Pregnancy / Medical

Hi we are currently in  the middle of our move to Libya and have found the info on this forum very useful but I have not seen anything on what the medical facilities or general practice among the expat community is when it comes to pregnancy and child birth in Tripoli. Unexpectedly we find ourselves moving to Libya with the prospect of my wife being pregnant, while it looks like the general medical facilities seam OK at the like's of Medilink I do not yet see any info on the options / quality of the care when it comes to actual child birth in Tripoli, the prospect of my wife having to return to the UK for an extended stay is something we would like to avoid.

Does anybody have any feed back or been in a similar situation while living in Libya?

Thanks

Hi I have been through the same and here is my experience.
I had all my scans done at the Libyan swiss hospital (nr benashour rd) although now its called Libyan British hospital. I saw Dr Dalag, and he did all my scans, blood pressure check, weight etc. I saw him every month.
I also had a 14 week scan in the uk and saw my doctor and midwife a few times.
I returned home to the UK at 33 weeks to give birth, so i cannot comment on child birth here.  Most expat women return home, i think only a few choose to give birth here.
Luckliy for me, my husband was allowed 5 weeks in the UK to be with us, before he returned to Libya. He came to get me when the baby was almost 9 weeks and we all returned to Libya together. so we were only apart for 4 weeks. (long enough tho when you have a newborn!!)
My only experience of medilink is when my baby had her vaccinations only a few days ago. It was very expensive.  Check to see if you have private health cover as this could cover the cost for you.
If you need any more info then please feel free to message me.
All the best.

Thanks for the information, I have not visited any of the medical facilities yet but have heard Medilink mentioned by some colleagues which is what I looked up on the web, believe it is covered under our medical but we would be no means tied to them if there are better options available. It certainly looks like it may not be as bad as we first suspected !

I'm now 32 weeks pregant and since the begining of my pregnance I'm in Libya and I'm going to have a delivery here. I found a great doctor. A British women, who delivered here in Trpoli 2 times recommended her. She is Libyan, but has a long experience in working in Austria. A lot of European women are her patients. If you would like to contact her I can send you her number and names of the clinic on your mail. To have Vaccinations you can visit public hospital in Tripoli. They have the same vaccinations as WHO recommend, you don't have to pay a lot of money in Medlink. I visited this Swiss Libyan Clinic and it's not very good in my opinion. They don't want to have patients with normal delivery only cesariean.
Best wishes

if i may give a word of advice, consider hopping across the border to Tunisia for any medical attention.  They have European standards and generally speaking far better than here.
Unfortunately there are no decent medical facilities i would recommend here, not even St.James or the Swiss hospital, the only European thing you get there are the prices...

I got a free Yellow Fever and Meningitits shots purely to get the card. My experience would have been better had the nurse been kitted out in short skirt, suzzies etc, but I didn't grumble. :cool:

Sandman6 wrote:

I got a free Yellow Fever and Meningitits shots purely to get the card. My experience would have been better had the nurse been kitted out in short skirt, suzzies etc, but I didn't grumble. :cool:


Will take that on board. Just for you my first act as 'She who must be obeyed' will be to change the uniform policy ;oD

meems wrote:

Have any of you had any experiences there good or bad?!


I didn't and dont want to. However, I think a new uniform policy will translate to immediate, unfathomable level of medical success.

I had mine in Al Marra..it was really good i know the doctroz and my husband was beside me when i deliver the baby..really not what i expect for in this country but we both share the best feeling when my lil girl went out in this world!..specially if your an expat they can make arrangement with you.. :)

kasialip5 wrote:

If you would like to contact her I can send you her number and names of the clinic on your mail.


Hi,

I'm not pregnant yet, but I'm planning to be :> So, I want a be under the supervision of a women doctor.  You recommend someone. Could you send me the contact information of her, please?

Thank you.

for me I guess not only the doctor, also the medical staff would be an important thing to consider, so if you have both then things are in your best favor. About crossing the boarder, they think Tunisia is the best but well, a piece of advice you should know also the doctor and the Medical staff cos there they think you will find there a European price but these prices are worth it. I wish you the best

Hello everybody,

I started  to  read this topic, but here  still  not  so  many  information  about that...
I would like to ask you kasialip5 how are you doing? How was your delivery? And could you share which hospital did you  choose  for  your  delivery?
Hope  everything  went  well :)

Thanks.

My baby is 7 week old now :-) I delivered in Al Masaara Clinic with dr Raeda. She helped me a lot. The staff in the clinic was great- nurses nice and helpfull. I was really scared before, but it wasn't bad :-)

Thank you kasialip5 for your replay.
congratulations :) wish you and your baby be healthy and  strong :)
Could you tell  me one more  thing please :)
Maybe  you  had  this (or did  hear  about  that)  in that hospital.
Do   they  allow  husband to  be with giving  birth  women    during  ALL  process from  first  step in to  hospital  till  having  baby  in  your  hands? :)

Thank  you.

Yes, my husband was with me during whole delivery (all the time). He was with me during all examinations, in the delivery room and after delivery he got baby to look after him.

Thank  you kasialip5  :)

giving birth in libya | take a pregnant pause

lookoutlibya.com/Look_Out_Libya_%7C_Feature_05

Anyone heard of Dr.Badria Bargawi at the Libyan-British clinic?

I suppose that I should update the this post as I got it started, we are now 5+ months into the pregnancy and have decided to opt for having the baby in the UK, we visited the clinic here for a scan at about 15 weeks and where very unsure about the treatment that my wife received, while nothing was wrong the service we just did not feel confident. We then mentioned we would be taking a short break to Asia a couple of weeks after the scan, the doctor then insisted that my wife return before leaving which resulted in another very uncomfortable scan and a prescription for medicine to prevent her going into labour which we refused, we asked our doctor in the UK about this and he was shocked to put it mildly, so the decision was to head to the UK and have the baby there.

I am pleased to see that there are several people here that have had much better experiences than us and that everything has gone well, given that this is a pretty big deal I feel that you need to be comfortable with the practitioners that you are dealing with, the same clinic did a stand up job when my wife sliced her finger with a knife a couple of weeks ago so do not in general feel they are poor, we where just not comfortable enough to risk remaining here.

Great decision Clive_Libya!!
I would have done the same ... I was prescribed medicine here which said clearly on the leaflet 'safe use during pregnancy has not been established' during my pregnancy... so do make it a point to check the net/refer to a doc. back home before your wife takes any kind of medication prescribed here.
Good luck ... hope your wife has a healthy, stress-free pregnancy.. :)