Giving birth is wonderful because it brings a new chapter of your life to you. However, it can be so scary as well because the scary thing is not just “giving birth” itself. The period of being pregnant and after the child is born is stressful too.
I am a Taiwanese who lives with my English husband in the UK for years. When we knew I was pregnant and we were going to have our first baby (or probably our only baby), I was more than 40 years old already and I was categorised to the elderly pregnant group. Besides, it was the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe in 2020. However, I still decided to go to Taiwan to give birth by a 23-hour journey of flight with 2 transits. It was not easy but it’s great I made it. If I had to make the decision again, I reckon I will still do the same.
The first thing I want to clarify: there is no doubt giving birth in the UK could be a good choice. As most people might know, the UK is a country with good benefits for pregnant women and childbirths.
First of all, according to a report, the UK is ranked the 24th for quality maternity care in the world (Save the Children, 2015).
Secondly, it’s recognised that the public health system offers giving birth for free in the UK.
Also, as everyone knows, birthing experience is so personal and it’s usually case by case. No matter which country each mum to be is in, it can be different because of being influenced by various factors.
However, for people who have health insurance, the births of their babies and other related services might be covered, and it depends on the specific policies that people have. So they are able to have more options in terms of giving births. To conclude, I don’t think there’re are any problems of giving births in the UK, if we only focused on“giving birth”itself.
So why didn’t I choose to give birth in the UK if the UK is a good place to give birth? The main reason was that I believed the postpartum care centre in Taiwan could provide me the best care after I gave birth. This is something not very easy to achieve in the UK. Additionally, Taiwan is one of the countries with the best healthcare services in the world (Taiwan medical travel, 2023; Daily mail, 2023). That’s why I hoped to enjoy the professional health carers’ support after giving birth there. And here are the 10 reasons why the healthcare centre I stayed after my child was born was so amazing.
1. Proper rest after pregnancy and child birth
Just imagine you’ve carried a very big tummy for 40 (or so) weeks. The tummy even grows up from a kiwi fruit to a watermelon. In general, it can be at least 3 kg during the last stage of pregnancy.
Labour is tiring too, some might succeed getting it done in just a few minutes, but some might need several hours to push the baby out. Moreover, some might even have c-section in the end — 1/4 of births in the UK are by c-section (NHS, 2023).
It’s just like someone who has experienced a marathon more than 9 months and then even needs to sprint for the last moment. Shouldn’t she take a nice break then?
In Taiwan, we call the rest women take after they give birth “sitting the month” ( “Zuo Yue Zi” / 坐月子). In old days, it was believed women who just had childbirth are extremely fragile, so they needed to take a rest for 100 days. This tradition can be traced back more than 2,000 years (Full joy, 2023). Now, it’s suggested that women should have a nice rest for 6 to 8 weeks, which are during puerperium based on western medical theory (Familydoctor.org, 2020).
When I booked the postpartum centre, I planned to stay for 30 days which is the most common length women usually consider “sitting the month” in recent years in Taiwan. It became 36 days in the end because my flights back to uk kept being cancelled due to the Covid-19 outburst so I had to extend my stay. Although it was not what I planned, I was so happy I had the chance to stay longer because I really felt fully charged afterwards after eating well, resting well and sleeping well.
2. Boutique hotel with 24/7 on-call medical experts
I gave birth at Dianthus MFM Clinic and stayed there for 3 nights in total. I went to Dianthus Postpartum Centre straight after I left the clinic.
I’ve been to several postpartum centres to visit my friends in Taiwan before I had a child, because most of them also choose to sit the month at somewhere like this to seek a better recovery with holistic care for the mums and the babies.
When we arrived at Dianthus Postpartum centre, the receptionist was expecting our arrival at the ground floor so we were guided to take a seat at the lounge immediately.
↑The reception of Dianthus Postpartum centre. The security guy would do security checks for all the visitors. The receptionist used to take people’s temperatures, ask people to wear surgical masks, distribute the PPE to those who were going to see the babies upstairs.
