Has anyone delivered in Kwun Tong's public hospital - United Christian Hospital?

I

iyonata

Registered User
Hi mummies,

I'm 32 weeks pregnant with my second child. First child was born via c-section last March 2014 at a private hospital. This time around, I'd like to save some $$$ by going the public hospital route. Based on where I live, I'll be delivering in Kwun Tong's United Christian Hospital. Now here's what I'm wondering:

  • Considering that I had a c-section last year, would the public hospital allow me to deliver #2 by c-section as well?
  • If so, can anyone share with me their experience of having c-section at public hospital? i.e. how is it different from private hospital? what do I have to prepare for/bring with me?
  • What happens after delivery? where does baby go?
  • And lastly... if you knew then what you know now, how would you have done things differently?


Many thanks in advance!!!
Inggrid
 
Hi,

I delivered in United Christian in 2010 and 2012 so I'm quite familiar with it. My second child was born by emergency c-section. Since I didn't plan the c-sec, can't answer all your questions but here goes:

1. I think they would allow you c-sec since you already had one. VBAC is an option but I don't think they push it.

2. Not sure how different it is from private since I never went private. One think I've heard is that if you have a scheduled c-sec in the public system, you are alloted a time but it might end up getting delayed due to emergency cases etc, and since you need to have fasted for a certain amount of hours you can get really hungry. Not sure if waiting is the norm, just know it happened to someone.

Oh, and they won't let your husband into the surgery with you. That might be a big different from private.

Also, the operation may be performed by a resident with a senior doctor supervising. So your scar won't be as neat and small as the private ones. This is based on comparing with students who went private. My private obs/gyn just saw my scar and said it was "not bad". I don't care much about the aesthetics of it, and it healed very well.

As for what you have to bring, I think it should be similar to what you need for a normal delivery. In the public system, they have a list and it's quite detailed. Like you need to bring your own sanitary napkins of the kind they specify. But most things can be bought in the 7/11 in United Christian itself.

I'd suggest you register in the public system so you can get the updated list.

4. After delivery, you go into a recovery room for some time... I kind of lost track of time, I think to monitor that you're doing ok due to the anaesthesia. They show you the baby when it's born and then it gets whisked off somewhere - but this is the same for a natural delivery in public as well.

I'm not quite sure how soon they bring the baby back for breastfeeding. For a natural birth it's in a few hours, as they're super supportive ofbreastfeeding. In my case, my daughter had been diagnosed with a kidney condition that they wanted to monitor so she was in NICU for a day.

5. I had actually wanted to go private for my second child. I ended up going public again because I couldn't afford emergency c-sec fees in private. I think it worked out well, because I knew the system. I knew what to stress about and what not to. I knew what food to expect. So it was fine.
 
My wife didn't have a c-section so can't answer your questions but I have posted my general experience of the hospital in the same forum.
 
Thanks, cow1, for sharing your experience. You're the first one to mention about having to bring an external battery for the cell phone because you can't charge eletronics at the public hospital. Very helpful, indeed!
 
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