Cost Of Giving Birth/Delivery In Private Hospital @ Chiang Mai?

[friedperry]

Hi,

What is the cost of giving Birth/Delivering in a Private Hospital in Chiang Mai? The delivering could be Natural or C-Section so we just want to set a sum of money for this day.

Are there any recommended doctors/hospitals to recommend in Chiang Mai?

Cheers!

FP.

[eurothai]

I recommend, as my own experiance in CM the Radjave hospital. Opposite Holliday Inn Hotel. It is great and better than Chiang Mai Ram. and 60% cheaper as well. PM me for experiences I had over there.

She's almost 2 months now. ;-)

[elektrified]

Sripat on the CMU campus is excellent. Last year it was 16,000 but they had a price increase in January and I believe it is 25,000 now. I don't know how much c-section is; but quite a bit more.

[MESmith]

Recommend you check the latest prices at Ram.  Sometimes they have promotion package prices of 15,000 bt natural, 25,000 bt c-section.      

If no promotion, very expensive 

[WinnieTheKhwai]

For Chiang Mai Ram, which is excellent:

Regular birth: around 30,000 baht. (Still assuming epidural, lots of monitoring machines, some cutting & sewing back up, so I hesitate to call this natural birth. )

C-Section: around 60,000 baht.

Give or take a bit, it depends on actual use of facilities and medicine, and the time spent recovering (assumption is 3 days in both cases). This is for the regular private room, though to be honest the cost of the room isn't much of a factor. It does include expenses for the baby, running several standard tests, and nursery faciltiy. Also includes some training sessions for the mother.

* Be sure to apply for their VIP discount card

* Social insurance will cover part of the cost, assuming the Mrs has a job.

If not Ram then I would also consider Lanna Hospital.

But yeah, you can do lots cheaper going to the Mae Rim district hospital and share a room with a couple hilltribe mums.

[slapout]

Find the doctor you/she feel comfortable with. He will give you options, prices, including pre and post natal care and follow ups (including hospital options). The reputable doctors work in several hospitals and can answer your questions on current price, 30 baht card application, etc.

Congratulations on the upcoming event, from planning the engagement, to pricing delivery, in 4 month time frame. I salute a man who takes his responsibilities seriously.

[Dean1953]

My wife ha a C-section at Klaimor 2 1/2 years ago for 28,000 Baht.

[millwall_fan]

Lots of options! My wife started off at Ram but found the doctor old and patrician (he'd explain things to me in English before the wife in Thai. We stwitched to Svay Pat (the Private part of Suan Dok hospital affliliated to CMU. The doctor was generation younger and addressed her in Thai with a summary for me in English. The fact that Svay Pat was half the price of Ram was welcome bonus!

Fred Perry: If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

[BOOKEMDANO]

If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

Why would that be then?

I don't know much about this - not being a father myself - but from what I understand a C-section is only performed when the mother is in serious risk of loosing her, or the babies life!

So why are you so adamant it will be a C-section?

[richard_smith237]

The majority of the my Wife's friends who have kids have had C-section (all I think as out of about 15 couples I don't remember any of them talking of a natural birth - although amongst the men its not really a great topic of conversation).

Packages in Bangkok stand at approximately B50-60,000 for a 3 or 4 night stay package (Bumrungrad / Samitivej) so I'd assume CM to be cheaper.

Medical Insurance (Bupa Int'l) covers my wife for child birth costs (after 10 months of membership - Their website explains it a little more - The premium is about B50,000).

[nikster]

The majority of the my Wife's friends who have kids have had C-section (all I think as out of about 15 couples I don't remember any of them talking of a natural birth - although amongst the men its not really a great topic of conversation).

Our experience 2 1/2 years ago, and 10 months ago for our two boys...

The Hospital:

We had both kids at RAM, and used a doctor from Sri-Pat hospital as mentioned above, Dr. Wirot. Dr Virot is brilliant, RAM was brilliant for the first birth - I'll forever be thankful to those nurses- but really bad for the second. The only reason we chose the RAM - with an external Doctor- was the rooms were nicer and we didn't care about price. For the second birth we got the night shift nurses, and they were anything from indifferent to negligent, totally messed up the time of birth so we had to keep the baby _in_ while waiting for the doctor. Terrible. First time we had the day time nurses and they were just perfect. The only reason we went to the RAM for #2 was actually the nurses at the first birth - oh well.

