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good hospitals for pregnancy?

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  1. #21

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    I've heard enough about, and experienced, the decisions of some of the otherwise well-regarded private ObGyns that I am somewhat skeptical of their motivations. If we were in the States, we'd probably be suing our very popular ObGyn for negligence. As it is, I don't want to put my wife through the emotional distress of going down this route.

    I and other parents have had sufficiently shit staffing experiences at top tier hospitals (again, excepting Matilda) that we now regard the process as a complete crapshoot. If you are lucky, everything is smooth sailing. If you are unlucky, then the process sucks. Paying more does not seem to improve your luck. For ourselves, we have experienced both public and private and had better staffing experiences in the former.

    Were we to repeat the experience, we would either go Matilda or public. And we have insurance that would cover the former. For myself (and it would not be my decision) it would be partially a matter of principle- we could afford it, but I am sufficiently cynical of the Westerner-oriented medical system that I don't want to support it financially.

    Last edited by jgl; 21-08-2013 at 11:27 AM.
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  2. #22

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    And what if there were a complication ? As stated earlier, bulk majority of child birth is instinctual, we've been giving birth ( the human race ) without fully equipped hospitals for 1000's of years, which is fine when things go naturally without a hitch.

    My wife being in her late 30's during our first pregnancy and our last child at 40, there was an element of risk involved. However small that risk may have been, the private hospital that we were having periodic checkups at, our OB basically told me point blank that should a complication arise during the natural delivery, their standard policy procedure was to forward it onto the closest public hospital.

    Having visited a friend of my wife's at her private hospital ward after the birth of her first son recently, I cant see what the difference was between her experience and ours. They were pretty much the same level of room, possibly with better food. As I was bringing cooked meals on a daily basis, drinks etc from home, that really wasn't an issue. Bear in mind that the cost of delivery even at a public hospital is still around $30 - 38K , but thanks to being subsidised by the HKSAR govt only ends up costing you $700.

    Her hubby ( local Chinese ) was the one that wanted to spend the money, as as far as he was concerned, it was about face and status and a false sense of security that for that extra money the private hospital was better in some way.. I can tell you, it didnt offer anything extra to justify $100K !. Also, I might add, I took as many photo's and video as I liked, during all our deliveries pre and post birth, I am quite the video and still shot, shutterbug.

    As I said earlier, it is an out and out firthy that private hospitals offer any better care than their public counterparts, I base that on actual experience. When the chips are down, the public hospital is most equipped to deal with a complication, right then and there.

    Wasting precious minutes on an ambulance ride to the A & E theater of a public hospital was a risk I and my wife weren't willing to compromise on. Fortunately all of our children's natural deliveries have gone without a hitch and mother and baby were home within 4 days after each birth. We did however, have mother care at home though, an experienced lady that helped out in the comfort of our home for 3 months while my wife recovered. In my opinion that was much better money spent @ $45,000 each time.
    Last edited by Skyhook; 21-08-2013 at 11:42 AM.
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  3. #23

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    I have friends and acquaintances who went private and were also completely happy with their experiences. It seems to be about 50-50. Some of these couples had more than one baby and had a good experience one time, and a poor experience the next time.

    Small sample size (more than ten, less than twenty), yes. But if we were paying over a hundred grand, I would want much better odds than 50-50 for a good experience!

    Our particular experience was on the more extreme end of things, which I recognise. I'm basing my opinion more on reports from others rather than our single experience.

    Last edited by jgl; 21-08-2013 at 11:48 AM.
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  4. #24

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    Original Post Deleted
    Fair enough, that may be the case. There will always be variables, that much I do agree with.

  5. #25

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    I personally feel that both private and public hospitals have advantages as well as disadvantages, in regards to private hospitals, there is a big difference in cost from HK$45k to over HK$100 depending which hospital and if you have an insurance policy which covers this could be a big determining factor to choose between private and public, also there due to mini baby boom last year ( to less extent this year ) as well as mainland mothers overloading the hospitals last year, the difference between is quite immense, now that there is a zero quota, the difference is not so great


  6. #26

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    Both my boys were born at Matilda, and, honestly, my wife and I have nothing to complaint about, excellent midwives, nurse and breastfeeding helpers. Pregnancy and Child birth is an extremely stressful event, the most important thing is what Mrs wants and she feels good and relax.


  7. #27

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    I can only add one experience - second hand from a good friend of mine. She wanted to go public but this was back in the days of mainland mothers (2 years ago LOL) and couldn't get a place. They ended up at Matilda and paid themselves (no insurance). I visited them there shortly after the birth. There was clearly no problem with husband hanging around all the time, no problem with photos judging from the (terrible, imho) photos of newborn that appeared on facebook. I thought the ward was doudy and noisy (there were other mainland mothers and families really making a racket). She said she had been moved a few times to make way for other people. They had a major complication in the birth and had to be rushed into surgery at the last minute, scary but all went well, so clearly Matilda is set up to cope with emergencies. She said that the breast-feeding helpers were very good.


  8. #28

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    However, need to add one thing about private hospitals is that, eventhough they all have special care unit for babies, all very sick new borns and those under 34 weeks gestation *MUST* be transferred to Public Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (QM or PoW).


  9. #29

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    I'd pretty much agree with most of Min's observations- one of my friends even went so far as to video the procedure and the staff were okay with that. And they are definitely very supportive of breast feeding.

    Regarding the emergency thing though- I believe that all private hospitals are only set up to deal with 'emergencies' up to a certain point. Emergency c-sections happen all the time. However, if things get seriously complicated with the baby then there is likelihood that it'll be rushed off to Queen Mary as I believe that only the bigger public hospitals have neonatal intensive care units, which are much more expensive to run and have much higher staffing requirements.

    Edit: dbt beat me to it

    Last edited by jgl; 21-08-2013 at 02:03 PM.

  10. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    There was clearly no problem with husband hanging around all the time, no problem with photos
    Yes, I stayed with my wife from 9am to 8pm daily

    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    I thought the ward was doudy and noisy (there were other mainland mothers and families really making a racket).
    Unfortunately yes, if you got a noisy neighbour. But Matilda is not the preferred choice for Mainlander due location and transportation issue. My wife shared a room with a mom from mainland when she gave birth to our eldest, we have no problem with them and they are pretty quiet.

    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    She said that the breast-feeding helpers were very good.
    yes, they are.