Our Honest Experience GIVING BIRTH In A Thailand Hospital

Name: Our Honest Experience GIVING BIRTH In A Thailand Hospital
Uploaded: 2026-08-26T12:09:41+00:00
Duration: 25 min 38 s
Channel: Lloyd & Mandy

00:00okay guys welcome back to another video this is probably one of the most

00:04important videos we've ever made or at least we're gonna be talking about the

00:09most important day of our lives and that was the birth of our first baby our

00:14baby girl Lila who was born almost exactly three weeks ago today here in

00:21Thailand and the purpose of this video is to share our experience with giving

00:28birth in a Thai hospital we've spoken about how much it costs to have a baby

00:33in Thailand what it's like being pregnant in Thailand what Thai hospitals are like

00:37in general but leading up to the birth our biggest anxiety was how the whole

00:43thing was going to go because we had heard a lot of stories about giving

00:47birth in a Thai hospital a lot of positives and negatives and we really had

00:52no idea we couldn't find any videos that really gave us good insight so we're

00:57making this to hopefully help anyone out who is maybe going to have a baby in

01:02Thailand or thinking about having a baby in Thailand so the morning of she

01:07actually came two weeks early we went to the gym Mandy just did like a light sort

01:14of walk on the treadmill nothing too strenuous and on the drive home Mandy

01:18looked at me and said I'm really sick of waiting I'm sick of the anticipation I

01:23wish she would just come already and then we got home I think we started cooking

01:27breakfast and Mandy looked at me and said I'm going into labor yeah yeah so

01:34Mandy told me she was going to labor and my anxiety went from here to here I

01:39thought that meant okay but we got to pack up the car and we're gonna get to the

01:43hospital now but Mandy was really calm she knew it was still gonna be a few

01:47hours until we actually had to go she already had a bag packed and I called our dog

01:53sitter to come and pick up Bear our dog and then we pretty much just waited

01:57around and my anxiety actually went way down I went from feeling like man this is

02:04like gonna be intense panicking to no this is actually like the day we've been

02:10waiting for we're ready we've been preparing for this Mandy's been preparing for this and Mandy

02:15was extremely calm and that made me a lot more calm so our plan was really for me to

02:22be the middleman between the doctors and nurses and Mandy because she had to

02:27concentrate on giving birth going through labor so we drove to the hospital and by

02:33the way Bangkok Hospital in Hua Hin they've got Bangkok hospitals in I think

02:38Bangkok Phuket and Pattaya it's a private hospital amazing hospital amazing stuff we

02:44made a whole separate video about that but we got there and I told them that

02:49Mandy's water had broken and she was in labor and initially and they straight away

02:54they all jumped up the one thing though that I wasn't anticipating was they took

02:59Mandy into the ER room and told me to wait outside which I wasn't thinking that was

03:04going to happen I thought I was going to be able to go in with her and that made me

03:07panic a little bit because Mandy had really emphasized that she wanted me there

03:12during the whole thing now because of maybe a little bit of a language barrier

03:16they maybe were just telling me to wait for five or ten minutes whereas I wasn't

03:20sure if they were telling me I just couldn't come in at all I wasn't rude

03:24about it I wasn't like pushy but I just said no like I actually am gonna come in

03:29with her and they really really tried to stop me like I'm saying talking they

03:34wouldn't let me pass and I had to like just put on a smile and try and be as

03:38friendly as possible and say I'm sorry but I am coming in because my wife wants

03:43me there I don't know if that's a Thai thing like if it's a cultural thing if

03:50they thought maybe Mandy wouldn't want me there or not I asked three times while

03:55we were in emergency for my husband to be able to come in with them not really

04:00acknowledging it I got pretty worried as well that caused a bit of anxiety right at

04:06the beginning yeah I did feel like they were kind of doing it for privacy yeah

04:12reasons for checks and stuff like that but so they might have thought it was

04:17weird that I wanted him in for all that stuff Lloyd got to see everything but

04:22that's some definitely something to keep in mind if you are like me I because I

04:27did hypnobirthing where it's very mental and I have like had my eyes closed and I

04:32was meditating a lot I I couldn't answer the questions or be the one to make the

04:37decisions so that's why we both got uncomfortable about getting separated and

