Public of Private for First Baby - Page 5

[quote="shorty":ga6icgqw]Hey flutterby, Im not too sure! But I do know that you get all your pre natal appointments like Public, but when you are admitted to have the baby, you get a bed in a small ward (2 or 4 beds?)[/quote:ga6icgqw] Thanks Shorty, one other question, total thicko here! How do I ask for semi private? Do I ask the consultant or my doctor?

[quote="Flutterby.":2vwx9xvr]Thanks girls, and Shorty, what do you get for Semi Private?[/quote:2vwx9xvr] Flutterby, I went semi and what I got was each visit was given at a specific time in and out in a hr (unlike like public u seem to get the same time as everyone else), semi is in a different building same as private (in rotunda anyway just the consulting rooms now mind not the actual labour or delivery rooms, everyone uses the same with those), saw same consultant on each visit, was in a room with 4 people in the Lille suite with public yo u can be in a room with 8 people. YOU got a menu for your food in semi, private too, not public (not like this makes any difference), with private they say that your consultant will be ther for the birth but in truth if he is on a golf course or on holidays he wont be. There is always a consultant on anyway so if there is complications someone is there. I would check Mayo to see if they have semi, I know Mullingar general dont have semi only private or public.

When u decide you ring the hosptial and ask for semi, public, or private first visit department. Does mayo hospital have a website?? On the rotunda website it explains all. Semi cost me €500 for first visit and Vivas paid rest.

[quote="Anastasia Beaverhausen":23fejbes]Obviously it's a matter of personal choice girls, but being a first timer, I didn't really have anything to go on when making my decision, cept for a friend who went private 18 months ago. You can only base your decision on what you know. My first scan is with my OB/GYN tomorrow and I have the say the peace of mind is great, especially when I'm so clueless [/quote:23fejbes] Anastasia, good luck tomorrow ! I presume you'll take the day off? I'm going for mine on Friday so we'll 'speak' next week hopefully

Thanks Babycakes. It's all very confusing all this stuff! Ok, so my doctor gave me the numbers of 2 consultants. I'll ring them and enquire about semi private. I think I'll do that. Will try to ring them this evening, hopefully their offices will be open. I'll check the mayo hospital website too and see what they say. I'm rubbish at all this kind of stuff, get confused so easily, usually leave it to hubbie

yeah defo think thats your best bet, weigh up all the options before you decide. and if you still think private is the way to go just do it, best of luck with whatever you go with.

Thanks I think the hospital saturday fund only covers €300 so will have to weigh up all our options. Want it done by the end of the week else I'll be thinking about it all the time and panicing

Also a first timer here and although I do have medical insurance am going public. This is based on my personal research through friends, family, doctor, midwife. Medically you do not get treated any different and if you do have complications you attend the same clinics i.e. Diabetes, Rhesus issues etc (sorry spelling) whether private, semi or public. A Diabetic friend of mine is going public as there was no private clinic available anyways and getting excellent treatment. Another friend who went private ended up going to the public clinic for Rhesus issues. Another friend who went public saw private heart consultant as public patient for pregnancy related heart complications. The list goes on. And so damn confusing!!! BUT at the end of the day they all had happy and healthy babies. So at the end of the day research your particular hospital and decide from there. Every hospital is different. Every consultant is different. Every scan timing is different.

I don't know who to ask for personal experiences because no-one knows we're expecting

Just a suggestion Flutterby.... If you are still keeping your preg quiet, and thus can't discuss the public vs private question with friends or family, you could try posting in Magicumum and asking specifically aboutt Mayo General. If you post asking for general opinions on pub/priv you will get lots of people talking about H.Street/Rotunda/Coombe etc and that isn't really relevant to you. Whereas, if you post with a heading specifically referring to Mayo General you will probably get lots of very relevant information about your own hosp. HTH