[Nashua852]

I had my son last December at Union Hospital and overall I was pleased with the facilities and level of comfort. The standard rooms are about as good as the same thing offered at higher price brackets on the island. It was spacious, clean and the nurses were very friendly. However two things really bothered me; one - It was not stressed that my husband would not be allowed to hold the baby for the duration of our stay other than at the birth itself and even I was restricted to seeing K only at feeding times. This sort of 'picking and choosing' when I could see the baby really did not help when we went home because suddenly I had to deal with this little bab all the time -- so the transition to motherhood was not as kind as it would have been if I was given the hands-on lesson from the beginning. Although it must be said that most hospitals in HK do have a similar policy although I think you can room in at POW.

My other concern was the labour itself - I did it pretty much drug free because I was not told how to use the gas and air properly save for the last 15 mins. although looking back I should have asked -- thing is I had no idea I was doing it wrong! What really appalled me was that even thought the young maternity nurses in the delivery ward knew I had no pain relief and therefore labour was as hard as the name implies they were actually giggling at me during the pushing stages,which is hard irrespective of if you were juiced up on meds or not! Plus when I was being stitched up it took me and my husband asking repeatedly for a blanket to no avail when our doctor actually put down his tools and asked quite sternly for one. (Our OBGYN recommended Union - he's a terrific doc with his own clinic in Kwai Fong PM me for his details if you like -- I'll be sticking to him for as long as I can)

As bad as these incidents seemed at the time in retrospect especially as a FTM I should have been more assertive about my birthplan -- temperature etc. However I don't think it was any excuse for the behaviour of those two nurses specifically. May I add this un-professionalism was VERY different from the rest of my stay there.

All in all, my experience with Union was positive - we did leave a day early as I just wanted to get our new life as a family going! Also, in terms of cost there were no hidden costs on the bill which was terrific and the entire birth cost us just under 30K including doctors fees, meals and the lot. Plus, the rooms are great and the view terrific. Good Luck and I hope this helps!