Business | Your Money
Counting costs of childbearing
Women who have their deliveries in low-cost facilities end up with medical complications
- By Cleofe Maceda, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 January 16, 2010
- Image Credit: Supplied
- How to plan before the baby pops out screaming.
Like most expectant mothers, Rima, an Egyptian expatriate, had conditioned herself to fully embrace the pain of childbirth. So, on the day her baby was due, she opted for a normal delivery at a low-cost facility in Sharjah. But nothing had prepared her for the kind of hospital treatment she received.
Not only did she have to endure unpleasant behaviour from the hospital attendants while she was in labour, but one of the doctors also messed up her stitches — something that almost cost Rima her life.
"I endured so much pain after hours of labour, but I didn't mind that. But when the doctor performed the stitches on me, he was so violent that it felt like he was sewing up an animal or something," she recalls.
Rima only paid Dh3,000 for the delivery. Shortly after she went home, the young mother went though excruciating pain and one leg started to swell.
She went back to the hospital to find out what had gone wrong.
"I was in terrible pain and demanded that the staff who assisted me in my delivery check up on me again. Well, they did. After the checkup, the staff talked to each other and I could tell by their facial expressions that they had messed up. But when I asked them, all they told me was that everything was normal. They just asked me to go home and wait for the pain to subside," she says.
Three days after that hospital visit, Rima's situation only got worse. Her leg was swelling up so much that she could barely move. "For 15 days I was suffering in pain. My mother saw my ordeal and advised me to fly to Cairo to get a second opinion and proper medical care. There I was told by a doctor that my stitches had been messed up.
"He also said the needle used was so old that many hospitals had stopped using it since 1999. He had to cut through a portion of the skin and re-stitch me. It felt like I went through delivery twice," Rima says.
She says that medical care in Cairo is cheaper, so she only paid about Dh700 for the second operation. Even a normal delivery can cost about Dh200 and a Caesarian-section Dh800.
Expenses
Rima had to shoulder all the expenses because she didn't have maternity insurance.
"I got my antenatal package cheap, for around Dh1,200, because I found a good, old doctor in Sharjah. Overall, my expenses were not that high, but the experience I went through was horrible. I told my husband that was my first and last childbirth here," she adds.
Dannie McDonald, financial services manager of Lifecare International and mother of three children, didn't go through the same experience. She gave birth to her youngest child last year at Medcare hospital in Dubai.
Compared to Rima's, McDonald's delivery was more like a hassle-free experience. "It was excellent. There were lovely nurses and doctors and I got lots of attention," she says. The hospital billed her Dh11,000 for the normal delivery, but since she had insurance coverage, she went home without spending a dirham. "I only paid for consumable items like nappies, food, medicines, etc.," she recalls.
Daniela Baldoos, a Filipina expatriate who gave birth to her youngest daughter about four years ago, says she had a no-frills delivery at Zulekha hospital in Dubai. "I wouldn't say it was an excellent experience, but the staff was not discriminating. I wasn't shouted at or anything. I'd say it was average. I had no serious problems or complications," she says.
However, Baldoos had to shoulder all the medical expenses and hospital bills because her insurance did not cover her maternity and antenatal care. "I had to undergo a C-section and the hospital bills cost me about Dh6,000. That was very expensive for me, although it was a few years ago," she recalls.
Prior to that, she had delivered a baby at another hospital in Dubai, where the staff's bedside manner wasn't what she had expected.
"I was in extreme pain in the labour room, but the nurse shouted at me to stop screaming," she said.
Maternity packages (rates in dirhams)
Zulekha Hospital
Basic antenatal 3,200
Standard ante-natal 4,200
Antenatal (high-risk) 6,500
Normal delivery (sharing) 5,000
Normal delivery 5,500
Normal delivery (VIP) 8,000
Caesarean (sharing) 9,000
Caesarean 10,000
Caesarean (VIP) 15,000
Medcare Hospital
Antenatal (12 weeks) 5,000
Antenatal (28 weeks) 3,750
Normal delivery (one bed suite) 9,500
Normal delivery (VIP suite) 15,500
Normal delivery (royal suite) 17,500
Caesarian (one bed) 17,000
Caesarian (VIP) 29,500
Caesarian (royal suite) 33,500
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