over newborn DD!) and the toilets were filthy and full of blood.

Oh and yeah, the food was shocking. I had DD at 7am and was brought breakfast afterwards but the. I hemorraged so it was taken away. My hemmorage and the treatment to stop it went on until after lunch time and I was moved onto the ward while dinner was being served so I missed that. When I asked for some food- any food- I was brought an NHS snack box which had a ham sandwich and a box of raisins in. I don't eat pork but I ate the bread and raisins!!! I then missed lunch and dinner the next day because of my botched transfusion so basically went 48 hours with just the snack box and some toast. DH had to bring me in sandwiches to survive off of.

So yeah, my labour was great on the NHS and I had a lovely room for that bit but the rest of it left something to be desired and if I could afford it I probably would pay to be more comfortable.

FellOutofBed it sounds horrific! It sounds like the only similarities, frankly, with the image in the programme were the fact that you are a woman and you had a baby......!

If anything, I felt like breastfeeding was hugely facilitated by my experience at the Lindo (not the Portland, but I'm guessing not that different from the Portland)....I had big problems at the beginning but there were plenty of staff available to sit patiently with me and help me (including expressing my colostrum for me!). Not sure I'd have got so much time (and so often) from busy midwives in the NHS....

Peregrina - there was lady who was bf though. At least it looked like she had a nursing bra in. She and her husband came across as the most down to earth couple in the show.

It was fascinating. I had a side ward in the NHS for my first and 4 bedder for second. In many ways the 4 bedder was more friendly. The main thing I noticed about the Portland was the quiet. NHS hospitals are so blooming noisy all the time, constant buzzers and bangs and staff chatting loudly, babies crying etc.
I was desperate to get home for some sleep.
I felt sick both times postnatally for a couple of days so the posh food would have been wasted on me.
I didn't get why the Chinese woman didn't live in the same country as her husband's business. Surely Hong Kong has posh maty hospitals?
If the consultants work part time NHS I don't see how they can guarentee to be there for the birth unless the women are induced and go rapidly to section if progressing slowly. I'd rather have a team of doctors and midwives looking after me who aren't trying to rush me along and get to go home to sleep after so many hours so someone alert delivers the baby. That was a problem with the old junior doc shift system when the same junior obstetrician was there Fri am to Mon eve just sleeping when they could.

I wonder how the Portland fell about how this portrays it? Some of the staff are a little negative about the clientele which I can understand but don't think it's smart to it on camera.
I think a large percentage of their mothers come from abroad. My dh isn't British and the only people I've known to give birth there are from his home country. I think people like to boast about it.

I have to say, while I love the NHS, I gave birth to ds1 abroad and the nursery in the private hospital there had a nurse even lovelier than Pat. I was struggling to breastfeed and she really helped me. I would have given up without her help. There's no way I would have got so much time and patience on the NHS. I guess that's one aspect where a private hospital can be superior.

When I had dd I spent most of my time in a single side room. Not paid for. It was just where I was out on my first night - induction. They did put me in a shared 4 bed ward on night 2 if the induction and on the night dd was being - the 4 bed wards were dreadful experiences for me. Induction day wasn't good as one woman was really ill all day/night do nothing relaxing for any of us, her included and another had the TV on lol day and night loud and intrusive. The night dd was born they placed dd in my chest on arrival after coming from recovery late hours after my car and left her there. I was shattered after the op, could hardly move after the epidural and no one answered the bell call thing if I tried to ring it. A woman next to me was having drugs and/or alcohol withdrawal and her baby was screaming all night - again, not a pleasant experience for any of us on that ward.

The side ward was lovely - quiet, single room. Lots of room, own bathroom etc. Still had the issue of nowhere hear enough staff and not much support as a result. Couldn't wait to get home - 2 nights of induction, a night in labour/ward and then 2 nights of postnatal - was so glad to be allowed out!!

I think the single room was the thing that made is much more manageable. And I was just lucky to be given it.

Yoga lady had had an epidural! Did no one else notice the bit from the epidural drip that was attached to her?

I had an NHS birth, it was horrendous. There were complications during pregnancy and I wanted an elective c section but they pushed me into trying naturally. After a 36 hour Labour, I was only 5 cms dilated and the baby was in distress, I had to have a c section. The epidural wore off half way through the operation and I ended up in emergency theatre under General anaesthetic. The operation finished at half 2 in the morning and at 7, the healthcare assistant came in and told me to get off the bed and get my own breakfast so I got up crying, in agony and groggy from the general anaesthetic, the bed hadn't been lowered and I fell off. No one offered to help with the baby even though I could hardly.move The breastfeeding counsellor told me it was my fault my baby wouldn't latch on as I'd let her have a bottle at birth (she had low blood sugar and I was being operated on) they tried to get me to leave 24 hours of giving birth), I refused but by the following day they pushed me out. They hadn't bothered checking my bloods. The midwife cancelled her first home visit and then the following day, she was very late which was lucky because I ended feeling so poorly I would have gone to bed but whilst I was waiting I collapsed and my husband called the ambulance and I'd gone into shock
I would have like more children but he'll would freeze over before I had another baby on the BUS.

I really envy those women that can to give birth in the Portland. They're given options (maybe they know about the benefits of breastfeeding but don't want to do it), they get decent food, they're not patronized.