I and my birth partner (it was my husband) did some initial paperwork at the lounge. We were told they have done some handover with their colleagues from the clinic so they had some knowledge about our circumstances including my baby’s health condition and my medical history of the last few days when I was at the clinic for labour.
This is one of the reasons why I wanted to give birth and stay afterward at the places under same medical group – I gave birth at Dianthus MFM clinic which is under the same medical group of Dianthus Postpartum centre so the clinic share the information and knowledge of me and my baby so I didn’t have to put too much effort to give people any more briefings after I moved to the postpartum centre from the clinic. All the processes were so professional and easy.
↓The lounge of Dianthus Postpartum centre. It’s kind of a public area for people to check in, check out, consult, or wait.
About 10 minutes later, a nurse came to collect my baby to take her to the nursery room department to have medical treatment for jaundice, a common condition newborn babies have. The other is wet lungs, my baby had some liquid in her lungs and it affected her breathing. They also told us not to worry too much she would have full observation and care by doctors and nurses 24 hours from now on. And then I was taken to our room with my husband.
3. Specious rooms and good facilities
The room I stayed is 11 Taiwanese Ping (=36.36 square metre). It was equipped with all the essentials new parents need for the month we were there.
↑An overview of the parents’ room.
↑There’s a desk in the room.
↑It’s so handy for my husband to do something for his work at the desk. That was the place I usually had my meals at too.
↑The shower room. There’s a stool for new mums to have a sit down when they take a shower. The staff exchange the worn outfits in the laundry baskets with freshly washed ones for mums everyday or on demand.
↑The shampoo, soap, shower gel and body lotion from BVLGARI, the Italian luxury brand.
↑The toilet with electronic bidet which has automatic wash function and warm seat. Actually this is my favourite! It’s almost everywhere in Japan and we have this in most boutique hotels in Taiwan. It’s so thoughtful, because its wash function helps new mums keep their wounds and bottoms clean for hygiene requirement after giving birth by nature.
↑A mini kitchen with all the essentials new parents need — a fridge, baby bottle sanitiser, milk heating machine, and drinkable water tap with warm and cool water.
↑An automatic bed which can adjust the angles, moon pillow for feeding, PPE for the birth partner and outfits for the mum.
↑A landline phone with direct line to the customer service and the nursery room. It makes it easier to communicate with the nurses in the baby room 24 hours everyday.
↑Lockers for more storage outside of the rooms for people staying there.
↑Gym for the birth partners to take some exercise.
↑Spa room. Mums can book a massage to have some relaxed moments.
↑Private lounge. A space for the mums and birth partners to read or grab some drinks.
↑Nursery room.
↑My baby had very good care at the postpartum centre.
↑Baby feeding room. It’s next to the nursery room.
↑Parents can come here to feed their babies with experts around.
When I stayed at Dianthus Postpartum centre, I kept my baby at the nursery room most of the time. When I was informed it was time to feed the baby, I came here to feed her. In the early days I didn’t know how and what I was doing, so I asked the nurses to assist me very often. Later when I did better at feeding, nurses started to train me other things, such as changing the nappies and washing the baby’s bottom by the sink. It was so helpful to new mums like me.
↑We brought our baby back to our room to cuddle her every day.
4. Quality care meeting the standard of both eastern tradition and western medical principals
Both eastern and western medical theories figure out the importance of resting well and eating well after childbirth.
↑Here’s a glance of what I’ve eaten for “sitting month meals” at the centre during the 36 days.
People in Taiwan always have some stereotypes that food made by TCM is not very tasty — I remember after I had my first period, my mum started cooking me some TCM soup every now and then. She said it could help me grow up to be a healthy and pretty woman. However, most of the bowls I’ve had were usually made by TCM and herbs, and they were not very tasty at all. I usually needed to pinch my nose and tried to drink them as soon as possible to avoid the shocking bitterness all the time.
But the centre I stayed is so amazing at keeping balance between TCM, taste and nutrition, because its kitchen is led by a chef from a Michelin star restaurant. Also, it has support of doctors and nutritionists.
