What happens after you give birth in public hospital?

S

Shenzhennifer

Registered User
I'm just wondering peoples experiences after giving birth in a public hospital, especially if you had a c-section. Some questions like:

1. Did your baby room in? If not, why not and did the nurses bring your baby in to feed when they woke up? Did they respect any wishes about formula, bottles, glucose water, etc?

2. About the strict visiting hours and policy, if you had children already, could they visit you? Outside the ward? If it was hard to walk or you had a catheter or IV still, how did your visits go, and could your family see the baby outside the ward?

3. My c-section is scheduled for the AM. How soon after can I hold my baby? What will they do with her? If my husband comes with me, when can he see her, or does he have to wait until visiting hours for the first time?

4. For scheduled c-sections, they want me admitted the morning before for blood tests, etc. What is the etc? How long would I have to stay before they can give me home leave, as there is no chance I'm sleeping there that night.

5. I know I'm supposed to rest, but 4 days seems very long and lonely in the ward without visitors most of the day. No wifi? No tv? How about landline phone? Can i use my mobile ok? Nothing to do, only bring a book?

6. Everything sounds so DIY there. If my baby is next to me, will the nurses come to help when she needs to be lifted or diapers changed? How about me? Do they help to bathe you at all, or wash your hair? 4 or 5 days is a long time... I think I got real spoiled with my first baby in china...

Sorry for all the dumb questions. I would have asked my doctor but he was such a jerk I just wanted to get out of there. Kinda freaking out about things a wee bit. Will I be able to have a say in anything there?
 
My answers will be based on vaginal birth at QMH so a bit different to you, but here goes anyway:

1. The baby almost always rooms in. They have a nursery, but they encouraged the bub to room in. Very few babies stayed in the nursery. The nurses completely followed my wishes re breastfeeding, although I didn't find the breastfeeding support to be "great" (second time around, that doesn't matter though). The only "exception" to this was when my daughter was in Special Care - we were separated for 12 hours or so and in that time, they did feed her formula as the nurse who took her to SCU forgot to pass the message on. It was a mistake and they admitted it and apologised.

2. Yes, strict visiting hours, but you are allowed out of the ward. In fact, when I was still a patient, I took a taxi down to a nearby mall for lunch as I was starving ;) I'm sure that probably goes against policy but it's not like a jail or anything, they can't keep you there. I also had my older daughter come and we visited outside of the ward. I theoretically could have even gone home - although I live further from the hospital so if they called looking for me (which they did), it would have taken me longer to get back there.

3. Sorry can't help you on this one.

4. No idea - but I do know that with my induction, they inserted the prostaglandin suppository about 11am the day before she was born and I wanted to go home but they wouldn't let me as they wanted to monitor me. That is a different situation though as it can induce labour quite quickly. I had to stay over night both times before my daughters were born as my labour had technically started, even though I wasn't in active labour yet.

5. No wifi (unless you walk to Starbucks, but don't know if your hospital has one - I think the cafeteria also has wifi), there is a TV which is always on a Chinese channel though so that's not that helpful. No landline phone but you can use your mobile (can't use the charger though, unless you do it sneakily with the curtains closed). I brought books, DS, magazines... I wasn't that bored though really. I found hunger to be more of an issue as the food is pretty awful. But I ate at Starbucks or the cafeteria (or that one time at the nearby mall ;) )

6. The nurses didn't help me with anything - although they did bath all the babies. I didn't bath her at all until she was home. They have a set "bathing time" which they go and round up all the babies and do a "production line" bath ;) hehe - at QMH it was at the ridiculous time of 6am or so... I'm sure you can ask for help if you cannot lift the baby yourself though.

Hope that helps!!
 
1. Did your baby room in? If not, why not and did the nurses bring your baby in to feed when they woke up? Did they respect any wishes about formula, bottles, glucose water, etc?
yes, i wanted my babies beside me both times. however, my second was in the special care ward for 24 hours after birth. if i wanted to see her, i had to make it upstairs of my own accord. the nurses had to feed my daughter formula for the first 24 hours as i was completely out of it from the general anesthesia. however, after i was lucid, they were excellent and didn't offer her formula again. i asked that they give formula by spoon and they did. they even showed me how to do it.

2. About the strict visiting hours and policy, if you had children already, could they visit you? Outside the ward? If it was hard to walk or you had a catheter or IV still, how did your visits go, and could your family see the baby outside the ward? they were a little less strict with hubby visiting later, but the DID NOT let children into the ward. also, you CANNOT take your baby out of the ward. this is for safety and to make sure that babies are not kidnapped. my son came to the hospital to see me, but couldn't see the baby until the day i brought her home, which was on day 3.

3. My c-section is scheduled for the AM. How soon after can I hold my baby? What will they do with her? If my husband comes with me, when can he see her, or does he have to wait until visiting hours for the first time?

if your husband is with you, he'll see the baby immediately. they brought my son over to my head to show me and let me give him a kiss before they took him off to have his tests done. as i had extremely high bp, they kept him in the nursery for the first night because i was kept in a delivery suite so that there was a nurse with me the entire time (bp was dangerously high and wasn't falling. they were afraid i'd have a stroke or a seizure and wanted to keep a closer eye on me). because of this, my son's first two feedings were formula (again fed by spoon) but i breastfed after that. didn't really matter as my milk hadn't come in yet anyway.

4. For scheduled c-sections, they want me admitted the morning before for blood tests, etc. What is the etc? How long would I have to stay before they can give me home leave, as there is no chance I'm sleeping there that night.

i believe that they require you to stay that night so that they can prep you in time in the morning. as to how long the tests take, it depends on how busy the labs are...i realise that it may not be what you want to hear, but they DO have your best interests at heart. they also have the anesthetist come and talk to you and answer any questions you may have. the doctors also come and talk you through any questions regarding the procedure.

