Iam officially very pregnant. The kind of pregnancy where my face looks different and going upstairs is a proper effort, which means that in a couple of months I will (all things being well) have my second child.

And yet, just as much as thinking about teeny tiny babygros and long walks around the park, I’m thinking about whether I should have saved more money pre-pregnancy to pay for private help.

The Times ran an article recently about Kove , a start-up which will provide midwifery care, theoretically in conjunction with the NHS. You pay £300 for an initial assessment and then £180 an hour follow up. It sounds shocking but it’s not new, and Kove is far from the only business offering paid support to pregnant women and new parents.

When I had my daughter in 2022 I threw an unbeliev

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