Laura O'Doherty

Thanks so much for having me.

I am under a bit of time pressure, so you're very good to bring me in.

Thank you so much.

So, as I say, my name's Laura.

I am a doctor in St James' Hospital, and I'm a member of a group called Doctors for Universal Healthcare.

But maybe more interestingly for this conversation, I am a mother of a 15-month-old baby who was born through the public system in the Rotunda Hospital.

And I was listening to Jessica speak there, and I just want to say, oh, my God, fair play.

This is my first time on Liveline, and I'm a 15-month-old.

I can't even imagine with seven-month-olds at the no sleep.

So fair play to her for coming on.

I think listening to her speak is how I feel like I've spoken to a lot of my friends about their kind of perceived choice about how, you know, they, like, might have had a bad experience or had something that gave them fear and gave them a sort of lack of confidence in the public system where, you know,

they felt like they were under pressure to become a private patient, to find that money, money they don't have, you know, money that they often are, as she's saying, you know, staying with parents for a bit longer.

I was in the same experience last year where I was staying with my parents at the end of my pregnancy because we lost a rental accommodation.

And, you know, it can be very tricky to find money around that time because it's a time when you're buying boogies, costs, all sorts of things.

So it's probably the most expensive time in some of the places around the world.

I want to say from my experience as a public patient who also had a pregnancy loss before, who went through the public system and that, that I had a really good experience in the public system and I saw some consultants, I saw some non-consultant hospital doctors, I saw some midwives and I had a positive experience and I think I would like to just say that publicly and say there's a lot of chat around on the radio, in the newspapers from consultant obstetricians kind of

maybe bringing a bit of fear into it and letting people who don't have experienced themselves in the healthcare system, in the maternity system to say, I want the best for my baby.

I want the best for me.

I want to leave here with a baby in my arms.

My biggest worry being car seat and trying to get it into the car and not if things are going to go wrong or if I'm going to later look back and say, should I have been private?