Fearful mums opt for £4,000 home births
PREGNANT mothers are hiring private midwives to avoid going into hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
Once seen as the preserve of the wealthy, growing numbers of women in Scotland are now choosing to pay for their maternity care – with prospective grandparents often helping to foot the bill, costing up to £4,000.
Bookings for private home births have ‘trebled’ over the past three months, according to the body that represents private midwives in Scotland.
There has also been an increase in mothersto-be paying for private antenatal appointments to ensure they have regular faceto-face care before and after the birth of their child. The surge came as NHS home birth services were suspended by most health boards in late March, in a bid to protect staff.
Eduard Sparkes, chief executive of Private Midwives, said some expectant mothers now using the private service had not considered a home birth prior to the outbreak of the virus.
He added: ‘We have seen a trebling of the numbers of home birth bookings across the board and also a big increase in the number of mums looking for private face-to-face appointments with midwives, as many health boards had to stop doing these.
‘The mums we look after are not super wealthy – they are just normal mums.
‘Our average package costs around £4000 and we often find that grandparents chip in to help cover it.’
Dr Mary Ross-Davie, Director of the Royal College of Midwives in Scotland, confirmed that the vast majority of births are still taking place within the country’s hospitals.
She added: ‘It is understandable that mothers who had planned to have a home birth might look to have one privately while it is not being offered on the NHS.’