5. I know I'm supposed to rest, but 4 days seems very long and lonely in the ward without visitors most of the day. No wifi? No tv? How about landline phone? Can i use my mobile ok? Nothing to do, only bring a book? i was discharged after 3 days both times. i took my mobile, my computer (had tv shows/videos on it) a book and some magazines. i also knew women who gave themselves facials etc. but to be honest, the time goes quite quickly. use the time when your baby is sleeping to sleep yourself. think of it as an enforced rest period. you are going to be in a lot of pain for at least the first day, probably also the second day... you WILL need to rest and without your #1 baby there, you are free to do just that.

6. Everything sounds so DIY there. If my baby is next to me, will the nurses come to help when she needs to be lifted or diapers changed? How about me? Do they help to bathe you at all, or wash your hair? 4 or 5 days is a long time... I think I got real spoiled with my first baby in china...

if you can't lift your baby, you can call the orderly to come and help you. also, if you need your mat pads changed and are unable to do it yourself, they will come and change them and clean you up. they will also bring you a bed pan if you are unable to make it to the toilet on your own. i had my husband help me shower/wash my hair when i was in both times... he actually came into the bathroom with me and put a plastic chair into the shower stall so that i could shower while sitting down.
 
oh, yes, the food was atrocious... i ordered pizza hut and soho delivers to QMH. the drivers would bring the food up and wait outside the ward doors. i had to go to the ward doors and pick up the food.
 
it's only a few days. it will be over before you know it. what matters is the safe delivery of your baby... the rest of it is "fluff"...at least, that is what i told myself over 3-4 months in the hospital...
 
I know, that's why I'm going through with another c-section, for the safety of my baby. But It just seems like the public system does their best to take away any control you could have... I know it's just a few days, but it's hard to look at it with that kind of perspective right now.
 
The public system is more flexible than some private system. Take the Union Hospital, for example. After a C-section you will not see your baby till the next day. The baby cannot room in unless you are in a private room. Your husband would be able to hold the baby just once a day for like an hour, and your relatives and friends only get to see the baby through a glass window.... And the food is not much better than those from a public hospital.
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This was my experience at the Prince of Wales

1. Did the baby room in?: It was completely up to me and they were very supportive. He was in the nursery the first night (at my request); with me the second night until I got too tired and they took him back to the nursery for a few hours so I could sleep. They completely respected my wishes for no teats/bottles/formula/sugar water etc.

2. Visiting: They were very strict about this which I was upset about. After the delivery they allowed my husband to see me for 15 minutes only on the ward. They wouldn't let my mother in to see me, she had to wait another couple of hours to visiting times. After a lot of pressure they allowed her to see the baby through the glass of the nursery for 5 minutes. They wouldn't allow anyone else in outside of visiting hours, like a lactation consultant (private) even though theirs was too busy to see me. I don't have other children though so don't know if they would consider that differently.

3. The baby after delivery: I wasn't allowed to hold him as I was completely strapped down. My husband did though. They then brought him to me when I was in the recovery room and he stayed with me for a long time until they took him off to the nursery to do various things. As in above post, my husband only had 15 minutes in the ward and then had to wait to visiting hours.

4. C-section admission: I just went in in the morning (around 7am) and was told I was number 3 and just had to wait. They took some blood in the operating theatre just before the procedure but that was it.

5. Entertainment: I didn't really want to do anything when I was there. I brought books and magazines but never read them. I had my mobile - but when my battery ran out they wouldn't let me charge it with their electricity and said I had to go down to 7-Eleven to use their charge service, which of course I couldn't do so had to wait until visiting hours for someone to help me. I discharged myself early though, after 2 days. I had the c-section Monday lunchtime and left Wednesday lunchtime. I guess it is important to demonstrate that you are progressing. I was walking around by Tuesday afternoon. I also said that I had a lot of support at home. But I really didn't want to stay in that hospital any longer than I had to.

6. Assistance: Yes, there are nurses and auxiliary nurses who will help you if you need it.

Hope this helps.
 
From what I've heard about many of the private hospitals, I have to agree with Gataloca from the previous page - I would rather go to the public hospital and eat their horrible food but at least be able to do whatever I want with my baby than to go to 90% of the private hospitals in Hong Kong which have very rigid and inflexible rules about baby rooming out etc. I would rather be able to have time with my baby than to be able to have a million visitors all day. I would go to Matilda if I could afford it - but to me, the public hospitals are a LOT LOT LOT more mother-baby friendly (and also breastfeeding friendly) than most of the private hospitals here.
 
Gataloca - this is why I didn't choose union my first time around. As a newbie to hk, I couldn't accept their strict policies.
Nicole - nice to hear that you have a good impression of the baby-mommy time at the public hospital. That is so important to me, especially if I can't have visitors most of the day.
Liquorice - very interesting, your post, as I might no doubt have a similar experience next week. I just had some follow up Qs: 1) when they took your baby to the nursery, did they just give him back when he woke up and cried for a feeding! What did you do so that they respected your wishes for no bottles, etc? I also want that. 3) when you could hold him in the recovery room, was it soon after, and were you able to put him to your breast ok?
4) you didn't have to be admitted the day before? Interesting. I wonder why it's different. Very funny about being number 3, but nerve wracking waiting around! 5) nice to hear that you were able to discharge yourself after 2 days. What a trooper for being up and about after a day. My first c-section was not like that, hopefully this one will be better. I at least have hope to get discharged early, though I'm now thinking that I'm just soooooooo exhausted that maybe I should just stay in there a while, hehe!
Thanks for all the insight and experiences!
 
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