Not accepted after 3 months pregancy ?

S

silentsound

New member
Hi all,

I am new member here. Right now I'm in America and will move to Hong Kong a couple of month later and try to get pregnant recently. I have 2 questions:

1. I heard that i have to see an OB in the first 3 months pregnancy.
Otherwise i will not be accepted. Is that true? So i am worried if when i
move to hk with more than 3 months pregnancy, but the doctor will not
accept me, how am i gonna do?

2. Is private hospital better than public one? I am 36 years old.
( too old :-( )The first time to have a baby and i want to have an
experienced ob and a hospital with good facilities.

3. is there any website that i can check review for all ob in Hong Kong or
a website from which that I can tell which ob's clinic is near to where I
live?

4. how to make an appointment? Online or phone call?

Too many questions. Thanks a lot!
 
The doctors will always accept you it's the private hospital booking you might have a problem with. However a friend of mine has just had her confirmation and she is 12 weeks pregnant - she was initially told that there were no spaces but her doctor got her in.

Private hospitals are obviously more plush but if there are any complications with your pregnancy/delivery they will still transfer you to the public one. I read somewhere that HK Queen Mary Hospital has the best neonatal facility in Asia

Geobaby forums and directory is full of OB reviews so you should be abe to find some info there.

You usually just call to make an appointment.

Hope your move goes smoothly - try not to worry too much it all sounds more complicated than it really is:)
 
1) no, it's not true. I had my second child here after moving at 6 months and was able to see the Ob of my choice and go to the hospital of my choice. Occasionally it is hard to get a confirmed hospital booking immediately if you are wanting to use a great private hospital like the matilda or the adventist but i've never heard of anyone being turned away.

2) Private hospitals here are superb, really really superb. I would think about having a 4th child just to go back to the Matilda. Well almost!

But they are hellishly expensive so unless your insurance is paying for it or you don't mind dropping over $100k for the birth they should be avoided. The public hospitals have great doctors, midwives etc. They deal with larger numbers of women giving birth so are experienced at handling complications etc but the downside is they are not really 'nice' places to have a baby. I have a few friends who had first babies there and hated it so much that it is a bit of a downer on their memories of childbirth etc. Two of them went on to have second babies and actually paid to go to the Matilda out of the own pocket even though financially it hurt them quite a bit. The Obs at the privates are also fantastic so I don't think you have to worry about that side of things either way.

3) don't know about 3 but this forum is excellent for finding out more about Obs. Just do a bit of a search or ask for recommendations (there are already plenty up here).

4) call.
 
mela said:
The doctors will always accept you it's the private hospital booking you might have a problem with. However a friend of mine has just had her confirmation and she is 12 weeks pregnant - she was initially told that there were no spaces but her doctor got her in.

Private hospitals are obviously more plush but if there are any complications with your pregnancy/delivery they will still transfer you to the public one. I read somewhere that HK Queen Mary Hospital has the best neonatal facility in Asia

Geobaby forums and directory is full of OB reviews so you should be abe to find some info there.

You usually just call to make an appointment.

Hope your move goes smoothly - try not to worry too much it all sounds more complicated than it really is:)
Click to expand...


Thank u, Mela and Aussiegal

You mean i might have problem with private hospital booking, if i go with public, it might be ok.

I heard that i will have more and careful checkups with private ob than a public one. Is that true?

BTW, can i buy insurance in HK after i get pregant?

Many thanks.
 
Last edited:
Yes - if you go public and you have the resident card (which you will after about a month) they will have to admit you no matter what. With private hospital it depends if they have spaces - the most popular ones Matilda and Adventist are usually fully booked but there are occassional cancellations.

You can see a private OB through your pregnancy and then deliver in a public hospital if you feel that you need extra care. I'm going private and I used to see my OB every 4 weeks and from 29 weeks onwards I get to see him every 2 weeks. I think in public system you don't see your doc that often but this is a normal practice in Europe and whenever I tell people at home how often I go and see my doc they are all surprised.

Usually insurance will not cover your pregnancy in the first year or 6 months - it's like a grace period or sth but I would double check. You don't have to wait until you get to HK to take insurance. I'm with BUPA international and very happy with them but probably best talk to some advisers in the US.

good luck
 
i went public with two VERY complicated pregnancies. the facilities are not fancy by any stretch of the imagination. are there things that i would have liked to be done differently? yes. would i pay out of my pocket to have had them privately? no way. i can use that $250,000 on many other things for my children instead.

that is just my opinion, you will find that everyone has a different one.

most insurance will not cover pregnancy for at least 10 months from the date of purchase.
 
Thank you all!!!

Economically, I should go to public ob and hospital, espeically the situation like mine. I might get pregant before I move to HK. That means I have no way to buy insurance several months before my pregancy.

However, I heard that service in public is not as comfortable as that in private. The most important thing is that there are not so often checkups in public. And in public hospital, there is even no private room after delivery.

I am 36 years old, not young to have the first baby. In addtion, I had miscarriage experiences. So I need very often and close checkups and monitor for my pregancy. Is that affordable for me to go to private doc. for checkups during pregnancy and finally go to public for delivery? What is the estimated cost for all checkups during the whole pregancy in private?

Is there no insurance company without those 6 or 12 months restriction? How can the medical system be like that in HK? So unconvenient and unfriendly. Can anybody tell me how to solve my problem and any other suggestions for me?

Your help is really appreciated.
 
