Pregnancy Steps

[helicoptor]

I am posting on behalf of my (English) fiancee:-

Myself, my fiancee and our 9 month old baby are living in Pattaya, Thailand, with me working

My fiancee has told me she is expecting again

As we do not have the luxury of the NHS can anyone give us some advice on what to do regarding registering with a Doctor/Midwife/Clinic for regular checks and scans and what the cost implications are:-

This and any additional relevant advice would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Heli

[Boo]

Well firstly, congratualtions on the news. You two have been busy with a 9mnth old already

I will link this to the family forum too as there are a lot of threads on hospitals & having babies in the Kingdom.

Also a lot of the female farang posters here have had their kids in Thailand too so if it is linked to both sections you will hopefully get all the info you need.

[skeetaboat]

I am posting on behalf of my (English) fiancee:-

Myself, my fiancee and our 9 month old baby are living in Pattaya, Thailand, with me working

My fiancee has told me she is expecting again

As we do not have the luxury of the NHS can anyone give us some advice on what to do regarding registering with a Doctor/Midwife/Clinic for regular checks and scans and what the cost implications are:-

This and any additional relevant advice would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Heli

Hi.. congrats! I'm pregnant too and have spent the last few months checking out birth options in Chaing Mai. It might be worth doing a search of the forum on hospitals in your area, there are lots of different threads with people's experiences. I don't know Pattaya very well - how many hospitals are there? Or would you be looking at going to Bangkok for the birth.

This is the general info I've been able to gather about giving birth in Thailand: Govt. hospitals are very cheap, and although not as smicko as the private ones, they offer very good medical services. English fluency will vary but staff usually try their best. Private hosptials seem to range between 15,000 and 25,000 for a natural birth and 25,000 to 40,000 for a c-section. There are lots of stories about people being quoted one price by the private hospitals and then being given a bill worth double what they were quoted, or docs scaring people into uneccessary treatments, ICU for the baby, emergency c-sections that arent' needed etc.

Really where you end up depends on what kind of experience your fiance is looking for. If she wants natural with little medical interventions then you'll need to hunt around for a doc who will support that. If she's not fussed about being hooked up to all the machines and following the doctor's instructions, then just about any hospital will do. If cost is a concern, then you might want to look into the government hosptials.

As far as I can tell, home births aren't really an option in Thailand if you're a foreigner because you need a local authority or a doctor to sign the birth certificate. Foreign midwives aren't allowed to practice in Thailand. Thailand itself doesn't have midwives. All nurses are trained a little in labour and birth, but it's the doctor who calls the shots during labour.

Episiotomy and labour flat on the back with your feet strapped to stirrups are common in Thailand. If your wife doesn't want either of these you'll have to check with the hospital first if they'll allow it.

There's an English speaking doula in Bangkok. PM me if you want her details.

So.. that's about what I've gathered so far. Hope it helps a little. If you do a search for 'birth' on the forum, you'll see all the threads with people posting about their different experiences at different hospitals.

** edit to add: Samitvej in Bangkok has a birthing center and promotes natural birth if you're looking for that kind of thing

Edited January 12, 2007 by skeetaboat

[Mossfinn]

Congrats

Moss

[helicoptor]

Thank you for the notes of congratulations

It is early days however and we need advice on the whole initial registering with a Doctor, (if thats what you do ) booking in for scans etc rather than the birth stage, I will post asking about nearer the time, more than likely,

In Pattaya, there are 3 notable hospitals, Pattaya INternational, Pattaya Memorial and Bangkok Pattaya, the latter I will give a wide berth (excuse the pun ) AND from what I have read and experienced first hand, more a business than a Hospital.

The International or the Memorial for the birth, but in the meantime what do we do about scans, a health check ups, do we register with a Doctor or a clinic? if so where? what costs to expect?

[COBBER]

JMO. If you want to go Private out of the 3 hospitals in Pattaya , Bankok Pattaya would be my choice. Generally speaking it is a bit of a rip-off place , but for childbirth the prices are reasonable compared to other private hospitals. It is probably the best equiped for childbirth out of the 3, with the other 2 being mainly for accident and general surgery.

Our son was born there and our experience with Dr. Napaporn was very positive. All up it cost around 27000 baht for a 2 night stay and if it is a difficult birth and a longer stay is required it could cost 60,000+.

At a Govt. Hospital it will possibly be less than 5000 baht. Your choices in the Pattaya area are Banglamung, Sri Racha or Queen Sirikit down near Sattahip, with Queen Sirikit having the best reputation of the 3.

Probably the most important thing is that your wife is comfortable with the OB-Gyn Doctor the she will be seeing. Initially visits will be monthly, with an ultra sound at about 4-5 months and then as the birth becomes nearer visits will be fortnightly, then weekly.

Also keep in mind that if you go the Govt. route , that they sometimes don't allow the father to be present at the birth. It's just a Thai way of doing things.

