Pregnancy and giving birth in Jeddah

I have not been pregnant here, but know many women who have. Many have had a good experience. One just gave birth in January and used IMC. I believe another used GNP.

Just find a doctor you are comfortable with and who will respect your wishes.

Unless you get personal recommendations, I am afraid you will have to go "doctor shopping", which means going to a different one every month for your scans until you find one you like.  As for hospitals, try GNP, Soliman Fakeeh, Erfan, Bugshan, Saudi German, and if your insurance covers it, IMC.  Start with the ones near where you live, because the last thing you need when you are pregnant is being stuck in traffic.  "Doctor shopping" is exactly what wife and I did when she was pregnant in 2008, but in the end we decided it was best for her to give birth in her own country.

But as stressedmom said, make sure they follow your exact instructions during delivery.  Put it in writing what you want and don't want.  One of my wife's colleagues gave birth around the same time in Erfan Hospital, and immediately after delivery they took the baby away for a whole hour or so, which distressed the mother quite a bit.  Probably fed her formula during that period as well.  Let them know you want your baby to be immediately laid on you after delivery for bonding and that it should not be fed formula milk if you plan on breast feeding.  In short, their capacity/potential compared to the West, well, it doesn't compare at all.  Which is exactly why you need to find a doctor who will respect your wishes.

Word of advice: Research has shown that waiting to cut the cord for 2-3 minutes after birth is beneficial to the baby's health as it allows time for the nutrient rich blood from the mother to be transferred to the baby.

If not possible to give birth at our home country, we would trust IMC, Soliman Fakeeh,

maybe UDH also, we have a friend who gave birth there a few months ago, and they did seem happy.... and the husband got to go stay with her all throughout.

Hi friends, this is my first baby and I am going to GNP Dr. taj until now, she seems fine but i just dont seem to connect with her, also i know IMC is the best but it is not covered in my insurance. very confused as i dont want to have a c section, the culture that prevails here- at least wanna try natural birth first and then if necessary c section. i heard IMC are best in that. please suggest some other doctors and i prefer only female doctors. Also if we plan to go to IMC without insurance coverage would it cost a big hole in our pockets? i heard there are packages for delivery?

If you go to any hospital outside your network, you will get refunded up to the 'customary' charges of hospitals within the network.  I don't know exactly how expensive IMC is compared to other major hospitals, but if you do go to IMC, make sure you get not just receipts, but also full write-ups by the doctor indicating the diagnosis and/or prognosis.  Give all documents to directly to the insurance company, or to the HE employee responsible for insurance.  You will get your refund within 10 days or so.  (But, as I said, since IMC is more expensive, it will be a partial refund, whether closer to 50% or to 75% or to some other figure, I don't know)

My wife was pregnant with our second child (first born in the UK) and she stayed here up until about six months pregnant and then went back home for the delivery. We dont have family here so thought it would be better to have some relatives close by (someone there for the labour and someone to look after our first child). Obviously I cant be in two places at once.

Major downside was that baby came a few days earlier than expected and i missed the birth...something im sure my wife will not let me forget.

She had all her checkups at IMC and although she saw three or four different doctors all were quite good. Colleagues have had children mostly at IMC a few at Soliman Fakeeh.

I think the packages at IMC for normal delivery are around 10k-12k sar.


She then went back home for the

We had our baby few months back in GNP and I must say that it was a highly rated experience. The staff were really friendly and showed high professionalism all the way especially the Philippina midwife and the British head nurse (sorry forget both there names  ). The father can attend the delivery and they dont rush to C section, we saw that with other women delivering at the same time. Now to the negatives (there is always something), the delivery will be done by the on-call doctor for that week and not by the doctor you have been following-up with. The second thing (and this is common in almost all private hospitals in Saudi) they dont promote breastfeeding and you need to ask the nurses not to bottle feed the baby.

Something to think about before going to a hospital that your insurance does not cover you in is the chance of the baby needing to be admitted in NICU for whatever reason (you could be talking about 90,000 SAR a month).

When we went to a checkup for my son at IMC we saw breast feeding posters and it seemed like they were trying to promote it.

Lets hope this is a change across all hospitals.

Dr Taj is good and I guess my insurance does cover NICU coverage if needed.. and yes on call dr delivers the baby which doesnt give you any advantage of having a specialist or consultant around..

