A friend of mine, had her first baby in the UK by NHS and nearly collapsed emotionally after birth. She could not stay in the hospital and they made her leave it only after a day - too early in my opinion. In Switzerland you leave when your fit for your little one alone at home.
She did not receive any help with breastfeeding or any after care by a midwife at home.
To be honest I cannot imagine such a thing. Better be safe than sorry.
If your friend left the hospital after 1 day a midwife has to call every day for the first 10 days - there is no way she would not be visited with a 1 day old baby..
The thing that the doc was unsure about but knew something wasn't right via the scan was the cord being wrapped tightly round baby's neck 3 times and he was born blue. Without the thorough scans he may have decided to induce me few weeks later which could have been fatal for the baby due to the cord.
This is one of the main reasons why I have been happy to give birth over here, the number of scans I have received compared to the UK. Other than that and the fancy hospitals I can't see here being better than the UK regards to expertise. I do however think they turf you out too soon in the UK, especially after a c section
No contest.
my OB here said I am only entitled to 8 appointments and 2 scans as covered by the manditory insurance. I have supplementary insurance which will cover the rest if the situation arises but I wonder why the difference.
could it be a canton thing? Should I find a new OB?
I would be worried about not getting any scan after 20 weeks as many issues can arise after that time and I would feel much better having another scan or even two before the birth...
anyone have any idea?
(sorry, not really addressing OPs question directly, but might help someone else anyhow thinking on this issue and happens also to be in Vaud).
I empathise with your wife. Although I am an English speaker, I too was new to the UK and its culture. I experienced very few problems in the first 6 years in the UK - I and my husband were working full-time, bought a house and settled in well. However having a baby was a complete change. There are a lot of issues which are worth talking through. Child care is the biggest challenge. I had no family support either when the babies were born or later during school years. I didn't work for 4 years and returned to a part-time job. However this is not always possible in the UK these days. As a mum, I found it very difficult to leave my children unless I thought the care was really really good. There are a lot of choices; nannies, au-pairs, creches, childminders. My question always was - if the nanny was looking after 3 babies and all three cried at once which one does the nanny pick up first? And which children run out of school with beaming smiles? Usually the ones who have found their mum/dad/gran in the crowd.
Good luck with your choices.
But that's what she told me. The baby was later hospitalized. It had problems, because breastfeeding/bottle did not work so successfully as required.
Maybe she did not know as she came from France to stay in London for a couple of years.
Yes being rude seems to be the way forward. I also experienced the same myself. But maybe because I am used to that over in the UK I don't notice it anymore.
I just wonder how do all the women manage?? sure not all go via private health insurance in London??
Unfortunately my wife sticks to what she reeds in the papers but also she has friends who had babies in London who had nothing but nightmares to tell.
She just feels you cannot count on the NHS. A few years ago we went to Africa and when we returned from Holiday she got very ill (fever and throwing up for a few days).I rang the nearest hospital as it was during the weekend, asking if there was a big queue at the A&E and the nurse on the phone said to me not to bother as she would be waiting for at least 6 hours.....
So they managed to get a nurse to ring us back who spoke on the phone directly with my wife tying to find out what the issue was. The conversation lasted for about 25 minutes. All my wife was answering was "yes", "no" and I remember hearing the nurse asking my wife at the end "so what do you think you have???"
That's just one episode. And I think it's not acceptable.
But as many of you said, it's a bit of a lottery. Depending on where you live.
We are close to Stevenage Lister Hospital which is meant to be one of the best in the area. But when we went to visit a friend, my wife found it was absolutely filthy. And I have to agree.
There was rubbish left under the chairs on the ward we were on and ciggy's on the floor, and the elevator was dirty aswell.
What can you say on that? Leaves me speechless aswell. Shouldn't happen really.
The Zurich experience was better. More doctors and nurses, better food, nicer rooms, generally a better care. Doctors/nurses all spoke English.
London experience was not as bad as people are suggesting, but not as good as here. And my wife's mobile phone was stolen a few hours after her caesarean.
The main advantage of giving birth in the UK was the paperwork involved. I takes ages and a lot of forms to get the birth certificate/passport from CH.
You should have called them - they are trained to offer guidance and advice over the phone.
My wife has had a baby in both a Swiss hospital and an English NHS hospital and found the level of care great in both but she though the quality of the food in the NHS hospital to be terrible. The Swiss one was much better in that respect.
The NHS has got some terrible doctors but I have to say that the ones that have given us real trouble in mis-diagnosis did not do their training in the U.K.
Having given birth in the UK and Switzerland (and not being from either country so no cultural filter) I can categorically state that if all things are easy peasy and smooth, Switzerland is better because the hospitals are nicer and the food better. However, if your life is in danger, the NHS pulls out all the stops.
The regional hospital that I went to with the birth of my third child here in switzerland was an absolute disaster -- I'm not being over dramatic when i say they nearly killed me. Once we made our way (alone!!) to a big, cantonal hospital, they took great care of me.
I also had big problems with my second birth in the UK but they were brilliant, even on christmas day.
So to make a long story short, its hard to beat a NHS teaching hospital if you or your baby are in danger. But don't expect a lot of hand holding or even clean toilets.
In this particular case since the wife has confidence in her country's health care system, I think she should be allowed to choose where to give birth. I totally agree with her after reading horrible stories of the NHS. Last week I read a news item on how one of the hospital sent a 50 year old man telling him that he is pregnant and he might have twins. Had a good laugh and cant bring myself to trust them to bring my unborn child to this world. http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2010/12/...might-be-twin/
Good luck
I would like to say that I come from Eastern Europe and I don't mean to offend anyone but I was absolutely terrified, shocked and disgusted as and when I had experienced the health care standards in the UK (compared to what I was used to at home). I also had Bupa cover which did not help much to be honest. ( I am puzzled as to why the UK has such a good reputation regarding medicine, probably back in times it was good but those times are long gone in my opinion...) I kept going back home for doctors' appointments during those 10 years. I agree also with the point somebody else has made that it's quite difficult to live long term in a country where you are not comfortable with the healthcare, but it just wasn't possible.