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[Digitalman]

Question 1: What is the best hospital to have a baby? Service, rooms, Doctors, nurses?

Question 2: At what cost (how much)?

Question 3: My girl friend is Thai and I am an Amercian, will my baby be able to obtain Amercian citizenship, if so, how does that work?

[jackr]

CM Ram is one of the best in town but not sure how much for a package, perhaps around 50k with mints on the pillow n all. Rooms and views are nice.

Get married before she has the kid. If your system is anything like the British one, it was more of a pain getting the Brit passport through not getting hitched beforehand. When the hospital asks for the name of the baby, put your surname down and make sure it is spelled correctly. A Thai birth cert' will then be able to be later produced from the hospital details, followed by a yankee doodle passport, etc, if you so wish.

[lannaman]

Ram and McCormack both are very good, try them both. Good luck!

[Dakhar]

Ram and McCormack both are very good, try them both. Good luck!

Twins are usually only minuts apart.

[Tywais]

Moved to Chiangmai Forum for local input.

[Mapguy]

Recently a friend had her baby at Ram. She was full of praise for obstetrician and the hospital (except for one nurse who had difficulty hitting a vein for an IV). I believe the obstetrician was Dr. Suppachai Sirisukkasem.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Mapguy

[scotbeve]

Recently a friend had her baby at Ram. She was full of praise for obstetrician and the hospital (except for one nurse who had difficulty hitting a vein for an IV). I believe the obstetrician was Dr. Suppachai Sirisukkasem.

Mapguy,

You hit the nail on the head mate. Although both Ram, McCorrmick, and (adding) Lanna are all good, it's the OB that counts. My daughter and son were both born in McCorrmick 17 and 14 years ago respectively and there was a wonderful female OB (sorry, don't remember her name). Both were C sections and premature yet all turned out well with the good care at Mc.

[earlofwindermere]

There is an excellent guide to having babies in Chiang Mai that you can pick up at the Raintree Resource Center.

We've had two babies at two different locations in the Chiang Mai. (with the same doctor).

While Ram looks a lot nicer, Sri Pat/ Special Medical Services was a far better experience in terms of care. Nurses spoke better English at Sri Pat and they checked in on my wife every few hours (Ram nurses visited my wife about once every 8 hours).

Sir Pat was also about 17 000 baht cheaper than Ram. Ram was over 54 000 baht for an unplanned c-section. Sri Pat was about 37 000 baht for a c-section.

I'm sure that you'll find good and bad experiences at pretty much every location in the city.

[FarangCravings]

Recently a friend had her baby at Ram. She was full of praise for obstetrician and the hospital (except for one nurse who had difficulty hitting a vein for an IV). I believe the obstetrician was Dr. Suppachai Sirisukkasem.

Great doc is suppachai he delivered my daughter and CM Ram was great whole thing cost me 30,000 all in (no problems)

the british passport thing

Not sure how long ago the poster had an issue getting a UK passport but no problem for my daughter just had to produc the thai B cert with my name on the paper I gave her my surname and was not married at the time no problem

prior to June 2006 there would of been an issue if you were not married now thats been waived

[Digitalman]

There is an excellent guide to having babies in Chiang Mai that you can pick up at the Raintree Resource Center.

We've had two babies at two different locations in the Chiang Mai. (with the same doctor).

While Ram looks a lot nicer, Sri Pat/ Special Medical Services was a far better experience in terms of care. Nurses spoke better English at Sri Pat and they checked in on my wife every few hours (Ram nurses visited my wife about once every 8 hours).

Sir Pat was also about 17 000 baht cheaper than Ram. Ram was over 54 000 baht for an unplanned c-section. Sri Pat was about 37 000 baht for a c-section.

I'm sure that you'll find good and bad experiences at pretty much every location in the city.

So far we have been going to Lanna. The Doc there is okay but the wait just seems so dang long, that’s one thing I always like about Chiang Mai RAM, I never really have to wait.

So you mentioned that used the same Doc, how was that? You must like and trust him/her very much; could you give me that info?

I appreciate everyone's replies. Right now we are 9 weeks and 4 days.. Only about 5 more weeks until I know if it will be a little half Thai mini me or a little half American mini of my wife! This is my first so naturally, I am stressing majorly over this. I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

[earlofwindermere]

Based on your last post, I am assuming that you don't know that most doctors work at clinics in the evenings. Nearly everyone I know goes to the clinics since you can book appointments in advance and know when you will see the doc. Dr. Udom at Lanna may be one of the few exceptions.

