Public or Private or MLU

Hi Penelope and congratulations on your pregnancy. Such an exciting time 😀
You are going to hear so many different opinions on this topic as everyone has such a unique and personal experience in hospital and especially while in labour and giving birth.
As far as I know OLOL does not have a semi-private option and I have heard nothing but positive feedback regarding the mlu. I attended the Lourdes as a public patient on reccommendation from friends and my gp who had their babies publicly and had no untoward experience.
How-ever, I am not attending the Lourdes for my second pregnancy and have booked an appt with the Rotunda instead (for which I have heard both negative & positive feedback), but I would not feel safe in attending the Lourdes for either myself or my baby again and feel it was down to luck more than anything else that we were both ok after the birth.
As a nurse myself, I feel the standard of care was not what it should be. I feel that my admissions with high blood pressure and odema were an inconvenience and when in labour I feel that I was dismissed and patronised, my pain not believed and really there was no one looking after me.
But, as I say everyone will have an opinion, so really once you have heard them all, try and go with what feels right for you.
Best of luck with it all 🙂

Hi I went private in the Lourdes and couldn’t fault them in any shape or form – we got absolutely 100% brilliant care and won’t hesitate in going back again (if get pregnant again) but will most likey (even though we’re skint) go private again.

Hi Penelope, I just had a baby girl 5 weeks ago in the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda and despite my expectations, I had a brilliant experience there… the staff were brilliant! They were so caring and really did everything possible to make life easier 4 me… even the doctors were very thoughtful. I applied to the MLU but got turned down due to my medical history and I was really disappointed as I heard its fantastic, but I went public then and I really couldn’t fault it…

I’m sure you’ll have just as agood a labour as I had thanks to the wonderful staff!

Best of luck and don’t worry, it’s not nearly as painful as you’d expect!

I would have eaten off my left hand for the chance to birth in the MLU – if its an option for you, seriously consider it! It is like another realm to a CLU – which is the care model you will get in the rest of Ireland. MLU is midwifery led – so very focused on normal birth practice and women-centred care. You will have access to a small team of midwives – so you get to know the faces. Not entirely continuity of carer, but pretty close! In your pregnancy you will have intimate appointments with one of the team of midwives in the MLU – so away from the masses of the ante-natal clinic. Its pretty chilled out and the midwives are fantastic! In labour, you will have a private suite with a couch, telly, tea making facilities, radio, private bathroom with shower and best of all – a pool! And, ITS FREE!

My own children born in Drogheda were born 05, 06 and 09 in the CLU of OLOL. I have gone public and private. I also went public in Dublin in 03. Personally, the only difference I saw to going private (and the reason I chose to) was continuity of carer in pregnancy. I was very nervous after a bad experience in dublin (public) and really needed that extra reassurance in pregnancy to answer questions I had from my previous experience. It helped seeing the same person. Saying that, I never had a consultant at any of my 4 births – just me, dh and midwife – which was my preference but I know some women find this upsetting to not see their consultant at the birth. For me though, it was reassuring that I didn’t need consultant as I felt if all was going well then there was no need for anyone but the midwife.

My OLOL experiences varied greatly. I had one absolutely amazing experience (3rd) – good support through the pregnancy and labour/birth with a gem of a midwife. I had one OK experience and I had one experience in which I was very disappointed with my ante-natal care and chose to transfer out of OLOL but then ended up birthing in OLOL as we didn’t think we’d make the other unit (arrived at 9cm to olol which is only 10 min away). Again, I was disappointed with my initial care in assessment and in labour but this was mainly to do with the midwife. I had a change of midwife and ended up having a fantastic birth. This was very recent – Dec – and the midwife I had was the best I’ve ever seen. She made such a difference to me and I even wrote a note of thanks to OLOL regarding this woman. To me, it all depends on who you get on the day…if your midwife is supportive and encouraging it will make things much easier! I would encourage all women to ask for a change if you aren’t feeling the love (!!!) as it can make all the difference in your labour.

ante-natally is the biggest difference between public and private care. My personal experience was I found the public clinic a very lonely and frustrating experience. This was partially made worse however as last year there was a ban policy in place for partners at ante-natal appointments – so I was on my own. Postnatally – public and private are the same. I know very few women who get the private room after going private…personally this would not be a factor for me in decision. Statistically, you have a much higher chance of having intervention as a private patient. This for me would be the deal breaker and is why I chose to go public again.

Best of luck and congratulations!