Health & Wellness Giving birth in a 3rd world hospital

Here my first hand experience of a birth in Dumaguete in one of the two private hospitals. It was my second birth experience (one home birth in Germany) and I did not feel very comfortable at the beginning but what happened was beyond my imagination.

My wife’s labor was starting on the 18th of November 2011 at 2 am and she woke me up at six, we walked then a lot and I tried to help her while the contractions with massaging her back and so on.
My wife made around 1pm the decision to drive to Holy Child Hospital, her father had already taken a number for her but we still had to wait in the floor with many patients until 3pm. I had to say that the air was at one point very bad in that area (like something was burning, people were sitting with towels in there face) and I reported it to her Ob-Gyne’s Secretary (she promised to inform maintenance) but nothing changed.

After an IE at 3pm from her Ob Gyne (Cervix was 2-3 cm) my wife was admitted to a so called private room. Private because you don’t have to share the room with other mothers to be.

Maybe you can imagine the feeling when you come in a stress full situation in a room like this: A room without any comfort but an airconditioned, lighten with one single bare bright neon lamp under the ceiling, old metal bed, no soap and no toilet tissue, no towels, basically a not functional room for relaxing and laboring. Complains of bring a piece of soap at least….

First of all there was no welcome and explanation about the station, no mentioning what was going to happen, no support from the staff concerning the labor, no introduction what is happening, who is who in this station, to whom we can go if we have questions.

But instead steadily distractions of the labor of my wife with all kinds of monitoring. I was send away for errands to get all kinds of necessary things for the stay and medical support and could not stay with my wife.
Felt we were lost. At 7pm the pain for my wife is no longer bearable, she is puking heavily. I explain the staff she likes to have urgently pain reliever. Nothing is happening until 7.30. (Nobody shows up to help!) Finally, a residence doctor shows up and IE her. The result is not encouraging because the cervix is not more open then at 3 pm. Nothing is happening until 8.30pm when finally her Ob Gyne MD Tan arrives. In between I was urging the stuff to finally do something because this situation seems not normal to me. Since the opening of the birth 17hrs has passed.
Ob Gyne IE her again with the result that nothing has changed. She makes decision to sedate my wife that she can get some rest. We should inform the staff if the pain comes back after 4 hours. Then she will put her in the Labor room, otherwise she will put my wife in the labor room around 5am next morning for further measurements and to support the birth progress.

After the Ob Gyne is gone, the staff comes rotating every 30 minutes in the room to wake my wife up with different tests (is she allergic against antibiotics, of course not because she is taking them already for several days because of an UTI) monitoring which could have done at once. But no, every person seems just able to do one task at a time with the result of steadily knocking on the door and disturbing my wife who should really need rest. I personally hat max 1hour of sleep that night, my wife had more sleep because of the sedation. So this disturbance goes on until after midnight, my feeling was they stopped at around 1am. Fortunately no unbearable pain for my wife who is baring the pain of her on going labor while I am watching and unable to sleep in this cold and not hospitable environment, full of concern what will happen next and how she will survive this treatment.

Disturbance beginning again at 3.30 to 4am and finally I insisted that we are not longer disturbed by the next task at 5am with changing of a gown. It is starting to get more than absurd. I was speaking later with a befriended couple of my wife about there experienced in the Holy Child with there and they told me that they also felt disturbed and that the service was no longer good (They had several birth there).

5.30am the next day Ob-Gyne arrives and immediately without any explanation they put her in the labor room. I am getting really upset and asked the staff to get this doctor to me. I like to be with my wife to see how they treat her. Doctor explains they have just one monitor machine and therefore every woman in the room has no privacy so no relatives are allowed. Jen my wife was the only one in this room the whole time this morning (with one attendant) but no exceptions.

That makes no sense. I am the next in kin when she cannot act properly and I doubt it at this moment that she was. We are in a 3rd world hospital is the quote of this OBY for an excuse of the situation.
The OB explained to me they pricked her membrane and gave her injections to push the birth further on. They will wait until 10am to see the progress, if the cervix going to be much wider open they can avoid a C-section.
Later my wife told me that despite she had really painful contractions and she told them that she likes to move around and try different positions she was (against her will) restricted to lay the whole time on the back, a position well know as not supporting the labor and causing pain for the woman. And this just because they like to monitor the baby the whole time. (There is just one monitor, what would have happened if there were other women, they could not have used the monitor alone for my wife, right?) I am seriously wondering who gave the orders to restrain my wife? I really liked to see the written orders and the report of the almost 5 hours where I was not allowed to take care of my wife. I also wonder about the rights of the patients? How could my wife insist in her rights in her state of pain?

At 10.30am the doctor arrives again and shows me the diagram of the contractions (tracing) in relation to blood pressure. The cervix is now just 4cm open and she sees no way but to use CS. 10:55am our son is born, 2 hours later my wife totally week and with a terrible swollen face back to her room, barely able to talk.

Her OB Gyne explains her lower half was sedated and the sedation will last until 6pm. At 7pm She should start to move. She should start to drink water at 6am next day. This explanation she gave to us when there were one or two staff members in the room.

My wife recovers slowly and I start researching about rehab after CS. Also here to this point no explanation/support/information from the staff. When I went to the information desk, they looked at me with their big eyes as if they have no idea what I am talking about.

