Antenatal check at TKOH & giving birth at United Christian Hospital?

D

deasy_h

Registered User
Hi,
I'm 5-week pregnant and living in Clear Water Bay Area.
I've just attended my first antenatal check in Tseung Kwan O Hospital.
It was quite a surprise that I only saw a nurse that collected my health history and gave a brief explanation about the blood test they were about to take. I also had a chance to ask some questions regarding my first time pregnancy and the nurse was willing to answer all of them.
Later on the nurse booked my first appointment to meet the doctor on early August; meaning that it will be my 11-week of pregnancy.

My question is, is it normal that we only see the real doctor in about 11-week of pregnancy?
I also asked the nurse whether I should take any supplement/ vitamin / maternal milk? She said that it isn't necessary to do so as long as I follow the balanced diet. But it is almost impossible for me to follow it... & she also didn't advice to see a dietitian or something like that.

So I get really really confused here...
Please.. please... somebody give me some advices...
FYI my husband's insurance doesn't cover pregnancy checks nor baby delivery. That's why we choose the public system. But if there's a high necessity to visit the private doctor, I would not mind.

In addition, Tseung Kwan O Hospital doesn't have labour ward so I'll give birth at United Christian Hospital. Does anybody have experience giving birth in that hospital?

Thanks a lot !
 
Congratulations on our pregnancy. It is quite normal in the public system to wait until 11 weeks to see a doctor. At this stage in your pregnancy they would just be confirming a pregnancy and the nurse is capable of doing that. The heart beat would not yet be detected as it is too early.

The doctor will see you at 11 weeks and should do an ultrasound then and take it from there. The nurse should have taken some blood from you and explained the tests they will perform.

I was advised to take folic acid when pregnant and was given a list of foods to avoid during pregnancy but was never referred to dietician (not sure if this is necessary). the list includes soft/raw eggs, mayonnaise, raw fish, soft cheeses, cured meat. If you google it, the list will be on the internet.

I did see a private doctor and a public hospital doctor during my second pregnancy but I am not sure it is necessary. The reason I did it was due to the fact that there were a lot of complications in my first pregnancy and I was a bit nervous that the same things would happen on the second so wanted more scans to ensure all was ok.

Hope this information helps and good luck with your pregnancy.
 
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your sharing :)
Then I just have to pay more attention on nutritious food to eat so that the baby will grow up well.
The nurse did not mention about taking folic acid but my when I saw my general practitioner to confirm my pregnancy, she did prescribe 5mg folic acid & I'm still taking it.
But I've been wondering about iron, vit D & calcium. Should I also take supplements of them? My friend also told me that she was prescribed with DHA & fish oil.

What about your laboring experience? Was it also done in United Christian Hospital?
 
they will actually check your iron levels...at 20weeks I think and if that is low, they will prescribe you iron pills. You should take Materna (which is available at Mannings) which is a vitamin supplement for pregnant women...for me, I just made sure I drank a lot of milk / soya milk for calcium and had some red meats for the iron. I didn't take any supplements as I tried to make sure I had a variety of meats / fruits (berries are particularly good) / veggies in my diet -(green leafy veggies)

Congrats! :)
 
Everybody's labouring experience is different, but I delivered in the Prince of Wales hospital in Shatin. The hospital was clean and all the staff were very efficient. The food was awful!

I had to be induced as I went over my due date. My first pregnancy was an emergency c-section so I wanted the second to be natural. They were very supportive of this.
When I was moved to the delviery suite the nurses were all very friendly and worked with me very well - knowing when to leave me alone and when to check on me!

The doctor on duty was Australian so I did not have any language barrier issues with her. When they discovered that the baby was distressed, they were very quick to discuss my options with me, and let me have the final dicision. It ended up being another emergency c-section.

When I went to theatre for the emergency c-section I was awake as it was a spinal block rather than a general anesthetic and the anestesiologist was also Australian and was very supportive, kept my chatting while they performed the operation.

The only issues I had were the fact that my husband was not allowed in to the delivery suite (swine flu outbreak was an issue then) so he spent the day in disneyland with my son (who's birthday it also was)!

I had been in labour for over 24 hours before the c-section was performed so had not eaten at all and the only thing they would allow me to eat after the c-section for TWO days was congee water (it was not nice) so I had smuggled food in my bag which I ate!

Everything else was fine!

As I said at the beginning, everybody has a different experience during labour as sometimes it goes exactly to plan and other times it doesn't (as was with me!) but it is a magical experience when they hand you your new born baby and you instantly forget that you are in a foreign country surrounded by total strangers!

Good luck and enjoy your pregnancy.
 
Hey Deasy... just responded in the other thread. About the vitamins, my private doctor prescribed Materna, which contains just about everything. The public system, as you noted, didn't prescribe anything initially. However, after the initial blood test (around 10 weeks), they found I was thalassaemic minor and gave me folic acid.

Materna started making me feel extremely ill and I decided after some research to stop it but just watch my diet as someone above mentioned. However, from my research folic acid is important in the early weeks (actually even better during pre-conception) so I'd suggest buying it from Mannings/Watsons and taking it (there could be differing views on this, obviously the public system doesn't think its crucial and my cousins abroad said they didn't take it). A small bottle is not expensive and the pill is tiny and won't do any hard (as the pharmacist told me excess folic acid gets washed out by the body).
 
Dear Amy, thanks a lot for your sharing. It really encourages me a lot in going thru this pregnancy. Your children are very lucky to have such a nice & strong mom like you.
 
I live in TKO, so I am also attending antenatal checks at TKOH. I also went through the same process as you. First visit with midwife, and then scheduled for an appointment with the doctor at around week 11. I didn't get any prenatal vitamin either, but I guess that if I had requested that, they would have given it to me (actually I already had a bottle of Materna that they gave me when I was under fertility treatment there). The good thing about the antenatal checks there is that because TKOH doesn't have labour ward, usually there are much few people waiting for checks than in other hospitals... usually i would wait just 30 to 60 minutes for each appointment.

About the scans, if you are under 35, then probably you will only get one scan at around week 20. Otherwise, you will get scheduled for a Nuchal scan at around week 12 to 14, which will be done at United Christian Hospital.

And about delivering at UCH, you may search on the forum... I remember that someone posted her experience delivering there few months ago. I am going to deliver at Union Hospital Shatin, cause I am covered by the insurance and have already paid for the deposit....Otherwise, I wouldn't have any problem delivering at UCH. I attended the antenatal classes there, and the hospital seems be fine.... They have everything you may get in a private hospital, like epidural, if you need it. They also encourage breastfeeding and baby room in, which are things that may not be available in private hospital, unless you stay in a private room.
 
Hey Gataloca, are the antenatal classes at UCH only in Cantonese? Can you speak Cantonese or did you take a translator along?
 
Hi Charade... I speak cantonese..... I am not sure if there are english classes available.... I do remember that they once gave me a schedule which descriptions were in english. You can ask the nurses on your next appointment though....
 
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