When it was meal time, the staff would deliver the food to every mum’s room. They usually leave them in the kitchen in the room and then the birth partners might help take it to wherever the mums want to eat. Eating was so exciting everyday then, but my husband was even more excited than me every time when he saw the food.
I’ve heard some people say their husbands are really jealous of their“sitting month meal”just like what my husband’s told me too.
↑My husband was really excited about my “sitting month meals” every time when they are delivered to our room.
Apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner, the mums are served various soup and local fruit for late night snacks every night to help them keep hydrated and well-fed to generate breast milk and help digestion. As some of you might know probably some new mums have some constipation problems for a while after they are pregnant.
↑Soup and local fruit is served as late night snacks every night.
↑This the picture I took of myself in my room after I stayed at the postpartum centre for 3 weeks. I was so thankful to the doctors and nurses who’ve taken care me so well so I could recover soon and I felt so great when I looked at myself in the mirror.
5. One stop medical care from pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum
Apart from receiving the record and treatment of me and my baby with the clinic I gave birth, there’s a paediatrics clinic downstairs in the building. My baby had reviews and vaccine injected with only a 3 minutes journey by a lift from her nursery room which is very handy for new mums who don’t want to travel too far to any other clinics or hospitals.
↑My baby is having her vaccine injected at the paediatrics clinic downstairs at the postpartum centre.
↑The nurses and doctor are reviewing my baby.
There are doctors and nurses around as well. I remember the nurses came to my room to check my wound from giving birth, take my temperature and measure my blood pressure at least once every day. If there were any things wrong, they would help me grab a doctor to do some further medical help.
I left my baby in the nursery room with the nurses most of the time when we stayed there. We were told all the babies would be taken care of by nurses and experts every second. They are also visited by doctors to have daily check-up first thing in the morning every day.
It’s all digitalized, too. The tablet in my room is kind of the hub of everything people need when they stay there. The most basic is all the facilities like lights in anywhere in the room, air conditioning, the height or the angle of the bed and curtains.
↑All the facilities could be controlled with the tablet in our room.
It also shows the data of the babies after they are born. Parents can check how and what their babies doing every moment in real time.
↑It’s so easy to check the baby’s status with the tablet in real time any time.
Time slots and availabilities of the doctors from various divisions can be found on the tablet too, so it’s so easy to book appointments whenever and bring the doctors to my room to do some checks.
6. Pre-battle training camp
The days staying in the postpartum centre were really were helpful. Being parents is definitely something you need to learn and practice at! I know some people they try to read books or browse on the internet to work out how to be parents, but to be honest the reality is not always the same as what books, social media or other people tell us. However, during the 36 days I stayed at the postpartum centre, I truly felt I was fully supported on both physical and mental conditions (of course the food there made a big contribution).
But what I am saying here is it’s impossible to know how to be a parent just instantly, so we need a professional team to assist us in all areas. For example, the nurses who are assigned to the parents are not only the babysitters of your babies, they are also coaches of the parents that stay there. They train the parents how to take care of the babies and stay with us when we need them.
However, when we are frustrated and need some breaks, the nurses would not push too much and they would take our baby to the nursery room to let both sides have some space. When the parents are ready, they can take their babies back to their room and start over the practices again. It’s something that isn’t possible to achieve if the new parents started their childcare right after the children are born in their own house.
↑The nurse is showing us how to burp our baby in our room.
↑My baby had some nappy rash so the nurses tried to demonstrate to us how to unwrap the baby’s bottom to get some fresh air without making too much mess when the baby tinkled.
7. Transition and settlement
Parenting is not like any other jobs. It is a job that doesn’t have any training or probation. All the parents become parents right at the moment when the babies are born. As a result, it can be a very big impact to everyone’s life (including the baby’s). It’s not reversible, either. This is why I highly recommend parents to stay at a postpartum centre. It’s not only because it’s a way to give the new mums a good rest, but also a good transition period to settle the parents to prepare to be fathers and mothers gradually while some people are always by our side to help anytime.
