Healthcare costs - not insurance Private Maternity Care Question

We very recently discovered the OH is pregnant (will be our first) and has already stated she wants to go private over semi-private or public.
Personally, I’m sure public is more than fine and would rather divert the cost of private elsewhere (to baby stuff etc.)
Anyway, I have decided to not even bother stating my case & disagreeing, so I will go along with Private.

The OH has decided on the hospital she would like to go to and I’m comfortable with the hospital.
There are a list of consultants for this hospital, does anybody know do the costs of the consultants typically differ much? As in, could one consultant cost €3.5k and another €5k? There is no obvious price list unless I ring up each Consultants secretary.

I’m not looking to skimp on a cheaper consultant but I am more in tune with our financial position than the OH and even saving €1k would be a great help.

Congratulations to you both.

JimmyCorkhill said:

I’m sure public is more than fine

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Long time since I had mine but would definitely agree with your partner that private was better if you can afford it at all. I got to see the obstetrician each visit rather than their team and did not have to wait in some very large clinics.

JimmyCorkhill said:

There is no obvious price list unless I ring up each Consultants secretary.

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To be sure, to be sure, try to narrow the list by, if possible, getting recommendations from friends or family. Hopefully that will narrow the list and you should then ring to get a list of costs from the secretaries. Back in my day the Master of the maternity hospital charged more but this may have changed.

Exciting times for both of you and best wishes for the future.

Been a while since I had mine but I found the main advantage of private was like sue Ellen I saw my consultant each visit and she was there for the birth. And, which was important for me, I was able to select consultant visit times that suited me, so 8 am meaning I was in work for 9 comfortably, or 5.30 pm which also suited me. No 3 hour clinics where everyone was told to be there at roughly the same time, much more efficient. A colleague who was pregnant at the same time ended up with frequent half days for what should have been a 30 minute appointment.

Congratulations and Best of luck with it all. Exciting times,

I'd say that the standard of actual care is the same regardless, and from what I've heard over the years it varies more by hospital than by private/public. There's nothing negative to say about the standard of care in the Rotunda for sure, and there was an absolutely full house of consultants present for delivery- because they were required, not for decoration.

That said with my better half now insured etc i think we'd go private if we were expecting again purely to avoid being packed in like sardines in the ward afterwards. Cramped isn't the word....

JimmyCorkhill said:

even saving €1k would be a great help.

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Depending on your pride there's a ton of money to be saved through freecycle, Facebook marketplace, and relatives. Everyone needs baby stuff for a while and then it becomes a waste of space. Saved a couple of grand ourselves on prams, car seats, co-sleepers and so forth.

I'd also strongly recommend putting the child down for crèche and preschool now. I'm not joking unfortunately.

BIG-notorious said:

I'm not joking unfortunately.

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Remember hearing some years ago that people were registering their children for all schools based on the results of scans

Most pre-school/school applications and registrations will require information such as a date of birth, PPSN, birth certificate etc. so I'm skeptical about some of the scaremongering claims above.

A very old AAM thread but different views/experiences on school sign-ups.

Op just be aware private care does not always mean a private room after delivery. One simply may not be available. If clinics are the biggest reason for going private, then the mid wife led schemes are excellent. Timed individual appointments. You consultant is not always guaranteed to be present for the birth also. Just understand the full process.

And congrats and wishing you both well!

Op on childcare, it is not scare mongering to sign up for your preferred one now. In some areas there are large waiting lists and you might also prefer a specific setting that is close to your work or home, or you have established is well run. Speak with the managers and understand for eg at what age they take babies from. The last thing you want to do is to spend maternity leave organising childcare or being delayed returning to work. In our case for our second, we signed up at 8 weeks pregnant to secure a spot. No paperwork was required then, just the manager allocated us a spot in the future plans.

Con'grat OP. Is an exciting yet scary time.

We went private on all three, as mentioned above, having the same consultant each time was invaluable. Each birth had it's own challenges and having someone there we knew was very reassuring.

Not sure what hospital you are using however for the Rotunda, it was the same price for each consultant apart from the Master (at least was 8 year ago having last). We ended up going with same one my brother & sister in law used.

ClubMan said:

Most pre-school/school applications and registrations will require information such as a date of birth, PPSN, birth certificate etc. so I'm skeptical about some of the scaremongering claims above.

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Glad to hear that you know so very much about how the world works. Please inform every childcare facility in Meath that they are breaching the laws of reality so that our child and many others can go back in time to avail of full time childcare in our local crèche.

misemoi said:

In our case for our second, we signed up at 8 weeks pregnant to secure a spot. No paperwork was required then, just the manager allocated us a spot in the future plans.

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Wish we'd done that- started phoning around 3 months old only to discover we were 9 months late. Nobody asked for anything more than a name and date of birth- we provided the other stuff after we actually got a place. Spoke to someone the other day who failed to get a place despite putting their small person on the list at 3 months gestation.

I am not sure the operation of a waiting list for a private facility is something that can be legislated for,

The EEC places need pps numbers etc but not daycare for infants. So preschool year but daycare no. Of course these are often one and the same place, just different rooms, but operate 2 systems of application.

The place our older kid was in was more than happy to put our surname and approximate date on a waiting list when I was about 6 months pregnant. The school couldn’t of course but did give me a waiting list form when bozo no 2 was born. (I believe that has changed now)

The the OP, just something to think about later on, have a look around local places and see what might be suitable for your family in due course.