If I had to do it again, I'd just go to Sri-Pat for everything. Doctor Virot is excellent, he's old, maybe 70-is, but has a sharp mind, acts like he's 40. Obviously has tons of experience, and everything that he's told us turned out to be correct. Once he gets to the OP, he sheds about 50 years and jumps around like a young man. I can't recommend him enough. He has a private clinic every evening, contact me for details. He is a classic western Doctor, but he told us he much prefers natural birth, and promised us to deliver naturally if at all possible. He delivered on this promise, twice.

Price: We paid about 30k for natural birth at the RAM, Sri-Pat should be quite a lot cheaper. The RAM nickels and dimes you at every corner. I got a bill with lots of stuff on it that we never asked for, and that was also very difficult to verify.

Post birth: Important; the RAM never lets you rest there's nurses coming 24/7. Good because you will never feel alone - you always have all the help you need. Bad because they have a million procedures and none of them are in any way synchronized, so you have a different department coming in every 30 minutes, instead of them doing everything at one time. You also have to be pretty aggressive if you want to get your baby out of the nursery to spend time with him. I imagine that's the same in all these hospitals though. I at some point simply took my first born from the nurses and back to the room. They have many reasons why they want to keep him but it's all procedure and at that moment it's very difficult to figure out what's actually really needed, and what's not. Most of it is not needed. Injections at least you get to choose, but there's many other procedures and things happening post birth. My main complaint is that they haven't figured out a way to keep the baby with the mother in those first hours. It's like in the west in the 70ies in that respect. When I was born the Gods in White had determined that breast milk was bad and I had to be fed by bottle while my mother had her milk pumped. It's not quite as stupid these days but some of the things they do in the hospital certainly still fall in that same category.

C-Section: Very important to find a Doctor who is pro natural birth. Because at the time of birth you are at their mercy - if the Doctor decides it's dangerous to give birth naturally, you are not in a situation where you can say no, or ask for a second opinion. At this moment they have control. So you need a Doc you can trust on this, just ask them in advance and make sure their answer is convincing.

The main reason for C-Section is convenience for the hospital. You can easily schedule c-sections; it brings more money; nobody has to come in the middle of the night, or be on call. It's perfect. For the hospital. For the mother and child, clearly a natural birth is much better. I have heard some Thai women are also concerned about their "tightness" and that's why they choose to have surgery... baffling!!. I can only imagine that some Doctors might want to spread this rumor to get women to choose C-Section...I don't know the percentage but it must be a very high figure now for C-Section in Thailand, most Thai women I know had it, unless they couldn't afford it.

Good luck!!

[elektrified]

If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

Why would that be then?

I don't know much about this - not being a father myself - but from what I understand a C-section is only performed when the mother is in serious risk of loosing her, or the babies life!

So why are you so adamant it will be a C-section?

I disagree with the statement that "If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!" My kid was born the normal way and almost everyone I know with a Thai partner had normal delivery as well. A couple friends partner's did have c-sections but they were complicated cases. The day my kid was born there were 13 other babies born that same day in the same delivery room. They were all Thais.

[friedperry]

Thanks, Slapout!

Find the doctor you/she feel comfortable with. He will give you options, prices, including pre and post natal care and follow ups (including hospital options). The reputable doctors work in several hospitals and can answer your questions on current price, 30 baht card application, etc.

Congratulations on the upcoming event, from planning the engagement, to pricing delivery, in 4 month time frame. I salute a man who takes his responsibilities seriously.

[friedperry]

Yes, shes a thai.

Fred Perry: If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

[friedperry]

Thanks all for the replies.

Cheers!

FP.

[Benjie]

If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

Why would that be then?

I don't know much about this - not being a father myself - but from what I understand a C-section is only performed when the mother is in serious risk of loosing her, or the babies life!

So why are you so adamant it will be a C-section?

I disagree with the statement that "If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!" My kid was born the normal way and almost everyone I know with a Thai partner had normal delivery as well. A couple friends partner's did have c-sections but they were complicated cases. The day my kid was born there were 13 other babies born that same day in the same delivery room. They were all Thais.

That's strange.

Part of the reason that all of my friends with Thai partners who had children had C-Sections is because of the possibility of problems in delivering babies that on average are much larger than Thai babies.

When we had our children at least 70-80% of the children born at the same time were by C-Section.

