Domino Holles St query

cabogirl

Hi all, I've been so overwhelmed by all the different options that I am now getting anxious about booking into Holles St. First pregnancy, 7 weeks.
I've read a lot of v helpful posts already but have a query.
Has anyone (or do you know if it's allowed/possible?) been on Domino care and then on admission for labour & birth registered as private? My insurance covers the private admission for up to 3 days and I know it's only a private room if available but I want that if possible. If I were eligible throughout for Domino will they see the birth through if I were a private in patient? Or does it not make sense to do that because they would want to get me home early and do aftercare at home?

Millem

cabogirl wrote: »

Hi all, I've been so overwhelmed by all the different options that I am now getting anxious about booking into Holles St. First pregnancy, 7 weeks.
I've read a lot of v helpful posts already but have a query.
Has anyone (or do you know if it's allowed/possible?) been on Domino care and then on admission for labour & birth registered as private? My insurance covers the private admission for up to 3 days and I know it's only a private room if available but I want that if possible. If I were eligible throughout for Domino will cthey see the birth through if I were a private in patient? Or does it not make sense to do that because they would want to get me home early and do aftercare at home?

No cabogirl you cannot switch on admission. I did domino in holles st on my first.
The pros for me:
Midwives were great no waiting time...you don't need to go to hospital for appointments. You get to go to a separate ante natal class in the evening for domino patients. You go home after a few hours and they will visit you in your house (for me on reflection this was a con)!!


The cons:
You won't get scanned at every appointment. If you need to go to hospital you are treated as a public patient (waiting times were horrific). God only knows who you will see!!
You will be put on a public ward after the birth (again I found this horrific). I only stayed a few hours but it was enough!!


I am expecting again and am going private. I am only 11 weeks and am delighted with my decision.
You need to pay a consultant to go private then your health insurance covers your room. I am sure you could switch later on in your pregnancy but the one you want might be booked out.
If you want to go for domino in need to book now!!!!

Best of luck

Blingy

Millem wrote: »

No cabogirl you cannot switch on admission. I did domino in holles st on my first.
The pros for me:
Midwives were great no waiting time...you don't need to go to hospital for appointments. You get to go to a separate ante natal class in the evening for domino patients. You go home after a few hours and they will visit you in your house (for me on reflection this was a con)!!


The cons:
You won't get scanned at every appointment. If you need to go to hospital you are treated as a public patient (waiting times were horrific). God only knows who you will see!!
You will be put on a public ward after the birth (again I found this horrific). I only stayed a few hours but it was enough!!


I am expecting again and am going private. I am only 11 weeks and am delighted with my decision.
You need to pay a consultant to go private then your health insurance covers your room. I am sure you could switch later on in your pregnancy but the one you want might be booked out.
If you want to go for domino in need to book now!!!!

Best of luck

Sorry to go off topic a bit but you mention it was a con going home early and midwife visiting you at home. Do you mind me asking why? I was thinking of domino for next time (if there is a next time) and would have thought a midwife visiting me at home would be great. Thanks

Moonbeam

I went with midwife led care for my last 2 and you can book private or public on booking and pay additional fees but all your visits are the same as a private patient.
If they let public patients with private health insurance take private rooms there would never be any room for private patients or room in general.

Millem

Blingy on reflection I needed to rest. I didn't have epidural and the hospital needed my bed so I left after a few hours. Didn't even have a shower. I also got kicked out of the domino room very quickly didn't get tea and toast! They needed it for someone else.
There was 10 beds in the 6 bed public ward that I got sent to, people were sharing curtains!!!

Midwives come for 7 days. They would say they would be there at x time and maybe 2 or 2.5 hours later would arrive. This was so annoying because I would have up during the night etc and would have to wait up for them as would baby. They wanted him to be awake for their visits. After a few days I would let him sleep but would have to wake him up for their visits. They all gave different advice on jaundice and breastfeeding. Ended up having to get head person out and the jaundice was grand!!! They had me pumping and measuring fluid.

