First Time Papa

Part 2 : Maternity Healthcare in Kuching - Practices

April14

Continuation .. from Part I

Part II : Practices in Kuching

In a very very very late response to David & Jeslyn query back in early November last year about the Gynaes and common medical practices for pregnancy in Kuching.. here’s what we have to share.

When papa Jee and I first come to know about my pregnancy, the first thing we did was to visit our trusted family GP & friend (Dr Khaira & Dr Babitha of Clinic Khaira). We’ve always valued their opinion thus from our chat with them, we manage to made some initial decision to get started. To fulfill our requirement to aim for a natural childbirth for this pregnancy, our kind Dr. recommended us to their acquaintance - Dr. Philip Kho of Kuching Specialist Centre.

However we were also recommended to pursue checkup at the government Maternity clinic in case we decided to have my delivery in the KGH (Kuching General Hospital). Which in our kiasu-ness.. both we did. Hehe. That means 2 different checkup a month for me >.<

Following are the info on the practices (as we know it) for both the KKIA and Kuching Specialist Centre :

Government Maternity Clinic

For any patient who wish to deliver there at SGH (Sarawak General Hospital), the Mothers must attend periodic checkups (or at least registered) with the government clinic throughout their pregnancy. There are 3 of such Maternity Clinic (as we know it) :

· Clinic Jawa - situated at the Satok area, a block away from Hopoh Commercia Centre

· KKIA (Klinik Kesihatan Ibu-Ibu dan Anak) - situated at the junction of Jalan Sekama

· Tanah Puteh @ Pending area (updated 26 May)

Since both of us are living in Stapok area (within Batu Kawa), our default checkup location are Clinic Jawa (which covers residents around the vicinity of Satok / Petra Jaya / Batu Kawa / Jln Rock). But being there before (back in Year 2002) with my sister-in-law, I find that the facility are quite run down and the wait time are too slow.

KKIA on the other hand are the other branch of Maternity Clinic that (to the best of our knowledge) serves the residents fromand around the vicinity of Sekama / Town Centre / Tabuan Jaya / Stutong .

We’ve heard good reviews about KKIA, from papa Jee’s close business friend and also frm my colleague CK (you can check out his blog about KKIA here). So we decided to play ‘cheat’, using the address to our other home located in Jalan Ellis (which is a stone throw away from KKIA ) TeeHee~

Their practises will be :

1. Registration and checkups are all done FREE here. The only downside is the long wait time and horrendous queue! >.< You’ll have to be there half hour before the clinic open at 8am in order to get yourself to be in the first top 20. (Then again being the lazy us, we discover that if you walk in around late 10am-11+am, you can get your turn pretty fast because thats when the crowd tappers off )

2. Upon registration, you will be given appointments to go and follow-ups on a monthly/forthnight/weekly basis - depending on the progress of your pregnancy

3. Routine check-ups procedure would usually includes :

o A short interview with the nurse (they will ask basic questions about your well being)

o Urine test (for any trace of glucose I suppose)

o Weight recording

o Measurement of your Fundal Height (it is a measure of the size of the uterus used to assess fetal growth and development)

o Blood pressure reading

o Blood test (to assess your hemoglobin level)

4. During your first visit, you will also be given an injection (for what I can’t remember :P)

5. Visit with the in-house doctor. For most common cases, once when your first register (thats when you will be given and ultrasound) & and another time towards the end of your pregnancy only. However, if you are seeing a private gynae at the same time (like me), the visit to the in-house Doctor will be very brief (rather they will send you away unceremoniously, saying that you do not need their service as you had you gynae for that.. O.o” )

Appointments will be made :

Once a Month up until the 7th month
Forthnightly (once every 2 weeks) for the 8th month
Once a week from 9th month onward until your delivery date

Kuching Specialist Centre (also known as KPJ)

Ante-natal Checkup

As for your visit with the Gynae, there are not package as we know it. On every routine visit to the Gynae (in our case is with Dr. Philip), the standard procedure will be :

Urine test (for Glucose I suppose)
Blood Pressure test
Ultra sound : to assess the fetal growth & general health (I believe you can opt to skip this if you do not need/want it)
Blood test (I skipped this as mine were done periodically by KKIA; FOC)
Detail ultrasound scanning for baby on your 4th month visit

Appointments frequency will be :

Once a Month up until the 7th month
Forthnightly (once every 2 weeks) for the 8th month
Once a week from 9th month onward until your delivery date

Cost :

Normal visit with Ultrasound scanning -RM90++

Normal visit without Ultrasound - RM40++

Delivery

Currently KPJ is offering a Maternity(Delivery) Package at RM1800. Its inclusive of :

Normal (natural) delivery
2 Day / 1 Night stay at a two-bedded room (with meals)
Gynae consultation & procedure
Nursery & Nursing

It doesnt include any use anesthetic (i.e: Epidural) or induction (i.e: Artificial rupture of membrane or Pitocin drip)

Facility

The facility at KPJ is quite good as they are relatively new and the place is well maintained. The staffs there are friendly and accomodating. I would like to especially point out that the senior maternity nurses at the Maternity Ward are very experienced and are especially helpful and supportive. They have given us invaluable advices and support during my delivery and stay at the hospital

However, the food catering (for the in house patient) left much to be desired. >.< There plenty of room for improvement here. Luckily there are plenty coffee shops and bakery around the vicinity to fill the gap.

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posted under Baby health, First Time Papa, KKIA, KPJ, advice, first-timer, gynae | No Comments »

Health Check for Mama

October6

After so many weeks of checks at Kuching Specialist Hospital, today we went to the Klinik Kesihatan Ibu & Anak (KKIA) at the traffic interchange of Jalan Sekama, Jalan Chawan, Jalan Ellis & Jalan Mendu (for those of you who is in Kuching, its next to the Salvation Army, Sekama.)

Well, this is why we are all paying tax, as public services here in Malaysia is still in good condition, though there are still much to be improved. The system used in the clinic is nothing short of being very interesting. For those of you who has never being there before, this is how it works.

Read the rest of this entry »

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