Hi,

Have any of you been pregnant and had a baby in Shanghai?

How was the clinic? The docs?

What I'm really asking is will I be ok having a baby there?!

Also, does anybody know if you can buy Enfamil baby formula there?

Thanks thanks thanks for any help or advice!

Popular topic over the years. Related links:

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php? ... ic&t=63039
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php? ... c&p=736964
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php? ... c&p=604105

You may want to to get in touch with the ladies at Bumps and Babes that meet twice a month. The email address is: bumps.babes@gmail.com

and sign up for a yahoo group which is very active called Shanghai Mamas.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shanghaimamas/

Hmmm .... over 20,000 born every day in China. I think you'll be okay, LOL!

^ to be fair Chingiskhan, preggo western moms-to-be may not like sharing labor rooms with half a dozen other expectant moms and not having dad-to-be in the labor room.

Sorry Yu I was leaving the serious responses to be well answered by your kind self. If I were to give a more serious response it would be that many expat women have babies in Shanghai and there are quite a few "westerner friendly" options available to choose from that should put their minds at rest if the conveyor belt system is not appealing ...

We delivered at Shanghai United, and know a dozen more famillies who delivered there...we had the Dr. Gee / MK (midwife) combo and found the overall experience excellent...given it was our first we didn't have any benchmark but we were pleased with the doctors, nurses, and the facility...

We had our daughter at

International Peace Maternity Hospital
910 Heng Shan Road
Tel: 6407 0434 ext. 1105

There are 2 floors for VIP where you get your own room. The service was pretty good and everything went pretty smoothly.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the baby formula you are talking about here in Shanghai.

Any experience with how much the cost? Doctor's fees, room/night, etc? Sorry never being hospitalized nor go hospital in China. I heard from local friends, they sometimes have to give hongbao to the doctors although they still pay for the hospital rates.

If I remember correctly the overall cost was around 35,000RMB. I think it was a 5 day stay in the hospital (this included the C-Section). Before we left we gave out chocolates to all the nurses and doctors that attended to my wife.

"....we had the Dr. Gee / MK (midwife) combo..." Tee hee. Good one, but true, they are good.

Shanghai United is great. Very good, very professional. Easy to make appointments. Better than Seattle maternity hospitals in our humble opinion (Seattle is a baby factory city, but we found maternity care there quite impersonal and frankly, less informative).

Yes, you can get Enfamil here at Carrefour (although I brought 4 cans over from Costco during my last trip back). We also just went back for Thanksgiving and brought back Stroller, car seat, breast pump, clothes, etc. The works. Much cheaper (and easier to find) in the States. I recommend you load up on Enfamil, diapers, and the rest in your household goods if your company is moving you.

Make sure you have a good international healthcare policy though. Knowing we were probably going to have kids while here, we insisted on that before we accepted our package (they tried to sweet talk us with "Local Plus" package at first, which is the best Local policy I guess...but not good enough for us). A colleague who accepted a lesser healthcare policy returned to the States early (after his spouse had an emergency in a local hospital, where they wouldn't treat her until after he paid in cash...brutal).

Smartest thing my wife insisted on was "we are not going to China unless you get a healthcare package that covers Western style "expat" hospitals". It was almost a deal breaker.

Woroldlink is good. i gave birth here 3 months ago. the gyne are really great too. i would strongly recommend Dr Yvette Kong. the midwives are great too: Tracy Claxton. u would be fine!

chingiskhan wrote:Sorry Yu I was leaving the serious responses to be well answered by your kind self. If I were to give a more serious response it would be that many expat women have babies in Shanghai and there are quite a few "westerner friendly" options available to choose from that should put their minds at rest if the conveyor belt system is not appealing ...

sorry mate, my sense of humour got lost somewhere in the middle of the night when ToddlerYu decided it was time to get up and play despite it being dark out. :S Something for the new parents-to-be to look forward to

Anyhow, yes, many "western" options as well of varied quality. Best bet is do your research, or cheat like we did and have baby back "home".

When you said "cheat" I thought you meant ADOPT!

Any idea what's the ideal pregnancy age to take aeroplane? I heard they dont allow 8months old pregnancy. I hate the idea delivering in China as I dont have expat package and can't afford to go intl. hospital. I definitely don't want to go to local hospital either. I need to make a plan when I want to go back home to deliver the baby.

Not preggie yet but just planning.

Normally up until 30 days before your due date or around the 35th week of pregnancy but different airlines will have different policies.

