Ok, if you read the post about my personal Labor & Delivery experience in Basel. This is pretty much the complete opposite. The Postpartum care here, is AMAZING.
From the spacious maternity ward to the weeks out home visit, the support was unbelievable. When they wheeled us on up to our maternity room I was shocked at how enormous it was. Not to mention Matt had his own bed! Quite a step above from the semi couch he slept on in NJ. (The hospital facilities in NJ were quite nice however these were unreal.) We had a balcony overlooking a lovely private park & gardens. Our room had our beds connected together, a sitting area and a dining area. Way bigger than most hotel rooms I've stayed in.
Plus, the food. Oh the food! I thoroughly enjoyed having all my meals catered from a full menu of about 12 different options including glorious salads and 3 course steak dinners, all accompanied by a choice dessert. The extra special surprise was the coffee/latte/cappuccino plus dessert cart that came around in the afternoon.
Ok I digress, beyond the food..., the best part was the care. I was a little worried at first about the level of English and ability to communicate everything but everyone was wonderful. One thing in the US that made recovery difficult was the seemingly constant checking of stats, blood pressure, my temp, baby temp, baby tests, etc. They came in all hours of the night so even if we were trying to rest you were woken up for tests. I didn't rest. But here it was much more casual (could be also because it was my 2nd baby?) but if we were resting they just peeked in and would come back later. They never woke us up. Additionally, for our little man in NJ they had us wake him up every 3-4 hours to feed him. Here she slept slept slept and I fed her when she was awake. I felt that they treated us here more like humans and people and less like a checklist / statistics. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of both but from a patient perspective (who is already exhausted) I much preferred the Swiss approach.
My favorite part of the hospital stay was when they asked me "when do you want to check out?" Me: "what do you mean?... I have a choice?" Midwife: "of course, if you feel you need to stay longer you are welcome to take as long as you need to feel recovered". WHAT?!?!
Here's just a list of some additional postpartum perks:
- a midwife comes to your home the day after you get home just to check in on you & baby
- that midwife also comes to your home for up to 10 visits during the first 6 weeks, all covered by insurance
- our first pediatrician checkup was also at our home. (Not including her coming to the hospital). So nice not to have to A) take our precious newborn into a Dr's office with sick kids (although our own daycare loving toddler isn't exactly sanitized) and B) get dressed & out the door for a specific appt time
- there's a public mommy care center in downtown that's open every day for you to pop in any time if you need / want advice or someone to talk to. This actually applies to parents of kids at any age but we just didn't know about it until Lia. They also called us the first 2 weeks to check in & make sure all is going well.
- if you breastfeed for 10weeks, the government reimburses you 200CHF
...I feel like there's more I'm forgetting, but being so far from family (and super super super grateful for both parent sets coming to visit us!) it's nice to know there is a network of help just a phone call away.
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