Breastfeeding/pumping was a disaster. I blame pumping too early. I should of just booked a lactation consultant for a visit but was sick of so many people at me!!! hindsight is a great thing!!

I will have a 3 and a half year old at home this time so I need to rest.
I am not leaving the hospital before 3 days this time around. I also want to see the same person as much as possibly for my prenatal visits.
I think the problem is the public system is overstretched. The midwives are overworked. If I had to choose between domino or public I would pick domino though. I wouldn't be able for the queuing for hours in hospital and overcrowding in the wards.

catrionanic

Feel the need to post in here as a public patient in Holles street who was delighted with her care. I honestly couldn't fault it. We always had 8am appointments in outpatients, and the longest we ever waited from arrival to leaving was 2 hours. We would arrive at about 7.45 and be close to the top of the queue. Yes you see a different doctor each time (although the midwives are generally the same), but each doctor we met was lovely and very happy to spend a little longer with us if they needed to. We also got a mini scan at each appointment, which we wouldn't have got with midwife-led care.

I ended up having to be induced in the end, so spent a night in unit 3 after they broke my waters and before being transferred to labour and delivery. Unit 3 was busy and noisy as there are a lot of beds there.... but my contractions started a little after midnight so I wouldn't have had much sleep wherever I was. We were really well cared-for by the midwives there, and they were so kind and reassuring about everything. They were also genuinely interested in our lives and all seemed to love their jobs.

For delivery, I was transferred to a lovely big delivery room. I had a midwife, plus two students there. One of the students was a nurse who was converting to midwifery and was pretty experienced. Another qualified midwife then joined us for the actual delivery.

My labour was fairly fast - I only spent about three hours in the delivery room before my baby came - but they were with us the whole time. Again, they were so caring and kind and warm, and nothing was too much trouble for them. I really felt like I was the only patient in the hospital and that I was their absolute priority.

After delivery, I had to have a lot of stitches so another two midwives were involved in that. It took about an hour to stitch me up. Afterwards, I had tea and toast and they let me chill out for a bit (I was lightheaded and vomiting) before they helped me onto the other bed and delivered me to the postnatal ward.

There were six beds in the postnatal ward. With six mothers and six babies in the room, it obviously wasn't a great nights sleep - but what do you expect anyway. I stayed for two nights there and was glad of it because I had so many questions and worries - whether it was about breastfeeding, my stitches, my problems controlling my bladder after delivery, or anything to do with my baby - and the midwives were always only too happy to help. I was so glad to spend those two nights there as it meant I wasn't left at home worrying about this and that for 24 hours before a midwife was around to help.

I was eligible for the early transfer home scheme, so had a midwife from Holles st visit me at home for the first three days - even on a Sunday. It was a different midwife each time, which wasn't ideal, and they also don't give you a time they'll be coming so you might be sleeping when they get there.... but it's not as if you'd be going anywhere anyway in those first three days. The three midwives that came out were really helpful, especially on those hormonal weepy days after nights of endless cluster-feeding, and I was delighted to see them each time!

After that, I had three visits from a public health nurse and midwife from the local health centre. Again, an amazing level of care. They only need to visit twice, but they came a third time as they were concerned about my mental health as I was still so emotional and very anxious (which soon passed). My baby is now 20 days old and I had a phone call from them earlier, just ringing to see how I'm getting on.

Unfortunately my stitches got infected, so I went back to Holles street again 8 days after delivery to be seen in casualty. I went at about 11.30 on a Friday and there was nobody there! Just midwives standing around having a chat. So I was seen straight away by a midwife and then by a doctor (who was the doctor who had broken my waters and she remembered me and was delighted to meet my little baby).

I was so moved by the whole experience that I felt compelled to call back in with thank you cards and chocolates for the midwives in unit 3 and delivery. I honestly feel that I had the most amazing level of care from the most lovely people, and all on the public system. Yes, you have to wait a while sometimes at your appointments, and yes you don't always see the same people (but everyone you do see is truly brilliant!). But considering that I didn't have to pay a penny for care which I feel was really fantastic, I'm just delighted with all of it and won't change a thing when I go back for baby number two!