Private maternity, is it worth it

HI
I had decided to go private in Holles Street. While I was arranging my first visit I discovered that my consultant will be on leave for a fortnight starting the day I am due. Apparently they nominate another consultant to cover them but I am worried about the lack of continuity.
I am thinking the whole thing is expensive. I would like to participate in the Combined Care scheme with my GP as I don't live near/work near Holles Street. The consultant will only deduct €100 from his €4000 fee, which I think it is really a drop in the ocean. If I am only going to see him for half the antenatal visits I would have expected a better deduction.
Basically is this worth it? does anyone have experience of being cared for during their delivery by another Obstrician. I am convinced that I won't get the same care given I haven’t been with them all along.
Just looking for advice here really. I'd be happy to pay the money if I had some assurance that I will be looked after during my delivery the same as if my consultant was around. - Of course I could go overdue or early and have my own consultant there
I did try booking into the Semi private but they are crazy busy and I can't get an appointment until I am 20 weeks pregnant.
Advice welcome

Hi Kee31,

Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy. I had my daughter in December 2007, the whole public/private/semi-private issue is a minefield and it really depends on what you want. Apologies in advance for the long post!

I went semi-private and saw the same consultant on all my antenatal visits apart from one time where he was away and I was seen by a Registrar. When I was delivering, there were 2 Midwives present at the birth and a Registrar, but no Consultant. A Consultant would only be called to the birth if there were complications. After I had my baby I was on a 6-bedded ward (which wasn't full), seen a couple of times by a Registrar doing daily rounds but for the most part looked after by the nurses. I paid around EUR700 for semi-private care.

My friend who was pregnant at the same time as me went private. She had designated appointment times for her antenatal visits, was seen by her Consultant every visit and got a scan every time as well. When she delivered, again there was no sign of her Consultant in the Delivery Room and the Midwives helped her through her labour and delivery. After delivery she was in her own private room where the nurses looked after her and again a doctor came around on a daily basis just to check in with her. She paid nearly EUR4,000 for this.

I don't have any experience of going public but hopefully someone can help you with this.

The one thing I would say is that once you're admitted in labour, everyone is treated the same regardless of whether you're public/private/semi-private. The midwives look after you in pre-labour and labour ward and a doctor will be called when necessary. In Labour Ward a Consultant will only be called if there are any complications, otherwise a Registrar will be there along with the Midwives. There is always a Consultant On-Call in the hospital if they are needed.

I hope I haven't melted your brain with this long post but my personal opinion would be that going Private is extremely expensive and having babies is expensive enough as it is. Yes the antenatal and postnatal care is different, but trust me, when you're in labour and admitted, everyone is treated the same. It's your personal decision to make though and please PM me if I can be of any more help.

As far as I can remember, Holles Street do have a scheme whereby you can go "Semi-Private on admission" where you would be seen antenatally in an external public clinic (they have clinics in Bray, Greystones, Arklow, Wicklow etc) and then when you come in to deliver, if there is a semi-private room available post-delivery you will be admitted there. I'm not 100% sure if this scheme still runs but it might be worth you enquiring about it if semi-private is booked up.

Best of luck with your pregnancy and hope your decision-making hasn't been hampered by my waffle!

Mods, is there a prize for longest post ever?

Take care,

AnnieC

Just a quick post . .

My wife went with the midwife led unit (MLU) in drogheda (we coulda gone semi private).

It was fantastic, we couldnt speak higher of how great the midwife was and how relaxed the whole affair was (my wife only took the gas!).

Also I was able to stay over for 3 nights with mommy and new baby, it was fantastic!

Congrats on your pregnancy!

I went private on my pregnancy in Holles St and if I were to go again, I wouldn't bother spending that amount of money to be honest.
The only advantage to going private was that if my appointment was at x time, it was usually within reason close enough to that time.
I was 16 weeks pregnant before I met my consultant.
If you have any worries, your gp can refer you for an early dating scan - I went to James for mine.
I found that private cover was pretty useless though prelabour............if you are admitted in prelabour you are put into Unit 3 regardless of what cover you have...its a large ward and at one stage, there were over 40 women in it, beds nearly touching with one (yes you read right one) working toilet. Women were at all stages there - some women were spending the last weeks of their pregnancy there...others were in labour (due to shortage of delivery suites). It was hell on earth and I really did wonder why I was paying over 4500 euro on. And the delivery rooms are the same regardless of what cover you have.
In fact, my mum who was with me, said the rooms were a disgrace, she said teh Coombe was far superior in that regard. I had no access to showers etc, its all down to whats available when you arrive.
My consultant only appeared at the moment of delivery and left as soon as my daughter was born.
The 6 week check up after for me was pretty useless, no smear offered, I was dismissed when I asked for it. I'd have gotten better from my gp. I ended up going to my gp to check me over.

So in my opinion, I paid 3500 euro simply to have reasonably well timed appointments. And I also used combined care so half my visits were with my gp. I found my gp far more informative and better informed about my pregnancy than the consultant.

Apparently the midwife led unit in Holles Street is supposed to be fantastic, my gp said she would have preferred that service over what I paid in private care. It might be well worth looking into that scheme.

Any other questions just ask. I'll try to answer as best I can.

Websites like rollercoaster.ie and magicmum.com are a mine of information to help you with your pregnancy. Enjoy!

My take on it is that if you have plenty of money then go private if you like but if you have to save for it or are using money that could be better spent on something else you need then don't bother. I have experience of semi-private and find it very good. Identical clinic to the private one (Rotunda). I got my first appt at 13 weeks. Was scanned on that visit in the obstetrician's office. I had a concern about something about the pregnancy and wanted to make another (extra) appointment to see the doctor and there was absolutely no problem with this. I have had no problems with waiting times. There is a huge difference in price (750 vs 4,500 for the doc I wanted). And at the end of the day you are not in any way guaranteed to have a private room. To me, it's a huge expense and as someone said the minute you present in labour everyone is treated the same (which is exactly how it should be). I know alot of midwives and they all say that private care is not value for money. But at the end of the day it's a personal decision. Best of luck.

Another Holles St patient here.

Went semi-private last time with a consultant who I saw each time (but only received one scan - the big one!) I paid for a private scan myself in the early weeks in Charlemont Clinic by the canal.

This time I changed consultant to Declan Keane, who although I have only met him once (as he is probably one of the busiest consultants in there) the people standing in for him are just as good at their job and I have received a scan each time (have been about 4 times at this stage)

During labour, as previous posters mentioned it really doesnt matter if you are public, private or semi. In fact when I had my baby the last time I was in a room with 5 other mothers and 2 of them were private but there was no private rooms available so they stayed in the same ward as me but paid more than 3k more than I did.

I believe its a waste of money to go private, unless you have previously had major complications giving birth or being pregnant.

Hi,
Does anyone have more inforomation on the midwife led unit? There's little or nothing on the internet relating to ireland.
I live in dublin. Is it available in dublin or just outside?
Thanks

The scans are definatly worlds apart. I seen a scan last week from a Public Hospital, and another from a Private Hospital, and the difference is crazy. For the Public one you couldn't really make out anything, except the loose form of a baby (17 weeks). The Private one was at 16 weeks, and you could see lots, the outline of the various limbs and a way better formation of the baby.

folks as we are drifting into discussion of medical issues here, I am closing the thread.

Brendan