To answer your last question, generally here there is no such thing as initially going to you local family doctor, its all done through a hospital. Prior to the birth the charges for visits are only really the Doctors fees + medicines if required, with the only expensive visit being when they do the ultra sound which if i remember correctly was around 4000 baht.

Good Luck with everything Mate.

[helicoptor]

Thanks Cobber

has anyone got any experiences of Pattaya Memorial or INtl??

[helicoptor]

We went to Pattaya Memorial, Urine test was 200 THB, Blood Test was 2,300 THB.

[think_too_mut]

JMO. If you want to go Private out of the 3 hospitals in Pattaya , Bankok Pattaya would be my choice. Generally speaking it is a bit of a rip-off place , but for childbirth the prices are reasonable compared to other private hospitals. It is probably the best equiped for childbirth out of the 3, with the other 2 being mainly for accident and general surgery.

Yeah, I would go there too. Could feel expensive but you don't want to negotiate the price when your child is to be born.

The Naval Hospital, Satahip, has all the gear and the scanners and all the space age technology - but no doctors to operate it. Most of them have left. What doctor would work there on 8000baht?

See their former doctors in the BKK Pattaya Hospital.

Sorry, I have no better advice.

[helicoptor]

JMO. If you want to go Private out of the 3 hospitals in Pattaya , Bankok Pattaya would be my choice. Generally speaking it is a bit of a rip-off place , but for childbirth the prices are reasonable compared to other private hospitals. It is probably the best equiped for childbirth out of the 3, with the other 2 being mainly for accident and general surgery.

Our son was born there and our experience with Dr. Napaporn was very positive. All up it cost around 27000 baht for a 2 night stay and if it is a difficult birth and a longer stay is required it could cost 60,000+.

At a Govt. Hospital it will possibly be less than 5000 baht. Your choices in the Pattaya area are Banglamung, Sri Racha or Queen Sirikit down near Sattahip, with Queen Sirikit having the best reputation of the 3.

Probably the most important thing is that your wife is comfortable with the OB-Gyn Doctor the she will be seeing. Initially visits will be monthly, with an ultra sound at about 4-5 months and then as the birth becomes nearer visits will be fortnightly, then weekly.

Also keep in mind that if you go the Govt. route , that they sometimes don't allow the father to be present at the birth. It's just a Thai way of doing things.

To answer your last question, generally here there is no such thing as initially going to you local family doctor, its all done through a hospital. Prior to the birth the charges for visits are only really the Doctors fees + medicines if required, with the only expensive visit being when they do the ultra sound which if i remember correctly was around 4000 baht.

Good Luck with everything Mate.

Cobber thanks for your advice we have taken this on board and moved to the Bangkok Pattaya, to hel_l with expense the care is whats most important, we had the scan last week and everything is fine, we even got the scan pictures. Cost of scan with photos = 2,900 THB this compared to International is about the same. Typically of Bangkok Pattaya though they tried to get us to do blood test, ECG etc etc

[MsFigure]

Even though we live in Pattaya, we travelled up to Bangkok every month for our pregnancy checkups. I can't say enough good things about the Bumrungrad in BKK or the excellent doctors. We had a great doctor who spoke perfect english (Dr. Pansak Sugkraroek) and the nursing staff were just as wonderful.

Here is some information if you're interested about what it would cost there: C-Section Package & Normal Vaginal Birth.

And you we didn't have to pay a baht more than what was quoted in the package.

Only thing we have against Pattaya hospitals, is that they like to keep you longer than necessary, giving you the run-around and charging you for the pleasure (NOT) . Not to mention some wrong diagnosis's and treatments, money disappearing, and the list goes on as exoerienced by many friends.

[catwho]

heli thanks for your PM.

after many exsperience's with all 3 hospitals mentioned.all xxxy and more and more pills.and never cured our now 5yr old,till we went to sartahip....9,000bt for 4/5 days in private room [everything].nice groungs to walk around

for the last yr we have been going to queen sirakit satahip,its like a big department store people everywhere and deals with everything just about,normally very slow but good .

once you do the rego tell them which doc you need to see and join the Q,

TIME 8.30AM TILL 12PM ...1pm till 4pm mon to thurs.fri till 12pm always get ther early.

plenty of shops coffee, mini super market,.

jans blood test 600bt mine 90bt ultra sound 400bt,,they deliver more babys than just about anywhere and you get your own doc.

If you have or want your own doc.[NO Qs TILL BORN].straight to doc,you pay 4500bt at about 3 months and the rest when born all up maybe 10,000 ,12000 ,they have a huge pharmacy [grab a ticket] about a 1/4 of the price the other 3 mentioned sometimes cheaper.the doctors speack english,but the staff not much if any,if you can,take some one who speaks thai,..we are going the 2nd of everymonth jans 2.1/2 months..

if you want the sis picked up PM me,if not booked jan will get her,

thanks

cat