Are there any hospitals with NICU facilities in HCMC ?

Hi Alice,

You should contact with Tu Du Maternity Hospital or Mekong Maternity Hospital as they have very good staff and service plus facilities, which could help you deal with your situation. Wish you all the best 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I'd suggest Hanh Phuc Intl. Maternity Hospital.
They have Eng. speaking staff and I read some good reviews from expats.

Tu Du has the best doctors but it's always crowded.
Mekong is good and clean but communication in Eng. could be a real problem in both Tu Du and Mekong.

Wish you all the best.

Hi, singuyen tranpham

Thank you for your help!! 
Tu Du Maternity Hospital and Mekong Maternity Hospital !  I will check them!!
Thank you so much!!!

Alice

Hi  senwl,

Wow! Thanks for such a detailed explanation !!　That is very helpful for me.
I appreciate you sharing these information.
Hanh Phuc Hospital seems to suit me perfectly.

Thank you so much!!

Alice

In answer to the OP's question which was which hospital has NICU, which does not seem to have been addressed, FV hospital does and is one of only two hospitals in VN that have achieved international accreditation. I should note however that no hospital in VN has an accredited lab as of last year. I have seen anything that has changed that. We originally were advised that Hanh Phuc was great. We tried them for just the prenatal and not once did any provider recommend that we take folic acid and many other things were omitted. I think at any facility here one has to approach with a jaundice view and stay on top of them. Other than FV and Diamond Plaza, for example has any provider gloved up or re-gloved when we were examined unless I specifically told them to. Even then some complained they could never get their work done if they had to do that for every patient. And I told them " the only patient I am concerned about is the one before you now, now glove up or we will leave". They gloved up.

Hi Vagabondone

Thank you so much for your help and advice!
Two hospitals in VN that have achieved international accreditation are FV and Hanh Phuc, is that right?
I will move to Bình Thạnh before birth. So I’m curious about VINMEC.  How about this?

I appreciate you sharing this information.  It was a great help.
Thanks again!

Alice

Indeed the other accredited hospital is VINMEC Hanoi. I was just reading that there is now an accredited lab in VN. I will have to check that out more. Wish you the best with your pregnancy and birth. Stay on top of it and always ask question and double check their answers. They put my sons life at great risk by mistyping him among other things.

Update: Must be careful of how they use the word accreditation and who it was from. The lab supposedly accredited was given and ISO accreditation. Not the same. So there is still no accredited lab in VN. Indeed, many labs here send their work to Thailand or Singapore. Not sure if they will be accredited anytime soon because part of the accreditation process requires that they submit to random blind tests of their reported results which is not cheap. In fact the accreditation process is very expensive.

Hi Vagabondone ,

Thank you so much for your reply. I agree with you.

I must think very carefully about where to have my baby.  So the real experiences are very important to me.　Thank you everyone!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

Alice

I have great empathy for you. If you do not have any medical experience it must be very hard. But then if you do not know you do not know that they do not know either. Here doctors get no premed training. In fact many do not have a doctorate. I find them very lacking in the sciences. Hygiene is another weak area in all aspects of life here. Do not get lulled into a degree of comfort because you see them with gloves on. Trust me they do that bro protect them and it offers no protection to you if they do not change the gloves when they touch you or your baby. Even if you watched them put on the gloves then they touch an unsterile item/area, make them glove up again. Every hospital on earth has staph bacteria everywhere. If you are one of the unlucky ones that get the MSRA version you may very well not survive. There are no antibiotics to kill it. Even a normal staph infection can be extremely painful and the antibiotic feels like batter acid in your veins. If you would like some goo apps/websites for mom to be and baby PM and I will give them to you. Just a treasure trove of information and quite fun to follow along with babies journey while he/she is still in the oven. Hope your taking folic acid. They do not much understand its importance here and that is why you see so many hairlip people and there are so many people with spinal bifida. Calcium as well. The diet here is quite low on calcium so you see many with rickets. Your doctor probably will not recommend either, and certainly not calcium. I would suggest you ask them to run a blood chemistry panel and include the calcium and iron levels. Many doctors do not know they can order it or do not know how. I had to tell them they could then go to the lab to ask what chemistry protocol to enter on the order. But I got it and was low on both. They will look at the RBC levels and assume because they are with parameters that iron follows. It does not and there is no real correlation as they will tell your there is. This is where premed studies would serve them well. I spent an entire day and finally had to go to the head of the hospital to prove them there was no way my child blood type was a A+ when both mom and dad were O+. Crazy crazy crazy. Had our child left the hospital typed as an A+ and had to have emergency surgery at any time in his life he would have died before they could do anything. As there is no requirement to re-type someone who know their blood type.

Vagabondone wrote:

We originally were advised that Hanh Phuc was great. We tried them for just the prenatal and not once did any provider recommend that we take folic acid and many other things were omitted.

Vagabondone wrote:

Hope your taking folic acid. They do not much understand its importance here and that is why you see so many hairlip people and there are so many people with spinal bifida. Calcium as well. The diet here is quite low on calcium so you see many with rickets. Your doctor probably will not recommend either, and certainly not calcium. I would suggest you ask them to run a blood chemistry panel and include the calcium and iron levels.