[chris5346]

hi,

we chose the large sriphat hospital because reasonibly priced - i think it's 22,000 baht for natural birth and 33,000 for c-section for that you get 3 nights - that's the minimum you will pay and any extras like more nights and if complications etc then cost more - our bill was around 35,000 basically we some extra pain relief and some supplies or something - i queried the bill and they just charged us for the extra medication so was 33,500 approx.

the delivery part wasn't very good - no one really helping her with massage etc and doctors very busy, also was only 1 delivery chair-bed or something ? so natural birth didn't happen and resorted to a c section .

was probably our own fault because we didn't goto view b4.

we started off at the ram for scans/tests etc and there delivery rooms were good - but i was concerned about ending up with a massive bill so we chose sriphat.

once the baby was born the siriphat was excelent the service up in the ward etc was faultless and we still goto the sriphat .

the sriphat gets very busy and communal areas etc can get full of people and are a bit dirtier than other hospitals.

my girlfriend said the hospital at the start of the san sai road was better - i think prices are the same as ram 35,000 for natural and extra 16,000 for c-section i think the doctor said.

at the time i was thinking about trying to save money but really it's better to have a good experience and comfortable so go visit the hospitals and see the differences.

any question let me know,

chris

[uptheos]

Lots of options! My wife started off at Ram but found the doctor old and patrician (he'd explain things to me in English before the wife in Thai. We stwitched to Svay Pat (the Private part of Suan Dok hospital affliliated to CMU. The doctor was generation younger and addressed her in Thai with a summary for me in English. The fact that Svay Pat was half the price of Ram was welcome bonus!

Fred Perry: If your partner is Thai it'll be C-section for sure!!!

The WHO, which reviewed nearly 110,000 births across Asia in 2007-2008, found 27 percent were done under the knife, partially motivated by hospitals eager to make more money.

“The relative safety of the operation leads people to think it’s as safe as vaginal birth,” said Dr. A. Metin Gulmezoglu, who co-authored the Asia report. “That’s unlikely to be the case.” Women undergoing C-sections that are not medically necessary are more likely to die or be admitted into intensive care units, require blood transfusions or encounter complications that lead to hysterectomies, the WHO study found.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34826186/

[ywamer]

Post birth: Important; the RAM never lets you rest there's nurses coming 24/7. Good because you will never feel alone - you always have all the help you need. Bad because they have a million procedures and none of them are in any way synchronized, so you have a different department coming in every 30 minutes, instead of them doing everything at one time. You also have to be pretty aggressive if you want to get your baby out of the nursery to spend time with him. I imagine that's the same in all these hospitals though.

A friend who had a baby at RAM said it was hel_l... just like the above quote. He said nurses were coming in all night long and he & his recovering wife could hardly rest. Some nurses were pitching milk formula, some were checking his wife's pulse, other's would want to check the IVs, and then a few minutes another would come in for some other reason.

Anyhow, we had our kid at Lanna, since they have a new maternity section that is nice and kinda newish, and had a great experience. We slept well and had a room with a balcony. Nurses were discreet and nothing like our friends' experience at RAM. Meals (that I could order in-room so I could eat with my wife) were cheap and decent (as opposed to the 150 baht meal prices at RAM). Good times. :-)

Total cost for a caesarian birth + private recovery room was around 60,000 baht. Not too painful. But there are better deals to be had - especially at Suan Dok.

[foodiedude]

Can anyone give me a realistic price of a Csection birth in Lanna - with at least 4 days stay and private room.

the receptionists and staff unfortunatly cannot understand my question in English

[may2011]

Can anyone give me a realistic price of a Csection birth in Lanna - with at least 4 days stay and private room.

the receptionists and staff unfortunatly cannot understand my question in English

I just delivered my son by c-section (after 20hr labor pain) @ Lanna Hospital on 28 feb. 4 night 4 day ... total charge is around B 73,000.

We both are foreigner and cost is higher than we expected.

[may2011]

Post birth: Important; the RAM never lets you rest there's nurses coming 24/7. Good because you will never feel alone - you always have all the help you need. Bad because they have a million procedures and none of them are in any way synchronized, so you have a different department coming in every 30 minutes, instead of them doing everything at one time. You also have to be pretty aggressive if you want to get your baby out of the nursery to spend time with him. I imagine that's the same in all these hospitals though.

A friend who had a baby at RAM said it was hel_l... just like the above quote. He said nurses were coming in all night long and he & his recovering wife could hardly rest. Some nurses were pitching milk formula, some were checking his wife's pulse, other's would want to check the IVs, and then a few minutes another would come in for some other reason.

