Our Hospital Experience For The Baby

[Americano]

Thanks you OMW for posting a very valuable report.

 

All I can do is add a bit of history!

My oldest boy was born at Manila Doctors' Hospital in January 1995. My only other experience was my sister in law's delivery in Quezon City two years ago, where K was filling the role of "family" and I was assisting her and providing moral support to my English brother in law. 

 

Manila Doctors, 19 years ago cost from memory around  62,000 pesos. Private room, clean but not fancy, baby was slightly premature and the cost included a few days in an incubator.

 

Certainly fathers were not allowed anywhere near the process. This led to an amusing aspect as Ruby was being told that, since the father was a foreigner, she should have a Caesarian section  - cost maybe 110,000. She avoided this by yelling "He's left me! I can't afford it!" at which point the Caesarian magically became unnecessary.

 

I was all of about fifty feet away throughout the entire business, my role being confined to feeding thousand peso bills into the cashier's office...

 

Alex was 6lbs 10oz at birth and is now 6ft 

 

My recollection of what my brother in law paid, with FilHeath, two years ago was that it was around 50K. The baby was my SIL's third and it  apparently popped out with no trouble at all.

 

K's own delivery was in a public ward since I was not on the horizon at the time. Nor was the scumbag who was the father. She doesn't really have hips. She was advised to have a Caesarian but declined - the ob-gyn said "You are very brave" and she replied "I am very poor!"  She says, "It hurt like hell and one is quite enough!"

 

"Certainly fathers were not allowed anywhere near the process. This led to an amusing aspect as Ruby was being told that, since the father was a foreigner, she should have a Caesarian section  - cost maybe 110,000. She avoided this by yelling "He's left me! I can't afford it!" at which point the Caesarian magically became unnecessary."

 

Damned lying doctors, they are just as bad as any other scammer. Usually a CS is not necessary so doctors demand you have a CS just to make more money.  And, doctors acting superior is really stupid when doctors are just practicing medicine which means they do things by trial and error. The problem is when doctors make errors its the patient who suffers the consequence not the doctor. When a doctor wants to cut open your stomach then ask if you can cut open the doctor's stomach too. The doctor could have something in there that needs to come out.  I don't go to doctors, I don't trust them and I never will.  I rather die naturally than let one of them kill me.

[MikeB]

I knew, sooner or later, this discussion would lead to the "fact" doctors here are doing unnecessary c-sections to gouge foreigners for more money and, of course, the hospitals are in cahoots. Right. Sometimes c-sections are medically indicated, sometimes they save lives. I know of a few cases in our town where people went the midwife route and had to be rushed to a real hospital many km away for a c-sect when things went sideways. In some cases the mother or child died.

 

Making statements like doctors are liars and scammers is very irresponsible in my view and anyone taking medical advice from someone on a forum about whether or not an emergency medical procedure is necessary is a damned fool. You can protect yourself by finding the best prenatal doctor you can and relying on his or her professional judgment when the time comes. That way you can maybe live with whatever happens. If you can't afford that perhaps you should rethink the whole baby thing.

[Americano]

I knew, sooner or later, this discussion would lead to the "fact" doctors here are doing unnecessary c-sections to gouge foreigners for more money and, of course, the hospitals are in cahoots. Right. Sometimes c-sections are medically indicated, sometimes they save lives. I know of a few cases in our town where people went the midwife route and had to be rushed to a real hospital many km away for a c-sect when things went sideways. In some cases the mother or child died.

 

Making statements like doctors are liars and scammers is very irresponsible in my view and anyone taking medical advice from someone on a forum about whether or not an emergency medical procedure is necessary is a damned fool. You can protect yourself by finding the best prenatal doctor you can and relying on his or her professional judgment when the time comes. That way you can maybe live with whatever happens. If you can't afford that perhaps you should rethink the whole baby thing.

