Mixed feedback on hospitals - any advice!!

if you do go public, buy your wife an IPOD video. it was fantastic to have for all of the appts plus for my time in hospital.

sorry, no experience with PAMELA YOUDE....
 
my local work colleagues said that i can book in at PYH if i like as sh called them, so i guess i could. my only real concern at QMH is that it has a lot of students - isnt this a cause for concern?

now i read that queen elizabeth is also meant to be quite good!!
 
thanks Rani, good to know
Stepheninhk, yes I saw student doctors all the time during my consultations, but they were only sitting beside the Consultant/Professor learning and not doing things directly. I do not mind having them in my consultation sessions because when the Consultant/Professor explains to them in my presence, I also got to learn something possibly new. In the contrary, I like those students.
 
I would recommend a Archos rather than an ipod.
The one I have is model 504, http://www.archos.com/products/video/archos_504/index.html?country=global&lang=en
but I see they have a new one as well.

I like this better than an ipod becasue you can record directly from the TV, Cable, now, DVDs and videos, etc. as well as music, podcasts, downloads from the computer and pictures. Also you can play it back on a TV if you want.

Mine has 30 Gbytes and I have all my breastfeeding information on it which means I can show a mother I'm visiting, all my personally stuff, Jolly Phonics for my daughter to watch whenI want her to be quite while we are out, and loads of episodes of CSI which I watch going to work.
 
I had a student midwive for my first delivery in the UK. I was asked first whether I minded and said that I didn't. If you have a student they often have more time for you since they are very new to the job and are trying to learn as much as possible. You also always have the back up of the trained professionals as well, so 'two for the price of one'.

Once my son was born I had tremendous problems trying to get him to latch on to breastfeed. The qualified midwives tried everything and nothing seemed to work. Then a student midwife took some time with me and with her calm, gentle approach he started to feed.

I would always say yes to a student. Another plus, as they are currently studying they often have the most up-to-date knowledge available too. They are not set in their ways by years of experience and from my own experience seem to have more time for the patients.

Good luck with wherever you choose.
 
Hi StepheninHK

I had my son at QMH - great staff; very understanding and sympathetic. One of my girlfriends had her second at PY. In both cases, good service but definitely NO FRILLS. Didn't mind. I chose QMH because of their reputation for having really good pediatricians and attending doctors / midwives in the delivery room / maternity ward. If you want to splurge, go for the private or semi-private rooms instead of the general rooming (6-8 new Moms in one place).
 
I gave birth to my first at Pamela Youde last September - everything was to my satisfaction. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go public.

I had my regular check ups at private OB and decided to go public when I was 30 weeks, to save money as I had a pretty strong feeling that I might need a C-section since baby is quite big (my insurance does not cover pregnancy and my OB charges A LOT for c-section).

Of course, you can't expect as much attention and 'service' as you would get from private facilities but to me the most important was a safe delivery at minimal costs so it didn't matter to me.

I am not a very demanding person and I have heard a lot of stories about how bad public facilities are so I had little expectations when I checked in to Pamela Youde. Therefore it was a nice surprise for me, to have such a pleasant and uneventful experience. Which might explain why I'm being so positive about most things that people don't like about public hospitals:

no private ward - I was in a ward with 6 mum-to-be. It was my first and I did not know what to expect, so it was comforting to have someone in exact same situations to talk to. I received a lot of encouragement from other women.

baby deliver by nurses not doctors - the nurses deliver probably 10 babies a day, 5 days a week, for the last 10 years, they can be more experienced than OBs in private practice. Besides, there are many doctors standing by in case of emergency while when you go private, you only have 1 doctor and imagine if your doctor is delivering another baby (or on vacation like mine!)

no privacy - that's right, absolutely no privacy. I breastfed my baby in same room with 20 other mums, but who cares?

inexperienced doctors - that I'm not sure... I did not dialate after trying everything and waiting for 12 hours so the doctor decided to give me a c-section (after I begged her to give me one. I suspect the nurses were also a bit fed up with me pushing the call button every 15 minutes). The doctor was young, in her 30's but seemed to know what she was doing. It was a quick procedure, I got to kiss and hold the baby when he's out. My husband was there holding my hand the whole time. I also healed fast, only needed painkillers 2 days.

husband - my hubby got to stay with me since they rolled me to the delivery room and throughout the c-section procedure.

mainland women - boy, there were many of them, and it does create a lot of work load for the helpers and nurses. Do expect to meet some very frustrated and irritated staff. But they are just human, I'm sure there are frustrate and irritated staff just the same at private hospitals.

complications - I was in a ward with a mum who had an emergency c-section. she was thankful that she went for public facilities as she believed with her condition, the private hospitals might have to send her to public ones anyways. The hospital kept both the mum and baby for over 2 weeks for tests and observation... imagine the bill had it been in private hospital. Money aside, the nurses were really compassionate, and they were very caring and nice to that mum.

visiting hours - yes, you can only visit the mum and the baby in certain hours but to be honest, the mum would be so busy feeding the baby, she has little time to see you or family and friends. Anyways, the mum can meet visitors OUTSIDE the ward anytime.

Overall, considering the fact that I only paid $660 for 6-day stay and the c-section, it was a wonderful experience. I am thankful that my baby and I were well taken care of at Pamela Youde.

:thanks
 
Many Thanks for all your posts, its nice to hear all your views and it has definately helped.

Well we have decided to register and tsuk yuk with the delivery in QMH, we are going on march 10th for our registration!!

We will take our ipod!!

Thanks again

Stephen & Yoshiko
 

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