mum2be.ie - Pregnancy and Baby Forums

[wannabemammy]

Hey girlies!

I'm a brand newbie on here and not TTC yet ( not allowed til Feb!) but I am planning to start prep in the next few weeks-ie take folic acid and start eating lots of omega 3 etc etc

Just wondering though, if we are lucky enough to conceive in the future what is the story with going public, private , or semi private?What' s it allabout, what is your experience, is it a waste of money(how much does it cost) or is it money well spent? I am in Limerick city if it makes any difference!
Thanks so much girls, I really look forward to hearing your opinions and experiences!

[babymakes3]

Welcome hun

Well I'm going public, mainly because I used to work for a health insurance company and the bills from the hospital were very hefty! You're talking about spending about €3,000 plus on your private consultants fees alone, thats only if you HAVE private health insurance like VHI or Quinn. If you don't have private health insurance you're talking another couple of thousand on hospital fees, and even if you DO have private health insurance you can still get saddled with a hospital bill if the consultant or anaesthetist or pathologist or any of the other docs you see in hospital are not compliant with that particular health insurer. I've seen women go public and women go private and in most instances the care is the exact same, only difference I've noticed is that when you go for your ante natal appts and you're given a time of 10am to meet your midwife or consultant if you are private you will be seen on time, if you are public you'll be waiting around for a few hours usually. Again this depends on the hospital!!

Good luck with getting your body ready for TTC!

[mom2djp]

hello i went public with my little man, i got a scan at every app, and got a semi-private room while in hosp. my sil is private and differance between us is that she has an app at say 4....she gets seen at 4 by the dr she's under, so she's in and out in about 40 mins.....where as i would be waiting about 2 hours and saw mostly the team.

private is costing them about 3,000 - worth it for them cas of other problems but i didnt 1)have the money 2)justify spending the money.

[wannabemammy]

sounds like a waste of money to go private from those experiences!!Thanks girlies...is there a thank you button for me to thank ye??I must be blind!

[mom2djp]

nope no thank you button over here. like i said it works for my sil cas she has problems and she's more comfortable going private for this reason, and if it makes her more comfortable the pregnancy will be better for her, but i think if your baby is sick or you are sick you'll get the same treatment.

[babyL]

I went public with my first and had no problems with them, I had a room with 2 other ladies when my daughter was born which was lovely cause we could give each other encouragement where needed and a shoulder to cry on if needed aswell!! My sis went public on her lo and she had a lovely experience with them aswell, she got scans on every hospital appointment and a room with one other ladie when she had her son! I have heard some public anti-natal clinics can be like cattlemart on days but I have nothing but good feedback on my clinic!

[MrsEL10]

HI welcome to the site

I wonder about this myself. My sister told me out of her three pregnancies - she went private on one, public on the other two - that she had the best experience when she went private, so I wasn't sure about it

[babymakes3]

II have heard some public anti-natal clinics can be like cattlemart on days

Oh so true! I've only had the one ante natal clinic but it was SOOOOO packed! And warm!!! No wonder so many women end up being kept overnight for high BP after attending the clinic! I have extremely low BP but by the time my midwife took my BP at the ante natal clinic it was verging on normal!! Never seen it like that in my life

[mom2djp]

thats is true babyl but i always brought a bottle of water with me, and i had hubby or my mom with my apps to keep me company.

babymakes3 my BP was always up when i went to the hosp checks - i freak out going to hosp anyway, but they looked over my chart and saw is was on the high side of normal at my GP check ups, so thank god i never had to stay in! it was bad enough staying in after having little man.

[babymakes3]

Oh my friend suffered with high BP something fierce, in the end she had to be induced at 37 weeks because her baby was in danger cause of the high BP! I definitely won't have that issue, I'm the opposite end of the spectrum! My BP is so low that my GP said she'd eat her hat if it was even remotely near normal by the time I'm due Wish it was more normal, the low BP means lots of headaches and a lack of energy, although taking iron is really helping with that! Thank God for supplements!

[mom2djp]

they only seemed really worried about it when i was 40 weeks (even though my gp checked it every week from about 20 weeks) but as my gp said, i was in hosp, knowing i was getting an internal and it was my due date, no wonder it was so high!!

[babymakes3]

I'll let you know if mine sky rockets on my due date haha!

[mom2djp]

well i got sent down to get my bp taken every 15 mins for an hour and i swear it was so borning......hubby got great fun watching the traffic though....think he almost saw about 4 accidents! but hopefully you wont have to be there on your due date cas you'll be busy giving birth!!

[babymakes3]

Ooh fingers crossed! hubby is fully convinced I'm gonna go about 2 weeks early - we even have a bet on

[wannabemammy]

Hey girls,
Just wanna bump this up to get some more info from people if ye don't mind?Still curious as to what I would do if I were to become pregnant as regards public/private!