mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> Ryan Ginstrom <ginstrom@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The US actually offers pretty good services in the form of clinics and
> various forms of care. The worst case is if you're middle class, where
> you don't qualify for the freebies, and can't afford the best.

I disagree. The care is adequate as long as you have nothing unusual going
on. My wife had had several miscarriages, and was spotting in this
pregnancy. We went in to Planned Parenthood with an appointment. We were
told to come back in a month, at which time they would schedule an
appointment for an ultrasound, after which they would schedule an
appointment to see a doctor.

This was on a Friday. I called a private practioner that day, and my wife
saw a doctor and got an ultrasound the next Monday. Twice weekly checkups
after that (with the same doctor) until the sixth month, at which point they
became weekly. The doctor who treated her throughout the pregnancy also
delivered the baby at a nearby hospital.

The treatment was really like night and day. And so was the cost.

> My wife had a baby in Japan and one in the US. In Japan, they kept her
> in the hospital for about a week, and wouldn't let anyone touch the
> baby (until I insisted) and then wouldn't let it back in with the
> other babies.

My niece recently had a baby here in Okinawa. She was holding and nursing
her baby within hours. And it went back into the nursery when the baby
wasn't with her.

> In the US, they kicked her out the day after the baby was born.

We paid for my wife to stay an extra day. Cost $1,000.

-- 
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom