Advise Needed - Queen Mary vs. Maltida with No Insurance

charade said:
What! 80,000HKD higher than what you thought??? Ok that is scary...
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It may be scary but it happens a lot. Future parents should be aware of it and budget for it. If you are under insurance, check your limits carefully.

I've seen it happen in a few of types of situation:
1) normal delivery turns into an emergency c-section for many reasons; this will mean 3 day stay gets stretched into a 5 or 6 day (or more) stay and fees essentially double.

2) premie baby, jaundice or baby with infection all requiring incubator : this can cost anywhere from 5,000 - 15,000 per day depending on drugs and procedures required.

It is not at all unusual to hear of parents with bills approaching 200,000.
 
We chose to deliver at a private hospital (Baptist) with a private room even though our insurance did not cover it, and we are not millionaires.

It was for the same reasons you had
* I really loved my doctor and wanted to be sure that he was the one seeing me through labor and birth.
* The private room allowed for rooming-in and early frequent breastfeeding. Though support at Baptist is not great.

I didn't do it for the decor of the room or the food!
 
gracey, while you cannot choose your dr at a public hospital, they all have rooming in and are pro breastfeeding
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Private hospital is a bit like Busines/FirstClass travel on an airplane.
Everyone would take it if someone else was paying the bill.

However, if we had to pay for it ourselves
- a certain portion of the population will gladly do it.
- a different portion would not be able to afford it.
- yet there is another very large portion that can afford it but will choose not to as there are better places to spend that money.

I clearly fall into the last one.
 
I never had trouble getting an epidural in EITHER of my deliveries. In my first, I was induced and I was exhausted so I got it more for the exhaustion than for the pain. The pain was no where near unbearable. I asked for it once and they got it within half an hour or less.

In my 2nd, I was in more pain but what I found harder was that they INSISTED on having the continuous fetal monitoring because my daughter had a congenital condition (fair enough) - but due to that, I could only be in ONE position otherwise it wouldn't pick up her heartbeat. The pain wouldn't have been so bad, but not being able to move made it a LOT worse. I asked for an epidural and the nurse was dragging her feet. I started yelling at her (because it was becoming unbearable) and she managed to hurry it up a bit ;) I got it within an hour of originally asking for it - but I was doing a whole lot of yelling at her in that time ;) That particular nurse was awful though... thankfully her shift ended soon after and she was replaced with a nurse who was FAR nicer.

With my first, I had an episiotomy which was the most painful part of my recovery, but with my 2nd I decided to tear naturally and they allowed that, even though it was a vacuum-assisted delivery. I think that the vacuum caused me to tear more than I would have without it, but regardless, the healing process was much smoother than with my first. They DO listen to your requests at the public hospital, but you may need to be more demanding.
 
carang said:
gracey, while you cannot choose your dr at a public hospital, they all have rooming in and are pro breastfeeding
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In United Christian (public) there is no rooming-in at least for the first two nights. They are pro breastfeeding but insist on a schedule.

My epidural story: I was offered one and said I would like to try to go without but asked for a deadline by which time I could let them know. I was very clearly told within four hours of that time. I asked for one within that time frame. There was lots of hedging, I was begging for one by then, finally the doctor came in, rolled her eyes and said: "oh you're not in that much pain". (this is the least of my problems with her) I did not get the epidural. It is possible the anaesthetologist was tied up elsewhere, I am not the only one this happened to. So insisting doesn't always help. The powers that be decide.

There is always uncertainty in labour, but in the public system there is a little more because you have to be prepared for that fight to make yourself heard. Yes, if I had to, I would go through it again. The point is to decide how much one is willing to pay to not have to have that fight.
 
is united christian run by the hospital authority? if so, my apologies. i didn't know there were different rules for different hospitals.

believe me, i agree that public hospitals have a lot of room for improvement. please don't get me wrong.

as has been said before, to each their own.

while i cannot fathom spending $100k on delivery, others can equally find my willingness to "put up and shut up" unfathomable.

you didn't get an epidural. i got one (emergency c-section) but it didn't "take" properly and i felt the entire procedure.... we all have "horror" stories (well, maybe not all of us).
 
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Yes, this is the mysterious thing about the Hospital Authority. United Christian is indeed part of HA. As is QEH, which has a much more iffy policy on letting fathers into the delivery room. Luckily my husband was allowed in at United Christian but even that was done in a very disorganised way.

Read about your epidural not taking and the attitude of the doctor on another thread. Hats off to you for going for round two after that experience!
 
it's all good.... kids are now almost 5 and almost 7.... would not have done anything differently... except maybe asked for General Anesthesia the first go-round, had i known the epi wouldn't work! ;)

anyway... as i said, for me, the $100k would not be worth it... for others, it is.
 
Hi -I am in the same dilemma- I cant console myself of best care and personal touch in QMH. Since i will be in so much pain which should not be heightened due to unavailability of time by nurses/hygiene or Language barrier(not a cantonese speaker). Also,Is it necessary to go to QMH for all their visits or is it ok to pop up straight on the delivery date since they make u wait for 4 hrs on every visit and a student sees u for 5 mins?? will the final care be better than current service?
 