We have used Dr. Supriya (a woman). She is great and is US trained (like many here in the city seem to be). As far as I know, you can't see her at the hospital unless you're actually in labour. However; she works at clinics around the city every night. I believe that we used to go every Thurs evening to Kullapat clinic which is behind Wat Jed Yod. There were several other female doctors there that a lot of expats seemed to go to as well. Dr. Supriya also had no problem with me being in the delivery room - even when it ended up being an emergency c-section. She also ensured that I could go with the baby after the birth (they are usually whisked away for all the tests and measurements) and we were allowed to have the baby stay in our room afterwards. Regardless of which doc you use, I would confirm with them in advance what you as a father are able to do. I have heard of some docs not allowing the dad in the delivery room.

We did find that the prenatal care was lacking in this country. While good in the delivery room, we did find that we had to research things ourselves and ask the doc to check specific things during prenatal care.

My suggestion is to buy the "What to expect when you're expecting" and the subsequent books. They really are an excellent guide (even for us guys).

Besides Dr. Supriya, I have heard of quite a few using a doctor at Ram called Dr. Catriya. I don't know much about her though.

[Digitalman]

I had no idea... I really am clueless but your post helped a lot.. Those were some things I didn't even consider..

Dr.Udom has been our guy so far..

Is it Dr.Supreeya Wongtra-ngan you speak of? Overall impressions, can I trust her with my baby ext..

Me and my Mrs have pretty much decided between Lanna and Sri Pat..

Anymore help you can offer is much appreciated.. When I get down to Chiang Mai again (I'm half Way to Chiang Rai) I will take a look at the recommended readings ha!

[earlofwindermere]

I have no experience with Lanna but have heard good and bad stuff about Udom (which goes for pretty much every doctor).

We liked Supreeya. Sri Pat would be our choice again for having a baby - mainly because the nurses were FAR better than at Ram.

Good luck!

[hodge]

Chiang Mai Ram is terrible - it's ridiculously expensive, the staff are rude, and only seem to be interested in how much you can spend.

Sri Pat on the other hand is a wonderful hospital - more affordable, and the staff are genuinely interested in caring for you, regardless of how much the birthing option costs.

Ram = money.

Sri Pat = care

[too true]

My first son was delivered by Dr. Udom. He had come highly recommended to me from several farang women, so I went with him. However, there were complications towards the end of my pregnancy and I don't feel either the hospital or the doctor dealt with them very effectively.

In fact, after having my first baby at Lanna, I will never go there for anything else again. It was a nightmare.

My second was born at Ram, when a C section was only 25 000 baht mind you, and was delivered by Dr. Kat. I can't praise her enough and I continued seeing her after the baby was born for all my regular check ups and whatnot. I really enjoyed my stay there and found the nurses to be attentive and respectful of my wishes to not have the baby given anything from a bottle.

Have heard wonderful things about Sripat as well.

[prism]

For your child to become an American citizen, you must submit a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) at either the American Embassy in Bangkok or the Consulate in Chiang Mai. Go to their website to start the process. It's a easier if you get married before the baby is born and have the marrage registered at an Amphur. I registered my kids and they now have dual citizenship. (American and Thai).

Good Luck!

[elektrified]

I can also recommend Sripat. My child was born there and everything went smoothly.

[DavidOxon]

Our little bundle was born at Lanna 5 months ago

by C section, Dr Udom. Everything was fine and efficiently handled.

Waiting times are shorter in the afternoon, but may

be complicated by deliveries taking place at the same time.

Dr Udom has been there 30+ years, speaks English and has

a good sense of humour (Useful when dealing with the likes of me!)

Another plus is that the hospital canteen serves the best Club Sandwich in Chiang Mai . . .

Good luck

David

PS Lanna is another branch of the RAM group

[newbie001]

I would recommend Klamor, not sure of spelling. It is on Hangdong road near the Lotus. The price is good around 30K, which includes trimester consults and sonograms. Natural birth is slightly cheaper. The private rooms are comfortable and relatively quiet. The OBGYN is quite good and the staff is very friendly. They are not well trained on milk lactation and how to help new mothers breastfeeding. They will give the bottle right away. But for most people that doesn't matter, however there is a big movement for breast feeding in the states.

I still don't know why everyone always likes Ram. I hate it there. I think that it is overly expensive and the quality doesn't rate the price.

good luck with the baby.

[cm das]

My wife is at 28 weeks and we've been going to see Dr. Udom at Lanna. Initially we went with Dr. Supriya at Kulapat clinic but neither of us were very comfortable with her. It was nothing to do with her experience or qualifications, we just simply felt that her approach was to treat the pregnancy as a crisis that needed to be constantly managed. Dr. Udom, who also came highly recommended by both Thai & farang mothers, makes us feel much more comfortable. This is a highly subjective thing, of course. As for the wait, first of all we had very long waits at Kulapat, as long or longer than Lanna. And recently my wife has taken to showing up early to get in the queue, then coming back home for an hour or so before we return for our visit with the doctor. This way we usually have to wait only about half an hour. It's easy for us since we live close to the hospital, but you could just as easily spend that time at a coffee shop, or Tesco, or wherever.