Anyhow, we had our kid at Lanna, since they have a new maternity section that is nice and kinda newish, and had a great experience. We slept well and had a room with a balcony. Nurses were discreet and nothing like our friends' experience at RAM. Meals (that I could order in-room so I could eat with my wife) were cheap and decent (as opposed to the 150 baht meal prices at RAM). Good times. :-)

Total cost for a caesarian birth + private recovery room was around 60,000 baht. Not too painful. But there are better deals to be had - especially at Suan Dok.

Wiith my experience @ Lanna, at the nite of operation done, i had a bit fever and the nurses came to my room hourly and at midnight, they connected a machine with me (i think it check my pressure and oxygen rate automatically). When machine beep, they run into my room and i cant sleep at all.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

What you describe is pretty standard for any hospital.

Personally I think it's a good thing that they come check on you.

If you haven't paid the bill yet, try to negotiate and ask for discount options. Negotiating your baby is not too different from negotiating a wooden frog at the Night Bazar.

(I wish that was a joke.)

[elektrified]

I'm glad my son was born 3 months before the price hike at Sripat! Our bill was 16,000 total including the doctor who is a Professor at CMU. They have since upped the package price to 25,000 which I think is still cheap in comparison to other hospitals in Chiang Mai.

Prices are going up on everything in Thailand these days so it seems. It ain't what it used to be...

[Dellboy218]

I agree with WTK, not only is it a good thing but the nurses are only doing their job. What would happen do you think if something happened during the nitght. I am currently recovering from 2 spine ops in the Ram and it was like Picadilly circus in the room at times with the nurses constantly checking. They were brilliant, I cannot speak too highly of them. I got stretchered in and I walked out, enough said!

[Diablo Bob]

I'm glad my son was born 3 months before the price hike at Sripat! Our bill was 16,000 total including the doctor who is a Professor at CMU. They have since upped the package price to 25,000 which I think is still cheap in comparison to other hospitals in Chiang Mai.

Prices are going up on everything in Thailand these days so it seems. It ain't what it used to be...

I know what you mean, my daughter was born in Buriram at the Government hospital. Everything was covered under the 50Baht plan. Including the VIP room the total bill was less than 3000 Baht.

[cardinalblue]

I agree with WTK, not only is it a good thing but the nurses are only doing their job. What would happen do you think if something happened during the nitght. I am currently recovering from 2 spine ops in the Ram and it was like Picadilly circus in the room at times with the nurses constantly checking. theThey were brilliant, I cannot speak too highly of them. I got stretchered in and I walked out, enough said!

That quote is pretty funny...

Wow, that sound quite high at 73K? I will see what we can get for same place, same duration and procedure. My Thai wife was told 40k so I will press further (meaning wife) to confirm price. I do expect there to be a discrepancy but almost double falls into that two tier scheme we all know about..

CB

[may2011]

I'm glad my son was born 3 months before the price hike at Sripat! Our bill was 16,000 total including the doctor who is a Professor at CMU. They have since upped the package price to 25,000 which I think is still cheap in comparison to other hospitals in Chiang Mai.

Prices are going up on everything in Thailand these days so it seems. It ain't what it used to be...

I know what you mean, my daughter was born in Buriram at the Government hospital. Everything was covered under the 50Baht plan. Including the VIP room the total bill was less than 3000 Baht.

I think these package and plan are only for thailand citizen and not for foreigner.

[may2011]

What you describe is pretty standard for any hospital.

Personally I think it's a good thing that they come check on you.

If you haven't paid the bill yet, try to negotiate and ask for discount options. Negotiating your baby is not too different from negotiating a wooden frog at the Night Bazar.

(I wish that was a joke.)

of course, we tried to negotiate but discount only B 1000. We asked to print out the detailed bill for the record. Roughly B 60000for mother and B 13000 for baby (including expensive B 5000 HpB vaccine)

[rakchaingmai]

my wife gave a natural birth at lanna 2 1/2 years ago the total cost of the birth was 25,000 for 3 days stay in there and we got back 19,000 back from the insurance so it was a total of 6,000 which is fantastic .

also at first they would not let me in to see the birth but the doctor said it was ok.

lanna hospital is one of the best hospitals for children around my daughter has been sick and we went to check on friday they have rang us everyday to see how she is.