One of the nurses or whatever there function there was has finally mercy and starts to explain that walking and sitting are there kind of rehab. She makes also up that they will inform my wife about rehab means how to behave after CS to rebuild the abdominal strength. Until now we are waiting for this information.
One effect of my complains: At least the staff now slowly started to give explanations of what medicine they gave to my wife.

Fortunately there is the Internet and you can have a lot of information in a second. But doing all the essential work by us cannot be the sense of spending time and money in a hospital. Until now it is not clear why the cervix of my wife did not open properly.

Nor did anyone try to give an explanation without being urged. Nobody seems really interested in giving information and support. It looks like you have to be a MD yourself to ask the right questions to get the right answers and support?

I went home around 6pm to get some hours sleep and went back with a bad feeling around 10.15. And there it is again: Asking if my wife was starting to drink she told me she was refused to drink starting at 6 because there were no instructions for the personal. I went really upset to the staff and demanded that they should call the OB immediately. My wife needs to drink to support the healing process. They call and get the confirmation. I wonder if this staff has no sense for what they are doing there? Why did they not call the OB at six then? Who gave the written order that Jen has not to drink? What will happen in a case of emergency? Will there be someone from the staff is able to react without waiting for a written order?

The OB Gyne arrives short after checking on Jen and telling her she has now to drink more because of the delay. Also she was admitting that she forgot to write down the order (despite the fact that there was staff in the room and they should have heard it).

There are more things but this is the main complain, that the will from a patient does not count and the personal is acting against it. But there is no one who takes responsibility. I was asking several times who is responsible but no satisfactory answer. There seems to be a nurse in every shift but it is not recognizable who is responsible. The personal seems not concentrated, obviously not overall qualified personal, nobody gives you support and information, the rotating monitoring and giving of medicine is disturbing the labor process. It is called the routine but it is not helpful. The so-called private room is really poor without any cozy aspect and to let woman in labor in this environment without support is I guess also in medical aspects not right.

My wife is a learned helping nurse at Silliman medical hospital. I guess this experienced at the Holy Child (she has chosen because her Ob Gyne was practicing there) has exceeded her imaginations. She thought it was just a nightmare and all she wanted was to go home.

At the end a longer talk with one of the younger nurses and she finally is at least beginning to see our point of view. She even is admitting that there should be more support and information.
I was sending this content in a nicely formulated letter as feedback to give the Holy Child a chance for an answer but no reply.

I strongly recommend for everybody who got the finance background to give birth in a hospital in Manila with Western service and the chance for men to participate and to monitor what this doctors are doing to their wife.

 

As horror stories go, you win first prize with that one.

Unfortunately, the same kind of total ineptitude also exists in many other sectors of the society. The legal profession is totally corrupt and inept. Mechanics are a joke. Police? Well, we all know about the cops. School teachers are a disgrace. Contractors mostly don't have a clue. Bankers can't get a credit card account straight to save them. Phone companies are a bit better - sometimes in some places. Emergency preparedness? Forget about it. Road construction is totally random and of poor quality. Ah, but the women are beautiful and willing, right? Does that make it all worth while? I wonder sometimes.

Let's face it, the country is broken. Completely broken.

 

Joapaul, sorry to hear of your bad experience. Not to offset the problems you encountered but to present a successful local experience, I will share my positive birth of my son.
We selected Silliman hospital and went with a highly recommended doctor. The nine month doctor sessions leading up to the birth were informative, helpful, and made us aware of the do's and don'ts. The actual birth was an event in itself because firstly my wife had an early false labor and finally it was time to go into labor and she didn't so the doctor induced labor. That still didn't work so after 32 hours the doctor said she will do a C section, which my wife and I readily agreed to. It went without problems, the baby, as it turns out would have been too big for natural childbirth anyway, and 3 months later the baby and wife are both fine and healthy. We used Philhealth insurance to cover portion of the cost but truthfully it was an expensive procedure but the baby is priceless so cost doesn't matter.
Looking back, we could have saved an extra hospital stay if the doctor ordered an ultrasound and sized the baby when we thought my wife was going into labor, then they could have proceeded with the C section without the 32 hour delay and pain. Nevertheless, we look at our Silliman Hospital and doctor(s) support as a blessing. I keep repeating myself in posts regarding Dumaguete with the message that you get what you pay for.
If anyone wants more details, you can pm me.
Happy New Year to all, especially the new born babies.

 

JoaPaul, as much as this is a horror story to say the least, it would probably have been many times worse at the Provincial.

We were there on Christmas Eve handing out gifts to the children, new babies, new mums and premature babies. Some of those babies won't leave the hospital. You have a healthy wife and baby. Be thankful.

Roger

 

NOPH is the place to go if you are ready to die, for any other reason, a veterinarian's office would be better suited to help you. Some of the most qualified staff at NOPH are the OJTs from NORSU.

Larry

 

It is a pity that nobody obviously takes care about the state of this so called hospitals. Therefore thank you for going there and handing out gifts!!

 

So glad we are WAYYYY past having babies!!!

 

But nothing wrong with continued practice........

 

Have to agree with that one. While companies around the world spend fortunes hiring survey companies to get customers feedback and opinions, you will never be asked how your experience is here as a customer. They simply don't care and make it obvious they don't care.

As far as everything being so cheap.....when was the last time you shipped a balikbayan box OUT of the philippines??

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess the attitude of the staff including the doctors at Siliman is way better than at the socalled Holy child. By the way we payed over 90K for that experience altogether. In China it would have been at least 90K RMB but also in so called Western Health hospitals you can make there horrible experiences...