Information About St.Louis Hospital,Bangkok For Pregnancy

[frankkiss]

Hi everyone,

We stay in bangkok and we are wondering whether Saint Louis Hospital on Sathon road is a good option for Maternity care .This one seems to be reasonably priced.Some of the others are too expensive.We also checked out Vejthani,BNH, Bangkok Christian hospital,Samitvej and all of them seem to be beyound our budget.Although we have been in Bangkok for quite some time,we have never been to Saint Louis Hospital so we were keen to know whether it will be decent enough for us with no last minute shocks.

We request all our expat friends who have been to this hospital for Pregnancy and related treatment to guide us on this.

This will be our first kid and we need your advice in securing the safety of the mom and the baby.

Pls help us with your feedback

[way2muchcoffee]

St. Louis is a decent hospital. Not too many bells and whistles, but decent enough. Most of the doctors speak English well enough. Prices are reasonable. I find the hospital to be a good balance between cost, amenities, and quality of care.

You could also try Chulalongkorn or Siriraj hospitals. They are government hospitals, and are somewhat lacking in terms of amenities, but they have some of the best physicians in Thailand.

Edited October 7, 2010 by way2muchcoffee

[frankkiss]

Thanks !

Chulalongkorn and Siriraj both are government hospitals,but do they have good English speaking doctors ,nurses and other staff.We cannot speak Thai .

[way2muchcoffee]

Thanks !

Chulalongkorn and Siriraj both are government hospitals,but do they have good English speaking doctors ,nurses and other staff.We cannot speak Thai .

It's a little bit hit and miss at Chula and Siriraj. Some doctors speak excellent English, others don't. And of course there is everything in between. If my wife was pregnant I'd probably check Chula first and try to find an OB/Gyn who speaks decent English. If I couldn't find one there then I'd probably go to St. Louis.

[frankkiss]

Thanks again!

[peanut]

I don't know about pregnancy but I had surgery at St. Louis (by one of their gynecologists) and a few other investigations.

Don't count on the staff to speak English there either. The doctors do, but most nurses or admin people don't. Expect communication problems and the need to be patient (no pun intended!)

However, they are really nice and they will try very hard to please you. The rooms are fine (2-3,000 for a single including yummy food).The surgeon did a very good job.

Hope this helps!

[frankkiss]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Infact we had our first experience with Saint Louis staff .We went there for starting ante-natal care this Sunday .We had a mixed experience though.

The journey through the registrations and information was quite smooth .

The difficult part was at the 2nd floor where they have the OBC centre.We had specifically inquired about a lady Gnynaec and we were told that she will be available on Sundays between 10.00 to 12.00 noon.

Having reached there at 10.30 we were told that we cannot meet the Lady gynaec.The reason they gave was that there is a queue and we will have to wait for a longer time.

WE told them that we have no issues waiting ,but they kept on insisting in broken English that we see a Male gynaec.It was really strange .They then told us that we will not be able to meet the lady gynaec till 12,00 because of the long queue for the lady gynaec and the lady doctor will not wait after 12.00.We insisted that we are willing to take that risk.Still they did not budge.

Then we were put on an international help desk who again insisted that we come on week days to see a Lady gynaec.We had to finally tell them that we can come only on Sundays and there is a Lady Gynaec who comes on Sundays between 10 to 12 .WE have no problem waiting and if they have a problem then we will go to another hospital and we will also complain with the management .

Finally they booked us for the lady gynaec,We met her at 11.30 am and she was really a nice lady and we were very satisfied with our visit.Infact we wanted to do an ultrasound but we were not sure because of her time constraints ,but she herself suggested an ultasound and she was quite cool about the fact that it was 12.10 by the time we left.

It is important to mention that none of the staff was rude and they were all generally polite ,We tried to figure out why the staff insisted on meeting a male gynaec when it should be a matter of our choice.When we were waiting in the queue ,we observed that there were hardly any visitors queing up to meet the male gynaecs and there were 3 male gynaecs there and some of them had no visitors and some of had just one or two visitors.So may be it was a ploy of the management or doctors or may be the staff who just want to make sure that the visitors are cleared fast and they can break for lunch or rest.

No one will have issues if they want to make the most of the doctors available .Infact who knows the male gynaecs may be actually very good ,but it was very strange to enforce their choice on us .

Hopefully we shouldn't have such strange experiences in the future.

[kannon99]

Sometimes female OB/GYN are not great just because they are female. It is good to ask many questions of a variety of OBs to find one that will be open to your questions, beliefs, requests, etc. for the birth. In my experience as a labor assistant, the female doctors are more bullying to their female patients.

[BasementCat]

Some women refuse to cooperate with male ob/gyns no matter what! I agree with kannon99 however and advise OP to consider doctor's experience (not gender) first, and try to convince his wife that male ob/gyns are not sexual maniacs.

[fletchsmile]

I've two very good friends who have had babies there. Foreign guys. Thai wives, so language was less of an issue. They didn't want to pay top dollar like Bumrungrad, and thought it better value for money. They were very happy with it.

Bumrungrad is 2 to 3 times the price. I would say it's not 2 to 3 times the service. However, for serious things, including childbirth we would personally be happy paying for the best, and it's not about value for money. Simply having the best for healthcare.

If you'd asked me about cars though, I'd chose value for money and buy a honda over a BMW, even though the amounts are much more. Funnily enough one of the friends above has a much nicer car than us too!

We also go to Saint Louis sometimes for minor things, and find reception, doctors, nurses fine. For serious things we go to Bumrungrad though. That of course depends on your philosophy, priorities and budget.