04:41that sort of happened throughout the night yeah so eventually I go in and they

04:47wanted me to stand like outside the ER like if you go into an ER room it's all

04:53just curtains they didn't want me in there but as soon as the nurse left I just

04:57walked straight in and made sure Mandy was okay and then they asked me to leave

05:00again because I had to check I think it was a dilation and I at that point I was

05:05like a little bit sick of fighting with them so I just walked out but Mandy asked

05:09me to come back and so I did the best way I can explain it is that Mandy kind of

05:14was

05:15and I don't mean this like in a negative way at all she was in her own world she

05:19had her own thing to focus on like the doctors and nurses I feel like could have

05:24said almost anything to Mandy and it might not have even gone through right yeah

05:31yeah yeah yeah so that's why it was important for us for me to be there but

05:36like also like it's the birth of my child I want to be there so we're in the ER for

05:40about an hour and a half which was a little bit too long it was a little bit

05:44uncomfortable for Mandy she started asking to go up to the delivery room I

05:49think we were waiting on our doctor to show up who was on call it was like 8 30 at

05:55night so obviously the doctor wasn't there and so eventually we get wheeled up to

06:01the delivery room I was with Mandy the whole time and then we got to the doors

06:06of the delivery room which is a whole like another department of the hospital

06:10and they shut the doors on me and the doctor just put his hand up and said you

06:15can't come in and that's when I freaked out because I was like wow are they

06:22locking me out for the whole thing like this means I can't be in there during

06:25labor I started panicking a little bit I had like Mandy's stuff with me there was

06:30a bunch of chairs there was literally no one in the waiting room it was just me

06:34and I was like pacing back and forth and that's when I texted my family to let

06:39them know that we're at the hospital because I started I honestly was like

06:43thinking they were gonna leave me outside the whole time and I started

06:46googling if this was a normal thing in Thailand the biggest issue was we had

06:51scheduled an appointment with the OBGYN who was awesome by the way our

06:56doctor can't have enough kind words to say about her but we scheduled an

07:02appointment with her the following day to go through the birth plan but

07:07obviously because Lila came early we didn't get to go through anything so we

07:11didn't know what was gonna happen at all really we flew in blind and in

07:17hindsight it should have been discussed earlier but yeah she had I think oh we

07:23had to reschedule an appointment for some reason as well so we missed an

07:27appointment we missed an appointment and then yeah our final appointment we were

07:32supposed to go through everything and it never happened so we didn't have any

07:36clear indication and I'm freaking out thinking that I'm gonna be stuck in this

07:40waiting room for the next few hours while Mandy's in there giving birth on her own

07:44which was like just a horrible thought thinking of her in there on her own with

07:48no support and no one to communicate I was freaking out but luckily after

07:53about 10 or 15 minutes one of the nurses came out and told me I could come in so

08:00that was great guys I just realized that I completely missed a very crucial part of

08:07the whole process of giving birth at Bangkok Hospital here in Hua Hin and

08:12that was when we got to the ER and after they admitted Mandy and I got myself in and

08:19was with her and she was settled and being monitored before they took us up to

08:23the labor room one of the nurses came and grabbed me and had to take me to the

08:28cashier where I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and I actually had to pay up

08:32front for the birthing package which included like two nights stay food all

08:39the doctors fees midwife fees any medications and anything like that it was

08:45a bit of a surprise I wasn't expecting it to happen as soon as we walked into the

08:48ER but I completely understand because like I can imagine there's people who

08:52probably get procedures done and can't afford to pay at the end or just don't

08:57pay and this was quite a big one like it was a few thousand dollars but luckily

09:02we have been covered by Safety Wing Nomad Health since met before Mandy got

09:08pregnant I'd already organized with them to have the payment made on their

09:14behalf so I didn't have any stresses about that and if anything went wrong and

09:21it was going to cost more Safety Wing would have covered that also minus 20% so

09:26they cover basically for maternity 80% of all of the costs and that even goes

09:33for like everything leading up to the birth so all the doctors checkups with

09:37the OBGYN any like even prenatal massages Mandy was getting it was covered by

09:43Safety Wing and I believe the total coverage that they offer for maternity is US

