Queen Mary Birth

B

birdster

Registered User
Hi everyone,

Am new here and just found out am due with our first baby next year.

Am navigating the oodles of info at the moment and working out where we will give birth

We don't have insurance that covers childbirth so will certainly be going through the public system but I have a question.

Did anyone have more that one person in the delivery room at the birth of their baby ?
Obvs want to have hubby there but am also very keen for my MIL to be there as she used to be a midwife in the UK and would love to have her help with coaching me through.
I know from friends that that the bedside coaching can be lacking within the system in HK in the public and private system. Am pro natural VB as much as possible and would like to think I can cope with the pain but know how important coaching and help with this can be and if that's lacking in HK am wondering how I will do.

Anyone have any first hand experience of the Pamela Youde ? I have heard there are private rooms (to recover) there that you can pay for after the birth.. is this true ?

Any info appreciated
 
no, you cannot have more than one person in the delivery room.

where you deliver will be dictated by where you live. the public system works on a catchment area system.
 
Thanks for your reply Carang

That helps... do you know from experience and asking yourself regarding the one person in the room ?
 
i gave birth twice at QMH and i know that there are some "rules" that they just won't break for anyone.
 
ALL of the public hospitals only allow one person in the delivery room, from my understanding. If I were you though, I would stay home (if possible) through the early stages of labour with your MIL coaching you there and try to get to the hospital later.

All public hospitals have private rooms, they are as expensive as private hospitals and I'd only recommend them for people who had insurance but needed the extra medical attention of the public hospital. What Pamela Youde has is a "special accommodation ward" which is a 4 bed room with a shared bathroom. In this room, the visiting hours are more like 8am-8pm and older kids ARE allowed to visit. If you are in any of the public wards at any of the public hospitals, the hours are only 12-1pm and then 6-8pm.

For me, next time around, I think I would either fork out the money for Matilda OR I would do Pamela Youde's special accommodation ward. Both my kids were born in QMH and I had "ok" experiences... medically great, emotionally for me - not so much.
 
I gave birth at QMH. You can only have one person in the delivery room (absolutley no exceptions). Also, it should be noted that they presume that that person is your husband and you need to name that person before the delivery date. If you are planning on having a friend/family member instead of your husband you MUST make this known before hand - they won't let just 'anybody' in.

In saying this, if you give birth at QMH you will or coure, have your prenatal check ups there and will find all of this out. Personally, I would get on to it asap as free antenatal classes/ultrasounds etc do book up early. You can also have a tour of the birthing unit which is each Saturday, during this they explain the rules about people in the birthing room etc. (book in for that, I highly reccommend it). On the tour you also see the private rooms with you can book at a price.
 
Oh, and another thing....
Don't presume that because it is a public hospital, they leave you alone and to your own devices to put up with pain. I found them to be VERY helpful, and offered many solutions for pain relief. The midwives are lovely. They encourage your husband to massage you, put music on, wipe your brow etc. During the classes they offer there they teach some techniques to your husband before the birth too.

I was feeling the same way you are before the birth of my first. I was absolutely wrong. The Chinese are completely in tune with us expats when is comes to birth coaching and pain relief techniques in child birth. they understand the importance of having support and different options availiable to you. You will be fine :)
 
I think it's very dependent on the midwife you get. I had the midwife from hell in my delivery for my 2nd daughter, she told me that not only must I lay on the bed, but I was not allowed to move at all, not even to adjust my position slightly. That was through contractions with no pain relief. I was SO GLAD when her shift was over and had a much nicer midwife after she was gone. I think you can request to change midwifes if you are having issues with yours and I wish I'd done so. Mine was unbearable!

(full disclosure - this was an induction and my daughter had a known congenital abnormality so the "staying on the bed" thing is an induction thing there, and the insistence on continual fetal monitoring which was very difficult, except when I was in one specific position, was probably a result of the midwife freaking out about my daughter's "health issues"... I still don't think that excuses her though!! She was nasty about it...)
 
... sorry I just wanted to add... I'm not trying to scare you but rather to say if you want to have the birth that you want to have, you do need to be assertive. If I could go back, there are many things I would do differently, I would have asked for or insisted on certain things. I think also your husband needs to be prepared to negotiate on your behalf. Talk in advance about everything, including what your expectations are, what is important to you etc... be prepared!! I don't think I was prepared, and my husband certainly was not prepared either...
 
Just to pipe in with some bad news, some public hospitals are not allowing the husbands in either. Happened to my friend, her husband missed the entire thing. For me, my husband was kept out until the end.
 
again, you cannot "choose" your public hospital. it is dictated by where you live. of course, you could try to use a family/friend's address when you register to try to get around their catchment system.
 
I live in Mui Wo and was told I could choose between QMH and Pamela Youde.
I chose QMH. Maybe other areas fall into 2 different clusters for maternity services? Anyway, chose QMH because I knew people who had delivered there and had a good experience. A few more months and I'll be able to judge for myself if I made the right choice!
 
for some very, very strange and inexplicable reason, the outlying islands fall under pamela youde in the eastern cluster. makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. i can understand why they would allow you to go to qmh, but am surprised by it.

but for someone who lives, say, in the mid-levels... i don't think they would be as understanding.

anyone who has lived in hk for any length of time can tell you that the bureaucrats here are not known for their "thinking outside the box" abilities, or for their ability to go against the regulations.
 
Carang, I wasn't trying to prove you wrong. I was just saying that there might be other weird set up with healthcare and geography.
As for the HK bureaucracy, I have stopped trying to understand and apply logic, I just do as told :)
 
Siesta, my post wasn't directed at you. Glad that they will let you deliver at QMH. like i said, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that the outlying islands on that side of HK are supposed to belong to the eastern hk island cluster. makes much more sense that they belong to the western island cluster.

i have heard of people using friends' addresses/relatives' addresses etc to get around the catchment system. so, it is possible to "work the system"....

i just wanted posters to be aware that the catchment/cluster system exists so that they can plan accordingly.
 
Could someone who has been through the public system clarify the process for me

I went to register today at the PY and have been given a booking appointment date of next week

When I go to that I will be 11 weeks... what happens at that first appointment and then how many more appointments / scans / check up's do you get after that ?

I am keen to go fully public for birth and all check ups (I can think of better things to spend my cash on than the amount you can spend of private Obs appointments/scans/checks) but they wouldn't tell me what the stages of check ups are when I went today as they said.. "step by step" we will explain all that at the next appointment

Just want to know if I will get a scan soon

Also for downs/viability testing when is that done ?

Thanks a lot ladies
 
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