Let me share few things about Breastfeeding here in Saudi Arabia and am not talking as a healthcare professional (which am not),but as a father. So feel free to correct me if am wrong or blabla talking, And sorry from now for the looong post

Studies in Saudi Arabia showed that less than 25% of mothers breastfeed their babies for the first 6months of their life and only 10% for the first year, in other words, the high majority of mothers dont breastfeed their babies and that can be due to many factors such as; culture, laziness, depending on maids in preparing bottle feeding, multiple pregnancy in a short period of time and lack of education.

All the above reasons are very valid, but one other major factor is the way the mother and the baby are treated at the hospital in the first crucial 24-48h after delivery. Its not a matter of hanging posters promoting breastfeeding or the 5 minutes visit conducted to the mother by the healthcare educator. The parents should stand firm on NOT ALLOWING the baby to be bottle fed with the RTF (Ready To Feed) available in the Nursery, why? Because many babies get hooked on the formula and the plastic texture of the nibble and thats what baby formula companies are after ( just so you  know, this RTF is giving for free to hospitals by those companies and not only that they also donate money to hospitals so they will use their brand against other brands).

The mother should try hard to breastfeed the baby from the start even if she felt that there are no milk (centrum)  keep trying and it will come, if the mother toke some time to start producing milk ( could take up to one week in some cases) then she can do the following;

    Keep trying because that will encourage the body/ hormones to lactate
    Use glucose feeding available in the Nursery for the first two days (as far as I know)
    Use the cup when feeding the baby with  formula and not the plastic nipple
    Use breast bump to extract any drop of milk

There is one center call Al Bidayah Breast Feeding resource & Womens Awareness Tel:6655225-123. Its the only center here in Jeddah for breastfeeding awareness established by an American lady where pregnant women and new mothers can go for consultation, education courses, buying or renting tools such as Electrical Breast Bumps.

Because many babies get hooked on the formula and the plastic texture of the nibble and thats what baby formula companies are after ( just so you  know, this RTF is giving for free to hospitals by those companies and not only that they also donate money to hospitals so they will use their brand against other brands).

They are evil, and they will pay a price one day 

I thought of sharing good news with you guys , that some of you may already knew, in regarding to baby milk prices here in Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Council of Competition have started investigations into recurrent price hike made by leading baby milk producers and importers. This started around three weeks ago and the investigations concluded that those companies are increasing the prices continuously to meet their sales targets(by Riyals) and to keep paying for all the promotional activities they are involved in with the healthcare industry.

The ministry gave those companies  two-week grace period to adjust the prices to the  price cap they announced of maximum 400 grams of baby milk set at SR29, and 900 grams set at SR63.

Officials from the ministry and the council raided 10 headquarters of the major baby milk producers and importers in Riyadh and Jeddah at frequent intervals and collected evidence pertaining to the violation of the regulations.
I checked yesterday in some supermarkets and the price of the powder formula went down from 39-42SR to 27!!!..

Thumbs Up to Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Council of Competition 

can u tell which baby milk product it precisely was? and how much weight did the pack have? coz I also need to buy few but dont know.. i couldnt find one in the price you mentioned.. how much grams was it?? and if possible you can share the name of market you took it from..

ahmadaq wrote:

I thought of sharing good news with you guys , that some of you may already knew, in regarding to baby milk prices here in Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Council of Competition have started investigations into recurrent price hike made by leading baby milk producers and importers. This started around three weeks ago and the investigations concluded that those companies are increasing the prices continuously to meet their sales targets(by Riyals) and to keep paying for all the promotional activities they are involved in with the healthcare industry.

The ministry gave those companies  two-week grace period to adjust the prices to the  price cap they announced of maximum 400 grams of baby milk set at SR29, and 900 grams set at SR63.

Officials from the ministry and the council raided 10 headquarters of the major baby milk producers and importers in Riyadh and Jeddah at frequent intervals and collected evidence pertaining to the violation of the regulations.
I checked yesterday in some supermarkets and the price of the powder formula went down from 39-42SR to 27!!!..

Thumbs Up to Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Council of Competition 

It was similac gain +6m and that was in sarawat supermarket on Jeddah international market . Also saw it in other small pharmacies.

wow cool ! sarawat is next to me and I didnt check there.. ill try grab few today ! thanks alot !

ahmadaq wrote:

It was similac gain +6m and that was in sarawat supermarket on Jeddah international market . Also saw it in other small pharmacies.