09:51seven and a half thousand dollars so that goes a long way especially in

09:55Thailand I believe the total bill for the whole berthing package worked out to be

10:02about a hundred thousand Thai baht which if you convert that to US dollars like

10:07three grand maybe Aussie we're probably looking at around four grand so couldn't

10:13have done it without Safety Wing because they really provided us the peace of mind

10:17like my my head was absolutely spinning when we're in that ER before we went up

10:23to the labor room and when she came and got me to pay had I not have already

10:28figured it out with Safety Wing beforehand it could have been a stressful

10:31situation especially because if anything had it gone wrong like we would have had

10:36to pay a lot extra it could have got really big so we were using Safety Wing

10:41Nomad Insurance for the past almost three years since we left Australia and

10:45that's basically like a travel insurance where you're covered for loss of

10:50luggage flight delays minor accidents and things like that a while ago before we

10:56knew we're gonna have a baby here in Thailand we switched over to Safety

11:00Wings Nomad Health which is basically just like a full-fledged health insurance

11:05and that's what we're on now and we're probably gonna stay on that because we're

11:09not traveling as much shout out to Safety Wing for helping us through this whole

11:14journey and if you want to sign up to Safety Wing Nomad Health just click the

11:18link down below in the description okay we'll get back to the video so I was in

11:23active labor for about six hours we were in the delivery room and she so we got to

11:30emergency it was around 6 p.m. somewhere around that yep and then she was

11:36delivered just before midnight and so I did it naturally if they do not offer

11:42epidural at the Bangkok Hospital I don't know if that's Thailand wide or not I

11:49think it is totally what okay so natural birth is very common here hence why I did

11:55hypnobirthing I found it incredibly helpful highly recommend doing it if

12:00you're pregnant it really helped me when I was in the thick of it but everything

12:08went well and so far I've been having a really speedy recovery as well from doing

12:13it naturally our baby is very healthy as well so yeah that for me that's it makes

12:21the whole experience very positive because those were my goals really for us

12:26just to both be able to recover and be healthy afterwards so one thing I did

12:30skip over yeah they don't offer epidural but they do offer cesarean like as just

12:36an optional thing like when we walked in and went to the AR they asked us if we

12:42wanted cesarean or natural or normal birth so I think cesarean is quite common in

12:48Thailand and I've heard this from other people as well that sometimes they'll even

12:51try and push it on you we didn't get it pushed on us at all it was offered

12:55but yeah obviously we went natural I found that having our female doctor it

13:02might have just been that she because she was a lovely person was a bit more

13:06thoughtful and didn't push those sorts of things I found that maybe the men just

13:12because they don't understand our bodies are built to birth these babies nothing

13:16against anyone having a cesarean but they just see it sort of as like a quicker

13:22alternative or it's also more expensive as well so it is a way to get more money out of a

13:29birth

13:30unfortunately yeah there's obviously cases where an emergency c-section needs to be done

13:35yeah and we were we were prepared for that as well um yeah not knocking on any any thing to

13:42do

13:42a cesarean but we were pushing for natural one thing that did come up we were pretty clear in

13:48all of our checkups that we were not interested in vaccinating our daughter and our doctor seemed to

13:56be completely on board with that we didn't have anything pushed on us she was understanding we just

14:01had to sign a form months ago saying that we'd requested we didn't want vaccinations so they are open

14:08to no vaccinations if that is something that you are interested in but we did find that the vitamin

14:15case still got pushed on us after she was born there is an oral vitamin k option that some people

14:24do opt for if they find that they don't want to do the injection but they'd rather do the oral

14:30medication

14:30instead at first we were told that that doesn't exist here in Thailand but then all of a sudden later

14:36on

14:36they did know that it did exist so just if you do have a firm plan about what you want

14:42you have to be

14:43insistent about it and I think that's just across the board at any hospital it is you on us to

14:50do our

14:50due diligence um and not just to trust blindly what the doctors are saying you should or shouldn't do

14:56it's important to do the research beforehand yeah and we're not giving any advice on what you should

15:02do this is just our experience unfortunately because we didn't get to have our appointment

15:06with the doctor I had to actually type it out in google translate and show her and the nurses while

