Info needed- pregnant and new in HK

D

DB_mum

New member
Hi, I'm new in HK and just found out that I am pregnant.

I have no OBGYN yet. I do not know how to proceed with maternity choice and registration. Does it depend on the OBGYN I choose? Should I go to a public or private hospital? How early should I register?

Information and advices highly welcome!
 
Hi there - congratulations and welcome to Hong Kong! I was in a very similar situation 4 months ago, I got a positive pregnancy test 5 days after I arrived. Because I had some bleeding and needed to see someone urgently, I just phoned the Matilda hospital and saw the first doctor available. This happened to be Dr Patrick Chan who I was very happy with. If you search this website you will find recommendations of other doctors too. The doctor you choose will only be able to deliver at certain private hospitals and he or she can tell you what these are. The next step for me was to call the hospitals and arrange to take a look around to see what suits your needs. My favourite of the private hospitals was the Matilda, purely because the baby can stay with you the whole time you stay there. A lot of the other private hospitals keep the baby in a nursery apart from feeding times, this didn't suit me - but everyone's different.

I found the idea of giving birth Hong Kong a pretty scary prospect at first, being newly arrived from the UK. The Matilda is lovely and the idea of going there made me feel very comfortable. However, as we got more used to being in Hong Kong I changed my mind and am now using the public system and going to the Queen Mary hospital. So, although you don't get the same level of comfort in the public system, the medical care you receive is as good if not better than many private hospitals can provide. I feel very confident that I will have a good experience at the Queen Mary. (I should add that we don't have maternity insurance so would have had to pay the full cost of a private hospital which can be expensive and pretty unpredictable - I'm glad we decided to save the money!).

I'm sure others will reply with recommendations on doctors you might like to use, I've heard good things about Dr Joe Chan and Dr Sally Ferguson as well as Patrick Chan who I used. Once you get the ball rolling with a doctor's appointment everything will start to fall into place. Good luck.
 
P.S. I should say that obviously if you decided to go public then your private doctor could not be there at the delivery. This doesn't bother me, but of course everyone has different expectations and preferences.
 
Congralutations !! no need to worry... HK is a great place to give birth and have fun with a baby !
The choice of the hospital depends on your maternity insurance, if you are covered, then a private one is great. Still, any public hospital will give you a great support and all the medical care you need.
The main point is to find a doctor, he will follow your pregnancy, be there at the birth (depending on which hospital he can go to, generally every obs can deliver in 2 or 3 different hospitals), he will register you in the hospital, and will introduce you to a pedetrician who will be there at birth. So you see... very easy, just have to find someone you like !
If you make a few research on these forums, you will see that a few names are coming back often. I chose mine (Dr Choy) because the place was easy to go to, and I love her ! (Dr Choy, not the place ;).
Enjoy it !
 
thanks for all this, it is very helpful.
I do not want to be separated from my baby at the hospital so i will choose accordingly. Having a unknown medical team at the hospital is less of a problem to me.
I will look for a doctor that suits me based on this forum's recommendations.
 
If you decide to go to the Matilda, some of the doctors that are popular and deliver there are Dr Sally Ferguson, Dr Lucy Lord and Dr Ghosh. Dr Dawkins was also popular, but he's gone back to Australia and I'm not sure about his replacement.

They are all listed in the directory on this website (http://www.geobaby.com/directory/health-and-fitness/doctors/gynecologists/) and if you search on the doctor names in the forums you'll find some discussion / recommendations on them.

I gave birth at the Matilda (with Dr Sally Ferguson) and loved it. We had insurance cover with my husband's work - thank goodness! It's very expensive if you had to pay out of your own pocket!

Good Luck.
Belinda
 
As for the public system, the hospital is decided by where you live. Since your name is DBmom, I assume this means you are living in Discovery Bay? If that is the case then you should be able to deliver at Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam. I gave birth there in March and was very happy with the experience and care. The best part was my daughter was with me the whole time, except for a quick bath in the morning every day.

You can also find lots of stories and reviews of Queen Mary by searching old messages.

Good luck choosing and happy pregnancy!!
 
congratulations & welcome!

this is a VERY common set of questions, if you do a search you will find dozens of threads with hundreds of helpful responses.

good luck!
 
