Hospital visits

Jordan and I visited two more hospitals last night. Since we were in Korba, we decided to check out El Hayat, a christian hospital with good references from friends of ours who have delivered there and Cleopatra, a hospital I've been hearing about since day 1 from Americans living in Cairo. El Hayat is small, but very busy and crowded. They list their services in the front entrance and we were glad to see that they had a NICU, u/s, and Obgyn. The front staff seemed to be overwhelmed and they weren't able to help us. They told us to go to the 2nd floor and ask the receptionists there. We did and after some language barriers, we were told that they only have basic rooms, no suites. We saw one and it was definitely basic...it had 4 walls. Delivery happens in the OR. They didn't know if family members like my husband would be able to go into the OR with me. We did see the NICU which had two babies in beds and one in an incubator. The baby was a preterm and seemed to be doing fine. It was scary that they let us walk in to that area. Jordan and I tried to keep it quick so as not to spread germs.

The second hospital, Cleopatra, seemed much more "Americanized". Receptionists were helpful, it didn't feel overcrowded, and we have heard only good things about this hospital. We toured two suites which were big and much more patient friendly with a fridge, closet, and an electronic bed that looked very new. I felt comfortable because it was more like a hospital then a hotel. We got to see into the nursery and they had lots of beds, but no incubators. There is another room on the floor above just for preterm babies. There were flat screens everywhere listing the doctors and their hours for every service the hospital offered which was very helpful. We also walked away with a brochure of the doctors names and hours in Arabic which is fine. Luckily, we have friends from Broken Arrow, OK that live a couple buildings down from Cleopatra. It's nice not to feel so far away from people we know.

We plan to tour the famous El-Nada birthing center on an island on the Nile. Lots of foreigners have delivered there and we are anxious to compare it to Cleopatra which is currently at the top of our list. Unfortunately, it is so far away!! It could take us a couple hours to get there if the traffic is bad. To be continued I guess!