15:13Mandy was in labor and I basically just said please do not give the baby any medications without

15:19consulting us first I didn't say uh we don't want anything it was please just don't give her anything

15:26without letting us know and they were okay with that and then they asked if we wanted the

15:31vaccinations and the vitamin k and we said no and we did get yeah some pushback on the vitamin k

15:37they were yeah pretty insistent about that it was it was actually honestly pretty difficult um I think

15:43we came pretty close to just caving in because we felt a little bit pressured but look I'll say our

15:50doctor

15:50doctor and all the nurses were absolutely amazing but I was a little bit taken aback when uh one of

15:58the nurses seemed to take issue with us um over a few things and I'll get into that the first

16:05was the

16:05non-vaccination she seemed a bit weird about it and then after Lila was born so they they do their

16:13thing

16:13where they put her on the uh the table or the mat and clean her up and everything cut the

16:19umbilical cord

16:19and put her on Mandy's chest only for about a couple of minutes though and then they said they

16:25had to take her away and monitor her I promised Mandy that I wouldn't let Lila out of my sight

16:30because I just didn't want her out of my sight because I didn't want anyone giving her anything

16:34without us knowing and then us finding out later that she'd been given something or whatever

16:39and I also just felt like it was important to have her uh in my sight so I went with

16:45the nurses and

16:46the pediatrician and uh they were monitoring her heartbeat and her breathing and it was a little

16:53bit high they were waiting for it to come down the doctor started asking me about the vitamin k again

16:58this was the pediatrician so obviously the message had been passed to him and he told me the importance

17:03of it and when I asked him about the risks involved in the statistics of not getting it compared to

17:10getting it he wasn't able to give me any information which that was when I was like okay he's basically

17:16trying to sell us something without any information we're just going to hold off and he also told me

17:22that we could get vitamin k later like 48 hours later we could get oral so I said look we're

17:28not

17:29going to do it right now okay if you're not going to if you can't provide me with any solid

17:33information

17:33it's a no yeah and we had done all of our own research prior so we we went into it

17:39feeling

17:40confident uh this was just the only thing that we felt like we got pushed back on and they were

17:45sort

17:45of making us question what we had learned but we did stay strong and true to our our plan in

17:51the end

17:52and again she's healthy as can be so so then things got a little bit testy a little bit weird

17:58it was

17:58also one in the morning by the time she came and was like settled down uh after monitoring her for

18:05about maybe 15 20 minutes they said okay we're going to put her on the breast to get some milk

18:11which was great she breastfed straight away uh and but unfortunately then they wanted to take her back

18:17to the nursery to monitor her yeah this is when things were a little bit strange particularly with

18:23one nurse so we had our main midwife who was absolutely amazing she was with us for the three

18:29days even afterwards helped us bring lila out to the taxi like i can't say enough good things about

18:35the main midwife but this one nurse seemed to have an issue with me i feel like she felt like

18:41my presence

18:41was like unnecessary and i was being pushy or whatever but i was just i was in protection mode at

18:48that

18:48point and i knew mandy was in no position to really like she was left on her own in the

18:54room so it was

18:55up to me to monitor what was going on with lila when they monitored put her back to monitor again

19:00um

19:01they asked her if we wanted to keep her in the nursery or take her to the room and i

19:05said we want

19:05to take her to the room and then she started crying and the nurse said uh are you okay if

19:11we give

19:11her formula and i said not really i think she needs actually her mom and breast milk isn't that the

19:16normal

19:17thing to do i always thought that was a normal thing um the nurse seemed very triggered or upset

19:23about that like i didn't know what i was talking about without going into too much detail she was

19:28very cold and um just seemed annoyed and basically just looked at me and said okay go and do it

19:36then

19:36and so i wheeled lila back into the room where mandy was and was terrified to pick her up because

19:43she's

19:44a newborn i've never even picked her up and we breastfed her for like 15 minutes maybe yeah and

19:50it went great to me it just seems like a natural thing that a baby as soon as it's born

19:55should be

19:56placed on her mother's chest and breastfed i don't know why anyone would opt to put a baby in a

20:03nursery

20:04with bright lights and feed it formula like there was one other baby in there crying and it just seemed

