Pregnancy insurance

Insurance for private care so not NHS? In the UK I doubt a private healthcare would do it because a lot of pregnancies end in c section which would be expensive for them to pay.. so it would be extortionate if it did exist.

People tend not to do this unless they can afford full private care at a private hospital like The Portland (as an example). Even then though, if there was a real emergency during birth, the private doctors would hand over to the NHS in most cases. The private experience is more about getting to know your midwife or doctor more personally and having that consistency. That and things like a nicer room or whatever. In terms of the birth experience, if things go perfectly then the private experience can be lovely but as I say, if things go wrong you may end up in NHS care anyway. One thing lots of people do (myself included) is to add additional private appointments and scans as wraparound antenatal care on top of the NHS stuff. You can also request a private room in lots of hospitals which gets you out of the usual ward experience in the NHS for aftercare.

You’re not likely to find any in the U.K. because we have the NHS. Most private medical insurances won’t even cover things non pregnancy related if you are pregnant. There are actually very few hospitals in the U.K. (most are in London) that offer maternity care under the private sector and all are self pay. Even private independent midwives have been priced out of the market with the government making insurance too high to justify Private scans however are everywhere now with many offering additional investigation like NIPT bloods

What do you mean? As in you want something private? In addition to the NHS care you’d receive while here? If you want private scans/ tests you just pay for them at private clinics etc x

Hi everyone thanks for your lovely messages and information 🩷. The reason why I am asking is because im from Spain and they would give the first pregnancy scan/ check when you 4 weeks rather than 12 weeks (this is the case in UK) so the insurance is not really for luxury expectations but instead a little bit more of support with pregnancy.

Any other advice or alternative suggestions would be appreciated 🙏🏻🩷

The NHS wouldn't scan you any earlier even if you have insurance? You can pay for early scans through private company's but the NHS won't do this

@Omy in that case I'd recommend just booking private scans separately. There are lots of places to do that all over the country. However, part of the reason we don't scan or check that early is because at 4 weeks a heartbeat is unlikely to be visible and this can cause more anxiety than it relieves. I'd personally wait until at least 6-8 weeks. I get not wanting to wait until 12 though - it feels too long for me! I understand they're prioritising resources though as pregnancies that make it to 12 weeks have a much higher success rate than those which don't.

The thing is I don’t have any symptoms at all, I had 3 pregnancies tests and they all positive and thats all I got. Im currently 5 weeks and sometimes I even forget because I genuinely cant feel anything. So thats the reason I thought maybe 12 weeks is to long for me since I would like to know that at least everything is alright. But I also understand now a bit before since this is my first time being pregnant.

Yeah as other people have said private healthcare doesn’t cover anything pregnancy related in the UK. For a reassurance scan we just googled some clinics near us (literally “pregnancy scan near XXX”) and booked in there. It was about £100. Good luck

What you need is to google the nearest private scan centre close to you and you can book as many scans as you wish. They usually say wait min 6weeks and they cost roughly about £65 per scan. You can also pay for private antenatal classes much later to prepare for when baby comes. I hope this helps.

@Omy I had basically no symptoms the whole way through my pregnancy! I wouldn’t have realised I was pregnant until around 20 weeks when I started to grow a bump if I hadn’t have tested. It can be completely normal and 5 weeks is still pretty early you may find in a week or two you get some symptoms (hopefully no sickness!) as everyone has said private scan clinics are everywhere and you can pay as you go for scans and very 2 weeks+ as you wish x

@Omy If you are worried you can also walk in to your chosen hospital’s EPU from 6 weeks.

I had no symptoms at 5 weeks, at 6 I was throwing up all day 😅 as the others said, just look for private scans near you, but wait a few more weeks so at least you'll see something (I did one at 9 weeks because I was going to visit family and I wanted to announce it)

No symptoms at that point is totally normal by the way. Lots of people don't even know they're pregnant until later. Get a private scan asap if you really can't wait but ideally I'd leave it until you think you're 6-8 for maximum reassurance.

We don’t tend to do that in the UK seeing as NHS is free … unless you can afford like £20/30k to go into a private hospital

@Omy if you’d like more scans; we went private for earlier ones as well. They offer them relatively affordable at different centers. I googled Ultrasounds nearby and went with best reviews. Had a wonderful experience. When I looked into private insurance, they didn’t cover pregnancy either

I have gone private and NHS for both pregnancy’s ( Great Portland for private ) - It’s not insurance covered, you just have to pay 🙂 The care from the private hospital is better & nice seeing the same consultant / midwife but also expensive. There are pros and cons to both. I still really appreciate the NHS & using them more this time round. I know someone that their birth went wrong in private care & the stay was over £1000 a night, every night they had to extend their stay ( they stayed in for 2 weeks in the end ) But the care they received was amazing, so really depends on budget.

@Ceri-Ann I could not have said better!

@Paige have you done that? Because I either do that or book a private scan 🤔

@Omy private scan will be nicer! They're all set up for that sort of thing and you can do cute cheesy things like get your babies heartbeat recorded and added to a bear.

@Omy Yes I did go into my EPU at about 6 weeks as I had some cramping. I actually went in a few times for cramping (all was fine thankfully). The only thing with EPU is you typically have to wait quite a while to be seen. I did also do plenty of private scans as I was very anxious in my pregnancy 😅🙈 They are great too! But I would recommend saving the private scans for when baby is a bit bigger. You can be seen in the EPU up to 14 weeks I believe (may vary a bit by hospital).

@Caroline so cute 😭🩷

@Paige bless you 🥹🩷