 

So you don't believe that doctors get greedy just like any other human who is in business to make money?  Of course they do and that's why as soon as they realize that the father is a foreigner they want to do a CS to make more money.  Two years ago my wife's sister went into a hospital on Bohol to have her baby, as soon as the staff found out that the father was a foreigner they wanted to do a CS. She said she wanted to have a natural birth but they kept trying to force her to have a CS. Her baby was born naturally and is very healthy today and she didn't get her stomach cut open. She was luckier than my Filipina friend who was in a German hospital when she gave birth. She strongly refused to have a CS so they put her to sleep, cut her stomach open and only asked the father to sign the consent form after they cut on her.  Doctors and nurses can be just as greedy and evil as an other human so don't put them up on a pedestal like they can do nothing wrong.

 

A very high percentage of babies can be born without any medical intervention. My first wife's mother had 10 babies at home without a doctor and my present wife's mother had 6 babies at home without a doctor and all of them are still health today. Most Filipino have their babies at home with only a mid-wife in attendance. Greed and impatience are the two biggest reasons for most c-sections.

[MikeB]

So you don't believe that doctors get greedy just like any other human who is in business to make money?

Is that what what I said? We can choose to see scamming in every single aspect of our lives, I choose not to. I’m not naïve enough to think it doesn't happen, but I don’t want to succumb to “Foreigner Persecution Syndrome” either.

Most Filipino have their babies at home with only a mid-wife in attendance.

And some die because of it. That and lack of prenatal care are the reasons the infant mortality rate is so high. 

Greed and impatience are the two biggest reasons for most c-sections.

The issue of unnecessary C-Sections goes way beyond foreigners in the Philippines. It’s hotly debated in and out of the medical community by both professionals and armchair experts the world over. There are valid arguments on both sides. I’m not a medical professional so I shouldn't be giving medical advice either. I found a doctor we could trust and put it in her capable hands. And prayed. Everyone has to live with the consequences of their own decisions.

[Methersgate]

Can I perhaps steer the conversation in another direction - the post-partum not bathing "thing"?

Filipinas as we all know are fastidious about personal hygiene and cleanliness - until the moment when the baby is born.

 

At that point, culture requires them not to bathe, or even wash, for a month.

 

Yuk!

 

This is something that the Filipinos share with the Chinese.

 

My ex wife gave birth to our younger son (by C-section - he was overdue) in a British hospital. It was all very different* - father present, for one thing.  And then the huge cultural shock of being ordered into a bath with her stitches still in! 

* (for one thing, it was free!)

[Americano]

Can I perhaps steer the conversation in another direction - the post-partum not bathing "thing"?

Filipinas as we all know are fastidious about personal hygiene and cleanliness - until the moment when the baby is born.

 

At that point, culture requires them not to bathe, or even wash, for a month.

 

Yuk!

 

This is something that the Filipinos share with the Chinese.

 

My ex wife gave birth to our younger son (by C-section - he was overdue) in a British hospital. It was all very different* - father present, for one thing.  And then the huge cultural shock of being ordered into a bath with her stitches still in! 

* (for one thing, it was free!)

 

"culture requires them not to bathe, or even wash, for a month"

 

I guess you also know that Filipinas do not shower or wash during their monthly period.  A few years ago I decided to research this strange and unclean behavior. I didn't know if it was just another one of their ignorant superstitions or where it came from.  The answer didn't surprise me, it came from Filipino doctors. Doctors can be just as ignorant as anyone else. Not washing for a month after giving birth probably came from the same doctors.

[OnMyWay]

 

So you don't believe that doctors get greedy just like any other human who is in business to make money?

Is that what what I said? We can choose to see scamming in every single aspect of our lives, I choose not to. I’m not naïve enough to think it doesn't happen, but I don’t want to succumb to “Foreigner Persecution Syndrome” either.

Most Filipino have their babies at home with only a mid-wife in attendance.

And some die because of it. That and lack of prenatal care are the reasons the infant mortality rate is so high. 

Greed and impatience are the two biggest reasons for most c-sections.

The issue of unnecessary C-Sections goes way beyond foreigners in the Philippines. It’s hotly debated in and out of the medical community by both professionals and armchair experts the world over. There are valid arguments on both sides. I’m not a medical professional so I shouldn't be giving medical advice either. I found a doctor we could trust and put it in her capable hands. And prayed. Everyone has to live with the consequences of their own decisions.

 

 

Please close this topic as I certainly did not intend it to be about all the negatives that one person can find about medical care in the Philippines or elsewhere.

Edited August 30, 2014 by OnMyWay