Bnh And Phayatai 2 Hospital Birth Packages

[RHCP]

I’m doing a bit of advanced research as we are planning to start a family next year.

Could anyone provide their experiences and/or comments on birth packages at the above 2 hospitals. I have narrowed down my choice to these 2 hospitals based on a compromise between price and quality. Also recommendations on doctors would be greatly appreciated.

Any suggestions of good quality alternatives where I don’t feel like they are trying to get my every Baht are also welcomed.

[dantilley]

Phaya Thai 2 Hospital is excellent. We just had our first son born there this month.

Price for a cezarian birth was 42,000 Baht. Total bill at the end, which included a few extras and things like an extra bed in the room for me, was 45,000 Baht. And very good service.

If you sign up with them they give you some pre-natal classes which is a nice touch, but they're 100% spoken in Thai so I hope you can speak Thai.

Nurses are all excellent and provide some very useful and helpful advice on matters such as breast feeding and they also give you both some hands-on lessons on bathing, nappy changing, dressing, etc. Staff are all very friendly and knowledgeable and know what they're doing - for example my wife had some real trouble getting her breast milk to come out at first but the nurses really got it working by the time we left.

Facilities are all very good also, the recovery room, nursery, delivery room and were all very clean and well appointed. A few nice perks too such as an oil massage for mum while in the recovery room every other day, good food and plenty of it, a TV in the room showing regular DVDs about baby-related stuff but, best of all was the shopping cart full of baby stuff we got to take away with us. Literally, a shopping cart was wheeled down to the taxi for us when we left full of breast feeding pillows, breast pumps, baby clothes, powders, shampoo, and loads more, and all at no extra cost.

Only thing I will say is that some of the staff didn't seem to speak English. I was the only farang I saw there in the whole 5 days we were in the hospital. Similarly, food is all Thai and things like the aforementioned DVDs are all in Thai. Not an issue if you speak Thai though of course.

[fletchsmile]

No experience with Phayatai, but I vowed never to go to BNH again, not even in an emergency.

My wife chose BNH initially as she said Bumrungrad would be "expensive". BNH misdiagnosed our baby as potentially having a cleft palate following the ultrasound. They then recommended an amniocentesis to test for Downes Syndome (extra THB 16k). The doctor also seemed quite keen on highlighting how "good the deal was", and how we wouldn't get a better price at any of the other top hospitals. In addition the doctor seemed to want to impose their views on abortion being immoral. For me I just wanted the facts, and consideration of all options/facts in Thailand, if our child was to have serious abnormailities. After several weeks of waiting for test results (which were late), we went to Bumrungrad for a second opinion.

1) Bumrungrad doctors said the ultrasound did not look like cleft palate would on an ultrasound. 2) There is no correlation between Downes and cleft palate (several weeks unneccessary worry there) 3) I wasn't looking for a good deal or best price from a second hand car sales person. No.1 was care of my wife and baby, not how cheap it was. That's what I expect a doctor to care about, not cost. 4) Bumrungrad doctor said we should discuss all the options once we had all the facts. 5)Bumrungrad was actually very similar on price.

The whole pacakge was THB 63k at Bumrungrad for 3 nights private single room. This included about 12k extra for nursery costs, over and above the usual 50k. This is because my wife chose to have them look after the baby for 12 hours a day so she could get some rest, rather than have a full 24 hours with her, as I was caught overseas when our lovely daughter arrived 3 weeks early. A great option actually. Staff at Bumrungrad were excellent. The doctors were excellent. We both felt very comfortable with the staff and the doctors. When the time comes for our second , we'll be going back to Bumrungrad.

Edited January 4, 2008 by fletchsmile