I have a couple of friends who went to public for delivery. Both of them went to private ob for checkups, in addition to the checkups at the public hospital. So you'd be looking at only the additional private checkups. But the cost varies with different doctors. My doctor cost approx US$80 per visit, and additional US$100 for ultrasound.
 
if you have had recurrent miscarriages, and are a "high risk" pregnancy then you are possibly best for the public system.

when i had a high risk pregnancy i went through the public system (i went through the private system with my first), and though the waiting rooms were not glamorous, the doctors were excellent. i could not fault them. in hong kong, high risk pregnancies are often handled by the public system because they have the hospital facilities best equipped for potential situations that the private hospitals do not.

if your pregnancy is considered high risk, your checkups will be often. i was going every two weeks while in my second trimester and if i had made it to my third, i would have been going weekly.

hope this helps.
 
if you are high risk, they will assess you accordingly in the public system. i was high risk and i went to the doctor every 2 weeks.

as for insurance being inconvenient... well, they would be kind of stupid if they allowed you to get pregnant anytime and they would cover it... think about it, if you had insurance that was applicable within a month of purchase and then you got pregnant right away... you would only have paid 1 month's premium before they had to start paying out! that doesn't make any sense financially for them.

public vs private....
if you want luxury (including a private room) you have to go private. if you want good medical care and nothing else matters, then go public.
 
Wow, so many posts and useful information. Everybody is so nice here. Thanks again.

I had once miscarriage experience this Feb. Actually it cannot be called miscarriage. My ob here in U.S. said it is chemical pregnancy. I lost it on the 2nd day of the 5th week. I am kind of nervous of the following pregnancy.

It seems i 'd better go to public hospital. I had assumed that i have no way to get more often checkups in public hospital if my pregnancy is not so smoothly. From the information provided by all friends, it seems I am wrong.

I have some other questions. Hope somebody can give me some hints .

1. In US, if something unusual happened during my pregnancy, i can call my ob and my ob will see me at the earliest time. Is that same in HK? Say, last time i had spotting and slight pain at night. I emailed my ob and she asked me to go to see her early the next morning.

2. In public, will the checkup include down screen, diabetes etc? Or I need to request that, otherwise, ob will not do that for me.

3. I heard that in public hospital, i have no way to follow the same ob. It might be different ob for each checkup. Is that true？

4. I had chemical pregnancy experience, can i ask ob to give me blood test to check the change of hcg and Progesterone level as soon as i get pregnant and keep monitoring until it's safe?

Sorry for so many questions. Thanks a lot!
 
"1. In US, if something unusual happened during my pregnancy, i can call my ob and my ob will see me at the earliest time. Is that same in HK? Say, last time i had spotting and slight pain at night. I emailed my ob and she asked me to go to see her early the next morning."

if you are using the public system and you start bleeding you go IMMEDIATELY to the hospital. they will check you in for monitoring.

"2. In public, will the checkup include down screen, diabetes etc? Or I need to request that, otherwise, ob will not do that for me."

it is up to you. if you are older than 35, they will do it for free. if you are under 35, they can do it for you, but it costs more (about $1000HKD)

"3. I heard that in public hospital, i have no way to follow the same ob. It might be different ob for each checkup. Is that true？"

this is true. it is one of the drawbacks of hte public system. HOWEVER, if you are high risk, then it will be a limited number of doctors. there were 4 doctors handling high risk when i was having my second, i always saw one of them. because i had so many appointments, they all got to know my case very well. there were times that i even had the HEAD of the department taking care of me!

"4. I had chemical pregnancy experience, can i ask ob to give me blood test to check the change of hcg and Progesterone level as soon as i get pregnant and keep monitoring until it's safe?"

i have no idea. unless you are high risk, the doctors in the public system don't see you until around 10-11 weeks or so. because you seem to be high risk, all i can advise is to make your first appointment IMMEDIATELY when you get that positive test. it will probably take a week or two through the public system. what i would do is book the first few appointments privately then once all is ok, change to public.
 
Hi

Dont be too worry about no doctor accepting you. I only arrive in HK when I was 25 weeks pregnant and I still managed to get to book a private Ob and a private hospital.

I even had a medical complication.
 
I had my first baby in public hospital and it was fine, service wasn't top dollar but it reflects the general attitude of public service people all over hong kong. i am due to have my second at QMH in august.
it cost me $600 first time (vs 100k in private) and that was cos i was in labour for so long i had to stay an extra 2 nights, would've been cheaper otherwise. if you have a normal uncomplicated delivery you will be out after 2 nights. i think i could suffer 2 noisy nights and save that money for other uses in the future.
1) you can register at public hospital at 3 months and not before. up to you if you attend the public check ups or not but it may help them have more comprehensive records for when you deliver. you can also supplement public visits with as many private as you like. bear in mind you're looking at around 700 - 1000 each visit. i have plenty of friends who had private check ups and gave birth in public hospital without any problems. i guess if you have money to burn then private is the way to go. hell, i would if i won the lottery.
if you have complications i have also heard that QMH is the best and if you are in private they don't have the facilities so you will end up there anyway but may have to pay for QMH's private care which is as much if not more than going private. i know someone who had a rare blood complication and she got the best treatment at QMH cos she was high risk and got the top docs.
hope this helps!
 
if you are high risk you can go to public hospitals (ie. QMH)LONG before 3 months.... i have checkups every 1-2 weeks from the day i find out i am pregnant...toooo many complications and too dangerous to leave it until 3 months for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top