20:09odd to me i don't know if it's a toy thing if this happens all around the world but it

20:14just seemed

20:14odd yeah the fact that she was crying as well and then as soon as lloyd brought her back to

20:20me she

20:20stopped and we got to have a bit more of the moment that i had envisioned but then so after

20:26we breastfed

20:27they we had told them we wanted her in our room now it was like me against this one nurse

20:32so the nurse

20:33took her away again and said she wanted to bathe her and i said no actually we're not going to

20:41bathe

20:41her because we had done our research and that we'd read that it wasn't necessary to bathe a baby in

20:48the

20:48first 24 hours it's actually more beneficial to not bathe them in the first 24 hours and this is our

20:54baby

20:54like we i think we should be have have the choice so um when i said that to her she

21:00seemed to get

21:01annoyed again and then i she took her away and it seemed like to me they didn't want me to

21:08follow

21:09because when i left the room one of the nurses who was with mandy called out to the one who

21:14was willing

21:15uh lila and just the vibe i was getting from her wasn't great and then so she asked again if

21:23she

21:23wanted to bathe her and i said no and she said okay no worries um look you guys can go

21:30up to your

21:30room now we can leave the labor room and we will bring your baby up in about 30 or 40

21:36minutes and

21:37i kind of just looked at her and was like what are you talking about no why do you why

21:42do you need her

21:43and i said no it's okay well i didn't say it like in a rude way or anything i just

21:47said

21:48no it's okay like i'll stay with her and we'll all go up together because that's just how i felt

21:53like it should have gone it felt like she they were trying to get her like away from us like

21:58yeah

21:58and that could just be normal like yeah but to to us and how we are like we're very protective

22:06um

22:07it didn't seem normal and it wasn't what we wanted either but when we when we finally got up to

22:13the room

22:13and got to just like settle in the three of us it was so worth it and the the room

22:19that we got was

22:20great yeah and it was actually the lowest class room we probably could have got a way better room

22:26but um we got like the standard room and it was great the food was actually pretty good uh like

22:33i

22:33said the one midwife who looked after us i wish we knew a name because she just was like really

22:38warm

22:38and like great with lila she showed us how to bathe her she helped with mandy breastfeeding and checked on

22:44us

22:45uh all in all like i just think the staff and the hospital were amazing um i just had my

22:51one battle

22:52with that one nurse unfortunately uh maybe it was weird for them to see a man so involved in the

23:01birth

23:01or something like that i don't know we'd already caught the drift that we were quite weird at the

23:06hospital like even with our doctor in previous like appointments and stuff that we were well aware

23:11that we do things a bit differently it was no surprise that everyone was a bit um taken back

23:18by what we were doing but um i'm just so grateful that i had like a really good birth partner

23:24like

23:24lloyd handled things so well i can't imagine how stressed he was when i was in like going through

23:30it all and i think that's just the most important thing is the communication with whoever um is your

23:36birth partner making sure that they are like on the ball yeah all in all a great experience the best

23:45experience i've ever had seeing uh my daughter open her eyes for the first time and take her first breath

23:52chaotic obviously but my advice to any fathers to be would be just trust your instincts a little bit

24:00i would say like whenever something felt a little bit off i just trusted my instinct and i think mandy

24:06mandy actually has been doing that since the day she got pregnant she's been trusting her instincts

24:11and not letting too many outside voices influence her too much but yeah having a baby in a thai hospital

24:19actually pretty bloody good it it was really good i felt very um supported

24:26and um everything was just very efficient and clean and we got to go home early which was awesome

24:34uh we had to return to the hospital the next day uh to get her measurements and weighed and that

24:41type

24:41of thing but overall like a really positive experience for me like i don't feel too traumatized and yeah

24:49recovering and most of all we've got our our family at home together now here in thailand it's great

24:55yeah and we're doing all right yeah we've had a couple of stressful mornings and nights but not

25:03too bad everyone keeps telling us it's going to get harder and worse so we'll see yeah uh we hope

25:10you guys found some value in this if you did don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to

25:14our

25:14channel uh let us know down below your thoughts maybe your birth experience we'd love to hear it

25:20so thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you in the next one bye

Our Honest Experience GIVING BIRTH In A Thailand Hospital

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