Maternity Services
The Portland Experience
Discovering you are expecting a baby is one of the most exciting times of your life. Preparing for the new addition to your family should be an enjoyable time for expectant parents. However, it can also be daunting, especially if it is your first child.
The Portland Hospital, the UK’s leading private maternity hospital, offers individual care to women before, during and after pregnancy to ensure all their needs are met. We have a team of experienced Midwives and Consultant Obstetricians, many of whom hold senior positions at London’s top NHS hospitals, who are on hand to answer all your questions, no matter how big or small. Educational classes to prepare you for childbirth are available for you and your partner, as well as exercise classes to help maintain general fitness and get your body ready for having a baby.
At the Portland Hospital we have the time to answer all your questions so that you can go into your new role as a parent feeling confident and reassured. Our ethos is to put women at the centre of their own maternity care and allow them to make decisions about how they want to give birth.
Women having a baby at the Portland Hospital are afforded the highest standard of medical care in one of our 30 private en-suite rooms, each of which comes with 24 hour room service.
Each expectant mother is under the care of either a Consultant Obstetrician or a Midwife from our Midwife Led Delivery Team. Both are supported by a team of experienced midwives who provide one-to-one care throughout labour, so there is no question of being left alone at this crucial time. Your Consultant or Midwife will also visit you while you are in labour to monitor your progress and make sure your wishes for giving birth are met as far as possible. Consultant anaesthetists are resident in the hospital 24 hours a day to make sure you get the pain relief you require, and Consultant Paediatricians and Gynaecologists are also always on call.
For women having a planned procedure, there are three operating theatres on the maternity ward which are staffed 24 hours a day. A further operating theatre is available for emergency procedures.
The Maternity Unit is supported by a range of onsite emergency facilities to ensure peace of mind for parents-to-be.
For women needing more intensive observation, treatment and care before, during or after delivery, there is a High Dependency Unit situated within the Labour Ward.
The onsite Neonatal Intensive Care Unit cares for babies born from 30 weeks gestation and there is a Special Care Baby Unit for newborn babies who require medical treatment due to being born early or because they have become unwell.
If there’s a need for a woman to have intensive care, a transfer will be arranged to a hospital situated nearby with which have a planned transfer policy. She will then brought back her condition has improved. However, the number of unplanned transfers to linked hospitals is much lower than the national average and for example, was just 0.15 per cent last year.
In those special days after your baby is born, there is help with breast feeding, bathing and changing from our team of midwives and breastfeeding nurses – and if, as a new mum you could do with a few hours rest, there is a supervised 24 hour nursery.
Our aim at the Portland Hospital is to make pregnancy and childbirth an enjoyable experience by taking the time to make sure each woman’s individual needs are met.
