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Hospital recommendations for giving birth

nnoble (889 posts) • 0

Instinct warned me against responding to the ping of an incoming email. Still trying to work out how you shoe-horned a spartan polemic on economics into this thread. Or is it a case of premature onset lectures withdrawal syndrome......

michael2015 (784 posts) • 0

Assuming the "hospital recommendations..." thread is still active, you MAY want to try the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) hospital on WuYi Lu. I think it's called the "zhong yi yiyuan". Zhongyi is loosely translated as the TCM Doctor and "yiyuan" is hospital.

MOST taxi drivers know the place. They mix TCM with traditional western medicine, but lean towards the TCM. It's significantly lower cost than most of the other hospitals and has good, reasonable care for both deliveries and post delivery follow up. Cost is about ¥6-8k and they prefer natural deliveries over the c-sections, which are more popular (ostensibly for bikini lines). A c-section costs significantly more and you'll probably be stuck in the hospital for 1-2 weeks in recovery.

As with most Chinese hospitals, you'd better speak Chinese or have an on-call translator. You'll also need to supply your wife AND baby with food or hire one of the many hospital ayi's to help you out (nominal cost). There's a Green Garden restaurant (pricey) that you can have food delivered, from their take-out menu on ZhengYi Lu and Ren Ming Lu, an Islamic restaurant for non-spicy noodles, veggies, fried rice (but no greasy foods for the wife post delivery) AND you'll need to prepare this red thing egg soup (they have hot plates) to provide energy and vitamins post delivery. They hospital Ayi's can help you buy, cook, prepare, and clean the simple cooking things and eating things. I think EVERYONE who delivers babies in Kunming knows these things. You'll also need some high energy chocolate bars for the delivery, in case you go into delivery overtime (snickers bars work well - full of sugar and chocolate/caffeine).

Care is good and they're also a teaching hospital, so expect a small army of interns to duck in at least once a week.

In my personal opinion, most of the major Kunming hospitals are rather identical in terms of care and procedures, so the TCM hospital is popular, on par with the rest, and just less expensive, but again - you'll need good communications skills in Chinese OR an on-call translator.

If you don't have a vehicle or transportation - learn how to use UBER or the other non-taxi limo services to get you there and return you home post-delivery.

On that note - if you need a heavy duty baby stroller specifically for newborns - it's HEAVY but sort of collapsible, drop me a line here or PM (private message) me. I MIGHT be able to convince the wife to just donate it to you gratis.

If this is your first and you live within the 2nd ring road (preferably in the Pan Long district), drop me a line and we can give parenting tips to encourage you during the first 3-6 months - those are the most difficult because of baby's feeding habits (every 3 hours). We did formula with both kids. We used Dr Brown's bottles (glass and or non-toxic plastic) to help reduce gas.

We ordered diapers and baby wipes online - as carrying the boxes and boxes of that stuff is painful and inconvenient, however MOST baby stores in your neighbourhood will deliver if you ask - ESPECIALLY the formula AND they'll give you free gifts when you buy formula in bulk.

We raised our first on NZ formula and the second on the same brand, but made in China. Still pricey, but less than allegedly imported stuff. Wife was paranoid about buying formula online (even from tmall), so we bought formula from a baby store near our home, that we KNEW had been in business for quite some time (there are TWO within about 50 meters of each other).

You'll also need one of those plastic baby bath things (might be able to convince the wife to let ours go as our youngest can now bathe with wifey and prefers the bigger bath tub for maximum splashing joy) and bonding time with mommy.

Get a couple of fluffy but NOT LINTY towels for baby! Don't forget the baby powder and be careful with baby lotion - our kid is allergic to the Johnson's baby lotion. AND you'll need petroleum jelly or a kind of baby cold cream for the inevitable diaper rashes - but if you change the diapers regularly (like before feedings), you should be able to mostly avoid diaper rashes.

We use Pampers diapers, but that's just us...they're pricier, but we've never had problems (ok...we had one bad batch, but the store replaced the entire box with a new one) with leaks.

That's about it for rambling...just PM if you want to meet and or chat.

and remember...luck is NOT a plan...plan ahead, do trial runs to the hospital, regardless of which hospital you choose, and have your grab bags ready to go.

oh...and chinese hospitals tend to be baby machines - so they'll usually schedule your delivery and induce labor if you're too slow or the baby is too comfortable and doesn't want to leave that nice place.

Hope that helps...

michael2015 (784 posts) • 0

oh...and you'll need to stay with the wife the first week, to help with feeding, etc. I like this part of the Chinese hospitals, but sleeping in the crowded rooms can be painful - so get one of those folding reclining chair/cots (available from any of the alley stores for about ¥100-300), bring your own pillow(s) and blanket(s) and or sheet(s).

You'll also need clean the baby bottle stuff (bottle cleaning soap, a bottle brush, and a BIG bowl to sanitize the bottles with the hospital's infinite supply of hot water at the hot water station.

Hmm...did I leave anything out?

Oh...the hospital will teach you both how to bathe your newborn. MOST difficult part of bathing a newborn is shampooing their hair without soaping up their eyes. You'll need TWO (2) towels (one for drying the baby off and the second for diapering and dressing baby). You'll also need a couple of face cloths for rinsing the baby down after soaping them up. I used the second face cloth to cover the baby's tummy, to keep them warm. I use that same face cloth on the baby's forehead, to prevent soap and water from getting in their eyes while shampooing and rinsing off their hair. Confidence, precision and speed is important in this step!

MOST hospitals will give you a swaddling blanket (I call it blanket jail). Swaddling is important (or not) in securing your child during sleepy time (which is rare) and is a critical parenting skill. There's a ton of youtube (with vpn) and youku videos on swaddling and learning tricks on how to burp the baby (critical and mandatory after EVERY feeding) and calming down the finicky ones so you can try to get a couple of hours of shuteye before the next feeding.

CRITICAL you put your baby on a feeding schedule - it's a pain - but they'll adapt to you (usually). Breast feeding is preferred by many over formula - but it's more difficult and requires more tools - breast pumps, storage bottles, and other stuff we don't know about, as we've never done it.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

Around the big hospital, there are people who rent out apartments by the day. These are a short walking distance from the hospitals. If you don't want to sleep in the ward, this is a good option.
This means that you can have respite, and access to a kitchen to cook your own food, and clean baby bottles. You will also be able to do some laundry, take a shower and get some decent sleep at night. Ask around at the hospital, someone will know about this.

malavika (5 posts) • 0

I would like to know if any of non-Chinese woman been to the Obstetrics Department of kunhua hospital or 1st people's hospital? Please msg me ASAP. Thanks.

darkone264 (108 posts) • -1

The hospital me and the wife have personally used was Kunming Hewan Gynecology hospital in the downtown area. if is a private hospital but they have been very professional and up to western standards. the first check in pregnancy does include the full run of blood tests as well as the ultra sound.

sadly do to no fault of the hospital my wife miscarried but the treatment we got there was very professional

nnoble (889 posts) • +3

There is no such single standard, furthermore I would argue there is no such reality as 'The West' and therefore the question is not valid if you're looking for an objective answer. Where these terms have been used they are merely soliciting opinion in a recognised form and are not intended to cause offence or imply criticism.

judyk1 (10 posts) • 0

Can I ask does anyone know the cost of birth and all the doctor appointments etc cost for Angel Hospital?

Looking to compare costs between Angel Hospital and Hong Kong.

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