Cleanliness: the birthing room was extremely clean. In fact, I was not allowed to see it in advance because they wanted to maintain a sterile environment. You must wear there slippers in the birthing room, but you can wear whatever clothes you want and your husband can wear his regular clothes. No need to wear a hairnet.

Pricing: I did an natural water-birth in Dec 2011. It cost 30,000 RMB including a 5 day hospital stay. They worked with our insurance company to set-up direct billing. I am pretty sure there is one set price, so if I had had a C-section it still would have been 30,000. I like this because there was not financial incentive fro them to make me to a c-section.

English level: Dr. Gao speaks English pretty well. She is certainly not native, but was able to communicate everything just fine. I also had an older doctor (Dr. Li) who couldn’t speak English but had more experience with birth at my side. I was glad they were both there, but I wished my Chinese was better so I could understand what they were saying to each other.

I had a good experience at Antai and would recommend it to people who have been in China, speak Chinese and are accustom to the culture.

What I liked:
-very comfortable rooms
-they are extremely customer oriented, they accommodated me and did whatever I asked.
-experienced doctors
-in room wifi
-after birth we went to our recovery room which had a king size bed for my husband and I and a bassinet beside the bed for our baby. Nurses came during the day to check on us, but not at night unless we called them. It was a very restful 5 days, perfect for me to recover and learn to nurse.
– I loved the water birth.
– They were very patient and didn’t rush me or the baby
– They never pressured me to use pain meds or get an epidural.
– I was able to eat and drink during labor
– My husband was encouraged to stay with me the whole-time.
– They didn’t require I wear an IV or take antibiotics.
– They let my husband cut the cord

What I didn’t like:
-English level could be better
-They do not provide diapers, sanitary napkins, etc.
-The food there is expensive (we preferred to order in from nearby restaurants like Papa John’s)
-They could have been more helpful in teaching me how to breastfeed. I wish they had a lactation consultant on staff.
-They refused to let me watch them prick the baby’s heel for the blood test. However, when I refused to let the baby out of my sight, they compromised and agreed to let my husband go with the baby.

Random tip: If you want them to take pictures during your birth, tell them exactly what to take pictures of and make a list. I have a bunch of pictures of the baby’s head coming out (which are pretty worthless because I will never show anyone) and no pictures of the first time I held him or my husband cutting the cord.

Jeremy & Jacquelyn Carman

Founders of havingababyinchina.com, Jeremy and Jacquelyn have four children. The first three were born in three different hospitals in China and the last was born at home in the US. Jeremy and Jacquelyn created havingababyinchina.com in 2009 after they found little information for foreigners having babies in China. They love connecting with other foreigners having babies. Learn more about them on the about page.