If you are going to deliver at Shanghai United, be sure to have insurance - cost is approx RMB90K for normal natural birth with 3 nights stay

Wow, does it really need that expensive to deliver baby? I mean investing money for your children's health, education, happiness is the most important thing but paying that amount for baby delivery is really tough, especially for those not under expat package. I'm not sure how much insurance covers for it, anyone know? I need to get one very soon then.

However I know those are international hospitals with western standard, but the amount is still surprise me.

^^ lilstar, not sure where you are from but if you are from Canada who has provincial health care plans for their residennts, you can claim an equivalent portion of the childbirth from your provincial health ministry. Some also have their country health plan pay the max and whatever balance is then covered by private/work insurance. As for insurance coverage, it varies. If you are planning to get insurance, you may want to plan ahead and get it before you are pregnant - not sure if pregnancy is considered a pre existing condition (?)

Thanks for the advice, I never pregnant before and last night then I found out that I can take maternity insurance that can covers some or all of the costs. I will find out more about it and which insurance is good for it but my country definitely doesn't have those health care plans.

lilstar, the cost to deliver at western hospital is no different than the US I know...as a matter of fact, for about the same price, you get a 5 star facility instead of average quality in the US...of course, the name of the game is all about insurance...BUPA has great coverage...Shanghai United has a pre-paid package deal too where it's discounted like 50% but don't think it's valid this Chinese fisca year (due to Golden Pig year influx)...

We just had our baby at Changning Maternity on Wu Yi Lu. Care was very good and had no problems with the delivery. It was pretty ideal in most way. They recommend natural birth and even have facilities to do water birth. We chose it because it was the best we option for my wife .

However, my wife speaks native chinese. I probably would not recommend it to a woman who did not have some chinese language skills, as she will be pretty much in delivery with chinese staff who have limited or no english skills.

The things are issues for foreigners here are
It is very difficult to get into. They only take x number of new cases per day and people line up before the desk opens to get a place. Their reputation is very good.
Once the woman is checked in for delivery, the husband pretty much has wait in the waiting room or somewhere else. No husband or family in the pre-delivery room, delivery room. They bring them out about an hour or so after the delivery for a few minutes for a look and then move them to a post delivery ward.
There are alot of people having babies now and it is not possible to get a semi private or private room post delivery. So privacy is very limited. My wife spent about 2 days after in the post delivery ward with 3 other ladies (and their visitors and family ) in the room. There are curtain separators, but is not very private.
It is not expensive, so if you are paying out of pocket, this might be an option. For us, 2700 RMB for natrual delivery and 2 days post delivery. It all turned out pretty good. our son is now three weeks old and doing great.

The cost of delivery in the US for us was 18,000 USD and an additional 6,000 USD for Babyyu's care, for a private delivery room and a semi-private room for three days.
Based on hautumncloud's quote above, cost here is half what we paid. Thank god for insurance.

Michael wrote: For us, 2700 RMB for natrual delivery and 2 days post delivery. It all turned out pretty good. our son is now three weeks old and doing great.

You must have had a coupon or they were having a sale or something!!! We had our baby at Changning Maternity as well (I believe we suggested it to you? ) We paid around 4000rmb for the water birth and a couple thousand more for the stay...all in all about 6000rmb. Everything went smoothly and we were very happy with the service (through out the pregnancy and during delivery.) Agree with Michael that for a non-Chinese speaking person it's probably not the best choice....but as far as price/quality...It's great.

Oh,...and Michael, CONGRATULATIONS!

If you are giving birth in China, perhaps get some to help you think of a Chinese name as well...be good to register a Chinese name for your baby on the birth certificate from the very birth...may ease up future paper work I think...

^but the birth certificate only allows ONE name. Me and my wife had to choose which name we wanted on the certificate, his chinese name or his english name....couldn't be both.

Make sure you only have one!!!

I had mine at AmeriSino (Huashan Hospital) and it was a good experience all around. The nurse were great, the pediatrician and the doctor as well. It was RMB 40,000 last year, including the prenatal package (RMB 15,000).

Thank you so much everybody, your advice has been invaluable.

Looking above at the information regarding Changning Maternity, it looks like a great option for us, but the fact that the father is not allowed in is disappointing to say the least.
Besides the massively expensive expat hospital options, are there any similar hospitals in the Shanghai area that allow the father to be present during child birth?

Our baby girl was born at Peace Maternity Int'l VIP ward in Xujiahui this summer. RMB 30,000 for the standard package, smooth delivery, we paid about 10% after insurance. The level of English is OK, but my Chinese is passable and my wife is a local so we had an advantage there. Our baby's birth certificate (sitting right in front of me now -- renewing a work visa) has both her English and Chinese names.

(Great thread, by the way.)