8. Last opportunity for a partial-holiday
Having a child is like a battle with endless challenges for at least 18 years – if you considered the length of raising and guarding children from a legal point of view. Like I shared in the previous paragraph, all the mums just experience an exhausting long run of carrying the babies in their tummies, and then they feel extreme big changes physically and mentally after the babies arrive in the world. And then, there is even a longer run to grow the kid up with thousands of sleepless nights with noise. So staying at a lovely postpartum centre is sort of the last opportunity to catch up on sleep and have some peaceful quiet life.
↑I had some edema problem so my husband was trying to give me some massage to help soothe the pain.
Based on what most of my friends told me, it’s even much better than their own houses – It’s easier to filter which people you want to see or you don’t want to see with the guest registration system at these kinds of places. And then you see those people after you check out from the postpartum centre when you are happy to see them instead of being ambushed very soon after you give birth when you still feel tired and rubbish.
↑Our visitors were allowed to see the baby from outside of the nursery room after they registered and were approved by us. But they were not able to access our room so we could keep more privacy when we were there.
9. Birth partner could be part of it
There’s a joke in Taiwan. When mums stay at a postpartum centre, their husbands are usually better fed than the mums there because the food there is always amazing and they eat much more than them. That’s why some rumors say that husband gain so much weight because they have delicious food and good sleep at the same time.
In addition to great care they can offer, parents can attend training courses together. They pass down the hard skills such as taking bath for the babies or having some initial understanding about deceases of babies. These are all practical and some of them are still so useful until my kid is 2 years old.
10. Good location
Some people might have little imagination of being staying at such a place for about 1 month, especially the dads. This is the way local people do in Taiwan. Dads go stay overnight with the mums after work every day. Because mums have food offered at the place already so the dads need to sort out his dinner either on the way to the place or order takeaway there. So you probably have some idea now that the location of the postpartum centres is essential. The place we stayed is near to one of the biggest night markets in Taipei, and the MRT (subway system in Taiwan) is a 5 minute walk away, so it’s so handy to grab some food on the street or just order something on Ubereat or food Panda. Living there is never boring too. There is some entertainment or recreation such as massage as well.
↑My husband’s most excited moment during the day — revealing the takeaway he ordered.
↑He also loved the local food and drinks he could find in the night market.
↑This guy is a big fan of Taiwanese tea as well. We were very lucky to order some incredible tea all the time when we stayed there.
↑The little snooze when we went to the night market for some massage near the postpartum centre…probably you can tell how tired a new dad can be.
【Read more】:
☞坐月子做什麼？ 分享： 禾馨士林產後護理之家 守護媽媽寶寶身心靈的快樂天堂
☞100%無痛。輕鬆。優雅。生產體驗——《預謀式自然產》：禾馨民權催生/無痛分娩/樂得兒LDR病房分享
【Reference】:
█ “The UK ranks 24th in the world for quality of maternity care”, https://www.savethechildren.org/content/dam/usa/reports/advocacy/sowm/sowm-2015.pdf, (Save The Children, 2022)
█ “An overview of healthcare in Taiwan”, https://www.medicaltravel.org.tw/Article.aspx?a=17&l=1, (Taiwan medical travel, 2023)
█ “Taiwan ranks number 1 for preventive care in the world”, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11668661/amp/League-table-shame-UK-womens-healthcare-languish-Saudi-Arabia-global-list.html, (Daily mail, 2023)
█ “Overview: Caesarean section”, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/caesarean-section/, (NHS, 2023)
█ “Comparison of the ways people sit the month in the old days and modern society”,
https://www.fulljoy.com.tw/assistant-page65, (Full joy, 2023)
█ “Recovering from Delivery (Postpartum Recovery)”, https://familydoctor.org/recovering-from-delivery/#:~:text=Your%20postpartum%20recovery%20won%27t,body%20has%20turned%20against%20you, (Familydoctor.org, 2020)
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