# Private or Semi-private for pregnancy



## Brik (20 Oct 2008)

Hi,

Have just discovered my wife is pregnant - very excited!!

We are trying to decide between private and semi in Holles Street.  We have Quinn family care as insurance but as far as I can tell it does not seem to cover any of the consultants fees.

Is there any difference in care between semi and private (aside from private room or room with 4)?
What sort of difference am I looking at wrt the fees?

thanks for any and all help,
Brik


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## huskerdu (21 Oct 2008)

The difference between private and semi-private has all to do with the care you get during your pregnancy and very little to do with the room you are in, when in the maternity hospital. 

If you pay a consultant for private care, you visit that consultant for all visits. The consultant will be in charge of the delivery, but some consultants dont get out of bed for routine delieries at night so ask beforehand. You should get recommendations for consultants from patients. 

If you go to the semi-private clinic, you are under the care of a team of drs, led by a consultant. You can manage your appointment times to ensure that you see the same Dr each visit. One of the team will be on call during yor birth, but you have no control, over which one, as the team are rostered to ensure one of them is there. and you have no control over when you give birth. 

Private rooms are for private patients only, but you are nit guaranteed a private room, depends how busy they are.

If you look on a website like rollercoaster.ie you will get loads of people who say private care is worth every penny and loads of people who think it is a complete waste of money. 



Private care is around 3K to 4K and the bed charges should be covered by your private health care. I thjink semi is around 600-800. You can claim tax back at the standard rate in this


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## Brighid (21 Oct 2008)

Hi there,
If I were your wife I would attend the midwifes clinic in Holles Street no fees fantastic care throughout the pregnancy and if there are any difficulties there is an immediate  referral sytem to a doctor. Anything else is a rip off. Congrats and good luck.


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## csirl (22 Oct 2008)

> Hi there,
> If I were your wife I would attend the midwifes clinic in Holles Street no fees fantastic care throughout the pregnancy and if there are any difficulties there is an immediate referral sytem to a doctor. Anything else is a rip off. Congrats and good luck


 
Most children are born healthy without any problems, so semi-private or private can sometimes seem like a waste of time. 

The benefit of private over semi-private is the amount of monitoring during the pregnancy (there are significantly more scans and visits for private patients) and that it is done by one consultant who will also do the delivery. Some women like the reassurance of the regular visits, others dislike the increased scrutiny. However, if your wife is in a high risk category and finances are not an issue, then I would advise fully private. 

My wife went fully private with last child and the delivery was problematic. It turned out that the presence of the consultant who was familiar with the patient and baby and so knew what the problem was instantly was the difference between a normal delivery and an emergency caesarian.


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