QMH isn't sooooo bad. I had my 3 kids there and if you re nice with them they will be nice with you...
They speak english no problem. Be firm with your birth plan and everything will be fine.

If it s your first baby delay as much as you can going to the hospital so you won t spend too much time in the labour ward.For me that was the worst part being on my own without my husband for 5 hours. Once you re in the delivery room it s all fine. I had an epidural for my first.They weren't difficult about it.
On the episiotomy I'm not sure. I had one for my first and yes it wasn't great and it took me a very long time to recover. But on the other hand I've got many friends who didn't want it and ended up with very bad 3rd degree tear(all the way down to the anal area). For my twins no episio but a 2nd degree tear which had to be re-stiched 2 weeks after delivery. With no local anesthesia... not at QMH, my private gyno did it saying that the pain from the injection for the anesthesia would be as painfull as the stiching...(not sure about that one)

Once the baby is born, you only have to stay 2 or 3 days there and it s ok. I actually enjoyed having restricted visiting hours. We told friends that because it was so limited only my husband would come(and bring me food...).
I really didn't feel like seeing people so that was good!!
 
Hi. I am Christine Lau, deputy general manager - communications for Matilda International Hospital. It was interesting to read your comments and you can imagine how surprised we were to read of the instrument incident. After a very in-depth conversation with our OT team it seems there were no lung cases here over the past years (we don’t specialise in this area) and definitely no instruments left in. We appreciate that the comment meant no harm and just want to share our findings with those reading the thread.
For “carang’s” purpose, you can call me at 2849 0329 if we can be of further assistance.
 
thanks, christine. it was YEARS ago(like at least 6-7 years)... and to be honest i can't remember all of the details. it was a friend of mine when i lived in db (have lost contact with her since). i may have misremembered the events and if so, my sincerest apologies. i DO know there was a serious mistake made during her surgery that was due to neglect. if what i have remembered is incorrect, i will ask the admin of this site to remove my comment. i did say in the post "if memory serves"... meaning i couldn't exactly remember all of the details.

sorry for the confusion.
 
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Hi -I am in the same dilemma- I cant console myself of best care and personal touch in QMH. Since i will be in so much pain which should not be heightened due to unavailability of time by nurses/hygiene or Language barrier(not a cantonese speaker). Also,Is it necessary to go to QMH for all their visits or is it ok to pop up straight on the delivery date since they make u wait for 4 hrs on every visit and a student sees u for 5 mins?? will the final care be better than current service?

Not sure how this thread went down this line. There is no problems with the hygiene or the nursing care of QMH and the nurses definitely speak English (I think what I wrote and what charade wrote was about more being on the fussy side of things about the toilet state....)
Also don't expect that if you go private you won't wait, I always waited at least 1/2 hour for all my appointments, but I agree that in the private I would see the doctor for 1/2 hour or so, including scanning time. Also there are not 'students' seeing you, they are trainees which means they are all doctors but they may not be specialists yet. Medical students seeing you as case are declared and you are asked for permission first.
 
and if the bathroom is dirty, tell the nurses at the station... the bathroom will be cleaned almost immediately.
 
I decided to pay...

I had my first at Matilda with full insurance coverage, but this time we have to pay. There were things that were important not only to me, but to my husband. He can stay overnight at Matilda. He will come check on our older daughter but that experience of bonding was important to us. Obviously I would not miss out on this at QM, but he would, and it mattered to him. The baby friendliness of Matilda is important to me, and I think it contributes to successful breastfeeding relationships, which matters to me personally.

The other main reason we chose private care was as others suggested, knowing your doctor.

So yes, it is a lot of money, and there are other things we will not do this time in order to cover the cost, but for us it is worthwhile.
 
I paid too as my insurance run out so they would only pay 30 percent. I loved the experience, the fact that I had my husband with me at all times and the assistance. I'm not rich I just saved from the start. Yes I could have spent the money on a great trip somewhere, education or other stuff but I do have wonderful memories related to the birth and the time after. I think if I wasnt able to save the money I would go to QMH which is still better than most hospitals in the UK and I am sure that except what I hear about the food the care everyone receives there is fantastic. When I broke my leg few years ago I had to go to emergency there and they were fantastic plus all I paid was 200 on my Octopus card:)

But for the birth I wanted my husband, my doctor and my own room. Spoiled? Maybe it was worth it. And I had a C section that my doctor made feel likw a natural birth -they got the baby out slowly put on my chest, I brestfed almost immediately.
 
Public is the BEST for baby though if there are any problems...of course we never want that- BUT if there are any major problems, even MATILDA will have to send LO to QMH as QMH is fully equipped and not MAtilda....nothing is perfect unfortunately.
 
mummymoo said:
Also don't expect that if you go private you won't wait, I always waited at least 1/2 hour for all my appointments, but I agree that in the private I would see the doctor for 1/2 hour or so, including scanning time.
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It depends on your ob/gen, I went to all my wife's ante-natal visits (about 10 in total) and we never waited more than 10 minutes ... sometimes we were seen immediately. While I understand the complexities of scheduling appointments it does seem to me (from what I read here) that a lot of the more popular ob/gens take liberties with their Mums-to-be in terms of cramming in too many appointments in too short a space of time, leading to feeling rushed and/or long waits.
 
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