The Hospital

I was able to continue getting prenatal care at the international clinic until the last month of my pregnancy. At this point I had to be referred to a Russian doctor. Foreigners are not allowed to deliver babies. My doctor gave me a referral to a Russian doctor who spoke some English at the perinatal hospital here in Moscow. This is a new hospital and has a reputation for being really good. We went in for a tour of the hospital. You then had to choose a package option and sign a contract with the hospital. The 3 package options that they offered were the standard package, one private room and bathroom for the mother. Then there was the deluxe package, which was a room for the mother and a room for the baby. The baby’s room was fully furnished and looked professionally decorated. Then there was the VIP package which included the mother’s room, the baby’s room, and the Father’s room. The father’s room included a few couches and a huge flat screen tv. It also had 2 full bathrooms and a full time nurse who would sit outside your room 24 hours a day waiting for you to buzz her. Tim was really tempted by the big screen tv…but on hearing the $20,000 price tag…we decided that we REALLY liked the standard room. We decided on the most basic package and they drew up the contract. However, we ran into trouble trying to pay. Even though we had money in our account…the bank froze our cards because of the large amount we were trying to charge. This was a Friday afternoon…we were able to sign a promissory note that kept the contract valid for 3 days. Without a valid contract…if I went into labor…we would not be admitted. Being 8 and a half months pregnant…this made us a little nervous. We ran home to call the bank to try to get everything situated. After talking to 3 different people we were told there was nothing that could be done until the main office opened on Monday morning at 9 am. 9 am in America is 5 pm here…and the contract had to be paid for by 6 pm on Monday or we were looking at a forced home birth. Since the hospital is about 30 minutes away…Tim left our apartment at 4:30 on Monday with our bank card…and I got on skype to call in at 5 on the button. Thankfully I was able to finally reach someone who could actually help us and she unblocked the card for 1 hour. I called Tim on his mobile where he was waiting at the hospital…and he was able to pay and have everything settled by 5:45…just in time! Having the contract in hand took a huge load off!