St. Istvan hospital - delivery

[Noga oren]

was anyone delivering in St. Istvan hospital recently and could tell me a bit how it's like from a foreigner point of view? :-)
I would especially like to know about the delivery rooms- are they clean? comfortable? spacy/crowded? are they well equipped?  do they have bath tabs?
how's the stuff in general? were you managing well without speaking Hungarian?.... and anything else you can think of and wouldn't mind sharing! :-)
thanks!

[Deidre]

What do you mean by recently? I gave birth there 1.5 years ago and found it fine. The birthing area was great - clean, there was a bath in one of the rooms, everything was fine. The staff was generally kind and helpful, and though I do speak Hungarian I think it could be managed without, though tricky perhaps. You do need to plan food because what they give is not adequate.

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Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 06:13:47 -0700
From: noga....@gmail.com
To: budape...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [budapestmoms] St. Istvan hospital - delivery

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[Noga oren]

Thank you Deidre! 1.5 years ago is recent enough :-) I heard they were renewing and changing somethings in the past few years so wanted to get an idea of how the hospital is like after the change. what do you mean by planing the food? do you need to /should have your own food for the all time you are there?....

[Pia]

Hi Nora,
Just checked out the premises yesterday as I will have to decide where to deliver as well. The delivery wards were all occupied, so I could not see one, but the whole floor looked like being renovated recently. But this is only valid for the floor with the delivery wards. The department where you stay after birth looked older to me. But old does not mean bad. But of course, it's still a hospital environment. My recommendation: Have a look yourself. That is, from my point of view, the best and quickest way to find out if you will feel comfortable or not. I took the chance and visited the hospital while my doctor was on duty and he showed me around and answered to my questions.
Good luck,
Pia

[Noga oren]

Hi Pia! actually we were there few months ago, to check thing out and same as you, we couldn't see any of the delivery rooms as they were all occupied (how rude ;-)) and the "after birth" part looked to me like a typical Hungarian public hospital. so as I didn't really get to see anything for real besides the hall way I would really like to hear from ladies who have already experienced a delivery there. the nurse at the reception btw. was very unkind and impatient... but I'm not judging a hospital by one nurse.

On Wednesday, March 19, 2014 2:13:47 PM UTC+1, Noga oren wrote:

[Kristy Marcard]

I just gave birth there 6 weeks ago. I speak rudimentary Hungarian. Through various circumstances, I was in 3 different delivery rooms. This would not be the norm, though. The first one was quite small, but clean, the 2nd one was the alternative room with the tub. That was also fine. And the 3rd one was again a standard room and it was much bigger than the first one. I think it just depends a little bit what's available when you get there. The nurses that were on duty when we arrived were pretty horrible, actually, but they called my doctor, who speaks English and he came right away and cleared everything up. By sheer luck I'm presuming, there was then a shift change and the staff that came on was amazing. Although the one nurse in particular was not hired by us, she stayed with us basically the whole time and she spoke only Hungarian, but I still felt completely at ease and safe with her. So I would suggest that if the language barrier worries you, either hire a doula or midwife who will go with you or go to the hospital and figure out which nurse you could deal with and hire her. I had a somewhat difficult birth, but everything was there that my doctor needed. As for the 3 days recovery, I agree about bringing your own food, but otherwise it was great. The staff looks after the mothers and the babies really well. It is not a luxurious hospital, but for me the staff made all the difference. They were fantastic. If you have more specific questions I would be happy to try and answer them for you.

Kristy

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[Delphine K]

Hi,

I gave birth in september 2012 and plan to have my second baby there again in August.
The delivery rooms are clean, nice and new. There's a bath in one of them.

The rooms after the delivery are pretty old and there are four people in each (plus the babies!). But the hospital has one of the lowest rate of C-section in the country, they will avoid episiotomy as much as possible, and this was the important point for me. It worked, since I had an easy birth with zero complication. This was more important to me than the three days after.
Actually there are also two individual rooms after the delivery, but you have to pay an extra 20 000HUF/night, they're next to the nursery where the nurses are, and many mums go there in the night, so I don't think you get much sleep there. One of my friend spent one day in the individual room, and for the second baby she didn't because she said it was better to have some company!

Several of my/ my husband's hungarian friends gave birth there and all had easy birth (maybe it's just a coincidence) and were satisfied.

By the end of my first pregnancy the language was not a problem anymore, so I can't answer for this. It did involve a few misunderstandings though like when I answered 37 to the usual first question of the doctor. Unfortunately this time he asked how many kids I had, not how many weeks pregnant I was.

Delphine

[antonella fanizzi]

Hi,

Congratulations for your pregnancy! :) I would say to give it a try again, you may be lucky this time and be able to see the rooms.

I had my baby there last year in Nov. and except a few inconvenices, I am satisfied with my choice. The night nurses were wonderful, they have helped me a lot with breastfeedig and didn't give to my baby any sugary water or formula (as I understood they do this in other hospitals).

My midwife was Pruha Krisztina, very kind and calm person, she inspires confidence and doesn't intrude when you need your space.

In Szent Istvan, midwifes expect round 30,000Ft (at least this was for last year).

Antonella

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[Vanita]

Hi,

 

St Istvan was my back up hospital, I was planning for a home birth, but ended up there after 25 hours of labour due to a botched cervical stitch that wouldn't come out and had to give birth with all of the stitch around the cervix (though cut in one place). So yes, they can handle difficult cases and pretended not to notice that stitch.

 

The doctor upon my arrival was English speaking, she had worked in the US and was very young and sweet (though I did get a couple of jibes about the failed home birth). The midwife spoke no English, but was very good. I was however forced to give birth on my back, you can avoid this by hiring an OB who works at the hospital who also happens to speak English, Attila Ujvary is the one I had, but I didn't retain him for the birth, though he is excellent. There are others the Moms will be happy to recommend.

 

They do avoid c-sections and episiotomies. The labour room was large, sunny and bright, no tub though. I don't believe you can get a water birth there, but I did not ask for one.

 

The recovery rooms are typical Hungarian old style rooms with 4 Moms plus babies in each room and food is terrible, I relied on my husband for some good coffee and break fast each morning. By the last day, I wanted to run out of the place :)

 

So if you want a natural, least intervention kind of birth, this is the place for you, though I hated giving birth on my back, I had the worst back labour, on the other hand, my baby did wrap the cord around her neck, so the nurse had to push her back in and release the cord which was a lot easier with me on my back, so not all bad.

 

Get an OB from the hospital to work with you before hand and brace yourself for some bad food, LOL. I highly recommend this hospital though, I did go back to take a pic with the doc as a keepsake.

 

On Wednesday, March 19, 2014 2:13:47 PM UTC+1, Noga oren wrote: