Public Hospitals

[Peggy&Tony]

Congratulations Hannah... You're pretty much in the same situation as we are. I hope everything turns out wonderfully.

A few questions I have:
Does anyone have any experience at Prince of Wales?
Can the husband be with the wife during labor and birth at public hospitals?
Does the mother have to take care of the baby 24/7 after birth or is the hospital willing to help in a public hospital?
(my friend just gave birth at Union and the hospital takes care of the baby for the first few days)

Thank you very much for all your suggestions so far.

 

[ash75]

1. I have a few friends who have delivered at Prince of Wales - they were VERY happy, even more so than the people I know who went to Queen Mary. The doctors at Prince of Wales sound excellent from what they said.

2. In public hospitals the husband is allowed to be with the wife for most of the labor (past 3cm dilated in the Queen Mary - not sure about the other hospitals) and definitely for the birth unless it is an emergency ceaser. Even then I have heard stories of husbands being very forceful and being allowed to be present.

3. Can only speak for the QM here. I had my baby with me 24/7 except for bathtime which the nurses took care of. I did state in my birthplan that I wanted my baby with me at all times though. They did have a baby room where they took the babies if the moms wanted to sleep and then they would bring the babies back to the moms for feeding every 3 hours. The definitely don't take care of the baby for you all the time as they want to see that you are capable of looking after the baby on your own I think, also the nursing staff are very busy themselves. The staff were very willing to help with anything though so if they see the mom is battling, I am sure they will do all they can to make things easier.

 

[merryma]

Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital

I had my first one at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in April last year... my overall experience was quite good. They are very breastfeeding supportive and my experience with the staff are generally good. The bonus is the cost: all for just about HK$1,000 (I had the epidural, stayed there for I think 4 nights and my baby was at the intensive care unit for a week) :haha:

It wasn't my initial plan, but when I called the private when my water broke, there was no place at 3 hospitals on the island...(I didn't pay the deposit as I was advised to cause I didn't believe the system works that way and didn't think we really need to fight for a place to deliver :frown: )

I am having another due this November. Before the outbreak of this Swine Flu thing, I am sure to want to go back to PYNEH again, unless there's a need to have my own OB to do the delivery, then I have to go private.

But now, I worrying if this Swine Flu would really happen like SARS, and crowded public hospital is definitely not a good place to go.

Cost is not really an issue for us, I think the reasons if I'd go private this time will be 1st: if I need my own ob to do the delivery, 2nd: the swine flu worries, 3rd: if I am so keen for smiley faces and more comfortable bed.
The pathetic thing here in HK is that you need to place the deposit for an unguranteed placement right the beginning of pregnancy if you want to go private, and I was told that only Canossa and Adventis are available now (another 2 my OB would go, Matilda and Sanatorium are fully booked till the end of the year).


I have never delivered at the private, I may not able to comment much. But so far, I have heard many negative things about Canossa and Adventis such as breastfeeding support, and moms don't get to see or be with their babies the 1st 24 hours...And if I am wrong to say this, but do hear lots of moms at private are "persuaded" to go for c-section at the end, which saves the mess and the time for the doc and the hospital. Even more ridiculous that most babies at private are born around 3 -5pm, when the doc are more free at the clinic, at most cases the nurses at the hospitals have a way to stop the babies coming out before the doc is free to come to do the delivery. How true is this? Not sure...

Many people did tell me about the unfriendliness at the public too, but after my own experience I think it's really how we treat others to expect how we will be treated. I think some patients in the public are not too friendly and polite themselves, some are even very rude and inconsiderate.. I wonder how they would expect the staff to treat them back, especially if they don't pay them :haha:
and I would think even if some of the staff may be too stressed up to put up a smile, who cares, so long as they do what they need to do for me and my baby...
After this, I can go to a luxury spa and medicure to get plenty of smiley faces :haha:

 

[carang]

i don't think you have any cause to worry about 'swine flu'.

 

[merryma]

Ya Carang

another drawback about public hospitals that some moms concern about will be they have a group of junior doctors watching. And if you are not that lucky, you end up being stitched by a not too skillful doctor

In my case, one of the doctor who was suppsed to remove the epidural tube from my back didn't know how to do it, so a senior nurse/ midwife did it for the doc... I was a bit like, huh?!! :haha:

Good luck all moms...:gl:

 

[carang]

if you are uncomfortable with others watching, then ask that they not and see what they say. they may ask you nicely to please allow them as QMH is a teaching hospital. i don't think that's the case with pamela youde.