Hi DBmum,
I've been in HK for 2 years, but am 12 weeks pregnant and had no idea of what hospital etc. to go to. But because we don't have private insurance, the public system was an easy choice for us. And also this forum has been helpful with lots of information etc. I recommend meeting for coffees with people on this forum as this is a great way to meet new people and share ideas and experiences.
I recently had my first appointment at the Tsan Yuk Hospital in Sheung Wan on Sat. Oct 18th (this hospital is affiliated with Queen Mary), and everyone I spoke to (midwives/nurses) were very nice. I registered at Tsan Yuk as soon as I found out about this hospital, just to get in and get the ball rolling (so to speak). To register for having your baby in the public system through the Tsan Yuk/QM, phone;
2589 2100. I have my first appointment with a doctor at Tsan Yuk next week, so I'll let you know how that goes. I'm also doing the hospital tour (of the QM) on the 1st November, you can register for this on ph: 2589 2387. Here's the website for your info. http://www.hku.hk/obsgyn/patientInfo/clinic.htm#hospitalTour
They've already given me a date for my first scan on the 22nd December with the same doctor at the QM....so am looking forward to that!

ps. Congratulations! :o) If you want to meet for a hotchocolate etc. let me know (and check out under 'Forum' for the baby due dates as people are always arranging for group gatherings).
 
Hi

Congratulations.

I am new to HK too. Been here for 3 months. I am now 36 weeks and I am due for a C-section on 12 Nov 2008.

Basically I have initally booked Matilda for my c-section but due to further medical complication my OB refered me to Queen Mary. Basically the cost between public and private care is quite different.

Would be glad to meet and discuss in details over hot chocoolate. :) You can PM me.
 
Hello everyone,

Same situation here ! just moved to HK in june and found out I'm pregnant last week...Of course I do not have a OB yet, I just looked in the forum and heard about Dr Grace Cheung. Because I work and leave close by, I decided to try. I have my first appointment with her tomorrow, I'll keep you informed.

Drink, I am very interested in having more info abour Queen Mary (registration deadline, can my husband be with me during delivery, etc). My insurance is very bad and I'll have to go for public...which is not a problem though !

Happy pregnacy !
Jeanne
 
I am relatively new to HK. Finding a doctor can be difficult. I just used the same doctor as a colleague who lived near me. I am also registered at Queen Mary. considering just using the public hospital doctor as it seems to be free compared with private doctor. Queen Mary was recommended to me as the #1 hospital in HK (not sure if true or not). The only thing i can find useful for private hospital is that you can get a private room and spend time with newborn. But for me, i can wait 2-3 days to spend time with newborn compared with cost savings (personal choice). Also, for most complications and premature births, private hospitals will refer you to public hospital anyways (this is what happenned to my colleague). To me this was a big indicator that public hospitals is just safer to give birth.

but for registering i think you still need to see a private doctor to recommend you first. that is what i had to do. i didn't call to make an appointment at Tsun Yak. I just showed up (because that is what they told me to do on the phone).
 
Hi

I just delivered at the Matilda last friday 7 Nov it was a emergency c- section.

My ob Dr Edmond Hon was fantastic taking into consideration I had a huge growth right next to my baby. The after care in the Matilda is fantastic and the food was also good.

I had my baby with me all the time I was there and I could have in with me in my room anytime of the day, though I was in a standard room not a private room
 
I finally saw Dr Lucie Lord as Dr Grace cheung was not in yesturday. The clinic is great and the staff is really nice.
They have everything on site (pharmacy, laboratory, scan etc). I had a good feeling with Dr Lord, eventhough she is quite busy and do not have much time. I spent 10 minutes with her for the scan, and then about 1 hour with her nurse who explained everything to me, and took the time to answer my questions while doing the labs.

Good practice, good doctor, but not cheap !

Consult is HK$950
Scan is HK$500
Labs was HK$840
Vitamines + fish oil : HK$360
Total bill HK$2560 for the 1st visit...

Contact : Central Health Medical Practice
3/F Baskerville House, 13 Duddell street, Central

Jeanne
 
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