Hi Vagabondone

Which hospital finally offered you the desired treatment (blood count monitoring and recommended dosage of folic acid (B9), B12, iodine, iron and calcium)? Can you recommend this hospital?
It seems that Folic Asic is not known in the most pharmacies here.
The pharmacies sold us Tardyferon B9 and we bought also Procare Pregnancy & Breastfeeding (Australien product). Do you know something about this medicine?
But we want find soon the most suitable maternity hospital for checkups and delivery.

@All
Do you know whether epidural anesthesia in the maternity clinics here in Ho Chi Minh City is applied?
I read about a epidural anesthesia method where the woman can regulate the dosage itself, so that she is not completely anesthetized in the lower part of the body.

Alice-mam wrote:

Hi Vagabondone ,

Thank you so much for your reply. I agree with you.

I must think very carefully about where to have my baby.  So the real experiences are very important to me.　Thank you everyone!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

Alice

Hi Alice

Have you decided for the desired hospital?
If yes, how is the fist impression?

@Andy
The supplement you mentioned does contain Folic acid (Vitamin B9). However this form is not widely used. Prior to pregnancy a women should consume 400mcg and during the entire pregnancy 600mcg.
And no, we never found a competent hospital or doctor in Vietnam. But I do not live in HCM. We did in the initial stages of the pregnancy though. We found, unfortunately that you really must stay on top of them. Although I felt the folks at Diamond Plaza were good and did not require the constant monitoring that others did.
I would recommend that if you do not know much about the entire issue that you get the Babycenter.com app available via Apple or Google Play. A
The entire family will enjoy following along throughout the pregnancy. There is not a question or concern about pregnancy that is not covered I do not think.
We purchased our vitamin supplements from the USA. But I am sure Diamond Plaza Medical pharmacy has quality supplements.
  Unfortunately medicine is not the best here. It just takes an eagle eye and constant oversight by you to get the best you can under the circumstances. They are trying to get in step with the rest of the world. But it will take many more years and a far better education system. But for example in the area of immunizations they will almost always show you the bottle and the label of what they are about to administer. This is because heretofore they had very poor protocols for the storage and access to immunization supplies. Its came to a head when a tired anesthesiologist , tired from a long night of surgery dropped off his vial of anesthesia in the immunization clinics refrigerator for storage rather then the refrigerator for anesthesia. The immunization workers came to work and began giving what they thought were immunization but pulled the vial of anesthesia and killed several babies before they found out. And here they do not take well to you demanding any type of care. Don't let that hold you back. I put my foot on their throat and insisted and got the care recommended by the rest of the medical world. Good luck

Thank you Vagabondone

I have not read anything about the Diamond Plaza (concerning maternity) yet here in the forum. 

We will probably go and have a look at the Tu Du, Hanh Phuc and Mekong Hospitals.

Update:
My wife has just told me that there are lots of bad reviews in the internet from former Vietnamese patients of this 3 Maternity Hospital (especially from women had a c-section).   

Apparently Hung Vuong hospital has better reviews of former Vietnamese patients who bought the "VIP" option.

@Andy Passenger

Being one of the leading govt. hospitals (for maternity), Tu Du is always crowded (read overcrowded) with patients not only from HCM but also from other neighboring provinces. Most serious (complicated) cases are usually transferred to Tu Du. Hence, I suspect there's little room for individual personalized care like in those private hospitals,

I suggest, check FV, Han Phuc, Hung Vuong ... and perhaps Mekong too, if your wife can find (through her friends etc.) a trusted doctor there.
Family Medical (Diamond Plaza) has Obstetrics and Gynecology departments for check-ups.

I found these old threads discussing this topic:
- https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=381626
- https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=142809
- https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=142809

Thanks a lot senwl.

Will have a look to these threads.

It's really interesting when you enter the hospitals in google maps, select the hospital and read the reviewings.

Oh no....I was only meaning you could get a good pregnancy multivitamin or folic acid supplements at Diamond Plaza. They do have an OB, but I would suggest you find an OB you like that can follow the pregnancy all the way through delivery. But I was just meaning to use their pharmacy at DPM

I've been reading through the threads of your conversation. I won't take up more time with lengthy explanations however as an who now lives here, 64 years old, I have done considerable research on my own with respect to proper Medical Care. FV Hospital is an institution that was formed a number of years ago by a group of French doctors. Most of the doctors with whom I have had contact have been foreigners however one was Vietnamese. I found his level of treatment to be superb. I must also include that I know nothing about maternity or OB facilities however FV Hospital does have two locations one in D 7 and I think the other in D1. I would strongly suggest that you research that facility before making a decision.

I've been reading through all of your posts concerning OB care. My wife and I are hoping for a child next year so I'm starting to do all of my research now. I would very much like to get some of this information and writing but I can't figure out how to print it and I can't even find it on my PC, only on my phone. Is there some way that I can contact you to get some more information or at least make notes on this that I already have?

Rick Hayward wrote:

.... but I can't figure out how to print it ........

Use https://www.printfriendly.com/ to get a clear, printable copy of this conversation (free of overlapping ads etc.).
Paste the URL in the textbox and click 'preview'.
You can download a PDF file or directly send it to the printer.
Install their free browser extension for one-click print.
They have an app as well. That could be handy on your phone.

Rick Hayward wrote:

.... and I can't even find it on my PC, only on my phone........

Do you mean you can't open this page (thread) on your PC?