 

[lisa88]

I gave birth to our first baby at Prince of Wales Shatin, and would definitely go back there to have our second. I had had a straightforward pregnancy and all the tests showed baby was very healthy. So it was a surprise that I had delivery complications and needed an emergency c-section. I had planned a natural birth and the team was happy to follow my birth plan. Then we discovered that I had a cord prolapse and baby would suffer oxygen deprivation unless she was born immediately. The staff reacted promptly and my baby was born within 10 minutes of my being wheeled into the op theatre. I was monitored very closely for the 1st 12 hours after delivery. In the postnatal ward, care was very professional if not businesslike, coz they were so busy. But no staff was rude or condescending and no patient was ignored. The priority was for patients in pain - some were, coming out of their c-sections. Some nurses coached me with breastfeeding. One nurse sat down with me for an hour to learn how to get my baby to latch on. My stay was a 'no frills' experience but I did not mind as I could see the medical care was excellent and I would be home in 4 days. Not much privacy either. Visiting hours were only 2 hours/day and 2 visitors each time. Food was not great, quite bland, so I had meals brought from home. I had not planned to give birth in a public hospital. It was only because I was new to HK and did not know I had to book early. So I had antenatal check ups with a private obstetrician. In addition, I had my major milestone screenings/tests at the POW antenatal clinic so that they would have my records and it was also to save on costs. The downside was the queueing. I noticed that the medical approach tended to be conservative if there was any hint of a risk. I thought I had the best of both worlds as my private obstetrician was able to give me the extra attention I sometimes wanted yet I had the assurance of the medical expertise in the public system. My hospital bill came to the princely sum of $450 whereas in the private system we would have paid in excess of $100,000. It wasn't about the money however. All the time I felt I was in good hands at POW.

 

[papa2b]

My wife recently gave birth at Queen Mary Hospital and whilst we were considering delivering privately at Matilda, I am EXTREMELY pleased with our decision to go to QMH. Like the previous poster, our pregnancy was very routine up until the delivery, where my wife also needed an emergency c-section - but the dedication and professionalism of the doctors and midwives was amazing!

A couple of points from my side;

1) I think we made an extremely wise to choose QMH over some of the private alternatives. I can honestly say from my experience there that the quality of medical care is absolutely top notch. We ran into a spot of trouble during labour and had to have an emergency-C section - whilst extremely nerve racking for me, I felt immediately reassured when i saw how the medical and nursing teams were going about their work. Trust me, they are absolute professionals, and you wouldn't want to have anything less.

2) Aftercare, whilst without the frills of some of the private hospitals were pretty good. My advise is to make 'friends' with a nurse from each of the shifts. You will have a much better time. Oh and, the nurses in blue/white uniform are much nicer on the whole and willing to help than the matrons in white/red.

3) Wear their clothes! One of the things mentioned on our birthplan was that she would rather wear her own nightgowns in order to be as comfortable as possible. Well, its a messy affair and it soon dawned on us that wearing their clothes is not such a bad idea!

3) BRING YOUR OWN FOOD! I made breakfast, lunch, dinner deliveries everyday. It was also nice to sit outside the ward and have lunch together - See below;

4) Because of swine flu, they have reduced their visiting hours to just 6-8pm every day. I also believe that since we delivered, the have tightened these restrictions due to the increasing cases of swine flu.

5) One last point, don't bother going for a mani/pedi prior to your expected due date (as she did) as I was sat during labour wiping off all the nail polish as per hospital rules.

If you have any questions about the QMH experience, please don't hesitate to ask!

 

[carang]

jsut to let you know... you can't have polish because in case they need to see the colour of your fingertips, toenails during delivery to ensure you are getting enough oxygen etc.

 

[jaz1311]

Hi

Congrats

Well if you are going public they are generally good but if you are having medical complication be very sure that you know your own condition well, cos in my case they got my file mixed up with another patients file 1 week before my delivery and due to this mixed up my hubby did not want to take the risk so I ended up in the private hospital.

I was on private care too at the time, in order to have regular u/s and more regular check up due to my medical condition.