A stay in a hospital is for many the bare horror: You are helplessly at the mercy of the hospital staff, you can’t think of sleeping in a multi-bed room and the doctor never has time.
Those who have to go to hospital are not well off. Therefore, hardly anyone will look forward to a visit to the hospital. On the contrary, many people are afraid of an upcoming hospital stay. One feels helplessly at the mercy of unknown nursing staff.
Doctors always seem rushed and have no time. You constantly read about resistant germs that can infect you in the hospital and about operations that are superfluous. How do you manage to get the best possible treatment?
Neither light figures nor black sheep
Sobering, because the emergency doctor Brandenburg, born in 1978, who holds a doctorate in medicine, clearly names the grievances in the hospitals. For example, competition and cost pressure mean that an important part of medical treatment in hospitals is neglected: the personal contact between doctor and patient, which creates a relationship based on trust. Because this relationship is not established, many people turn away disappointed from conventional medicine and out of pure desperation turn to alternative methods.
The book is encouraging because, despite the drastic descriptions, the author repeatedly emphasizes that the vast majority of doctors and nurses are neither light figures nor black sheep, but strive to meet the high demands of their profession. “Their chances of getting the latter in a hospital are not so bad,” he writes.
Is the operation really necessary?
The guidebook is helpful because the physician reveals some tricks and tips with which important questions can be clarified easily. Whether an operation is really necessary, for example. But also how a patient can succeed in asking the doctor, who did not have time during the visit, the important question.
In addition, one or the other myth is called into question: The advantages of private health insurance, for example: “As a rule, no one needs to pay what the statutory health insurance funds do not,” writes author Brandenburg, who has meanwhile left the Mühle hospital system and is now working as an honorary doctor in emergency medicine.
Maternity Clinic
You should consider these things when choosing the maternity clinic
Every maternity clinic offers information evenings for pregnant women and their partners on certain days. In order to prepare yourself for such an event, you should know which criteria are important for your delivery. The most important aspects are explained here.
Where should I give birth?
Sooner or later, all pregnant women face this question. The choice of the maternity clinic is sometimes quite simple, since only one is within reach. Alternatively, a nearby birthplace or home birth might be an option. But often there is a larger selection of hospitals available and interested in winning you over as a patient. Births are a must for pregnant women and a business for hospitals. And you should approach your selection from this perspective.
At the weekly ward, a distinction must be made between nurses and pediatric nurses. The nurses take care of the mother, the pediatric nurses the baby. Especially the pediatric nurses should be sympathetic to you and have one specially trained nurse per shift. Ask here for an IBCLC lactation consultant. She can help you with questions or problems with breastfeeding.
If you have decided to give birth in a hospital and not at home, you must now consider which of your needs, wishes and ideas should match the clinic’s offer.
Directions
The distance to the clinic is often the decisive criterion … usually only to find out that the delivery lasts 12 hours and that one would have had alternatives – but who can know this beforehand? A good possibility is to have the nearest hospital at least as “Plan B”, even if it failed in other criteria. You can register in two clinics and then decide whether the distance between contractions, the gut feeling and the overall situation allow a longer journey.
One thing to keep in mind: the densest hospital can have a difficult parking situation. Are special parking spaces offered for delivery room patients (stork parking lot) so that the dad doesn’t miss the birth by looking for a parking space?
Hospitals further away should also be considered from the point of view of the busiest times of day and possible construction sites and accidents.
