A growing number of patients are paying up to £8,000 to hire private midwives amid frustration at the poor service many face in the NHS. The UK’s only private maternity hospital, the Portland, has reported treating more women. It comes after a report from MPs this month found women in labour have been mocked, ignored and left with permanent damage by midwives and doctors.
Here, three women tell their story.
Catherine Wilson, 32, from Cheshire had a private birth last year. She had her first baby at home, supported by an independent midwife. “I knew before I was pregnant, I wanted a home birth. Every NHS midwife I spoke to was positive about the idea. But, I knew there was a good chance they wouldn’t have a team available when the time came and I’d end up in hospital,” she says.
She added: “The uncertainty was a big deal for me. So, choosing to invest in a midwife I could get to know throughout my pregnancy and who was guaranteed to come when I went into labour was an easy choice. I feel hugely privileged to have been able to make that choice.”
Catherine saw the same midwife, who came to her home, more or less every week from about 20 weeks. She says their appointments lasted an hour or two. “She supported me when it briefly looked like I might have needed to plan for a vaginal breech birth at home. When the time came, she and a colleague came to my home within an hour of asking to support me as I gave birth to our son. It was calm, empowering and joyful throughout,” she says.
“My experience has left me wanting to change the narrative around birth being painful, messy and undignified. I am a firm advocate for home birth in particular.”
Ani*, 38, a GP from Manchester, visited obstetrics and paediatric care units as part of her training. “As such, I don’t see myself as completely ignorant to the process of childbirth, but you could argue I only ended up at the complicated deliveries,” she says.
This experience, alongside her “awareness of NHS funding and care deteriorating across the board” means she wanted a private C-section to birth her first child.
“Most GP salaries won’t stretch to that sort of money but we have had some inheritance recently that could cover some of the cost,” she says.
However, Ani has struggled to find the right care in the north of England. “I stipulated that it needed to be in the private wing of an NHS hospital that has immediate access to a neonatal unit and emergency adult care.”
“I know many well-educated non-medics. They have had private deliveries without thinking about the possible problems,” she adds. “Our private and NHS services are not integrated enough to facilitate safe care in an emergency. The stakes were ultimately too high for me to consider a private delivery without the wraparound service of an NHS team.”
She says a lot of her colleagues are considering private births too.
Elisabeth, who is based in Durham, had her first child in August 2023. “There is currently no home birth service even offered by the NHS in this area … I find birth fascinating and I have great trust in my intuition and that my body is built for birth. I wanted to experience a physiological birth if possible and, from what I’d learned over the years, I knew this was unlikely in the NHS and that hiring an independent midwife was my best chance.
“We got the money from family and savings. The savings are what we would have used for a home deposit, but we decided that this was more important now. We knew that whatever happened with the birth, even if the worst happened and I ended up in hospital, the postnatal care from independent midwives is better than what you get on the NHS. It would help ease the transition into parenthood.”
The cost for her midwife was £6,600. It included monthly visits up to 32 weeks, then two weekly visits, as well as weekly visits shortly after until the end of pregnancy. She also had daily visits in the postnatal period.
“I think people who have sadly had their eyes opened from bad experiences perhaps don’t trust the NHS, which seems all too common now apparently,” she says.
*Some names have been changed
