Private, or not private, that is the question
An important consideration to keep in mind when delivering in Switzerland is if you will have a private, semi-private, or general ward bed at the hospital. Usually, you can choose whatever you prefer, but the costs are tightly linked to the type of health insurance that you have.
The medical attention that you will get is independent of your choice of type of room, but if you ask the hospital they will tell you that private rooms receive the visit of the Oberartz, and, in principle, no medicine students will be taking care of you. Only experienced doctors. Which, in fact, they are also taking over if complications arise, even in the case of general ward patients.
The biggest difference is what you will get once you are in the room, and here your choice can actually make a great difference. Depending on if you had a C-section or not, you will be in the hospital for 2 to 4 days on average. If you are in the general ward or half-private, you will be sharing the room during this time. Either with other three new mums or with just one other person, respectively.
“Shared rooms can be the seed for a long-lasting bond with other families”
There are several pros and cons to be evaluated when deciding if to share the room or not. Shared rooms are obviously much cheaper than individual ones (duh) and this is a major point, as the difference in price, depending on your health insurance and how the delivery goes, can be close to the 10s of thousands of CHF. In a shared room you can also meet interesting people with whom you can share your first experiences as a mum, as well as talk about fears and concerns, or help others with your own experience. This can be a situation where bonds are made between families and new friends are met. Giving company to each other can be of great help, even more, when partners cannot be around for any given reason.
On the other hand, you are not sharing the room only with other mums, but also with their babies, and their families. Depending on your personality and your situation, this can be an issue. It can be demoralizing to spend a lot of time trying to put your baby to sleep, just to be awakened by the cry of your neighbor's baby. And remember, you have just got a baby. You ARE tired. Your baby IS tired. Everyone is.
“If you are interested in a full private room, talk with you health insurance company. Upgrades are possible.”
In our case, as we were already paying for semi-private health insurance, we asked our company if we could upgrade to full private for the delivery. The answer was yes. Every health insurance company has its own policy in this respect and if you are interested in this, you should contact your own health insurance. For us, the upgrade could be done with a franchise of 2,000 CHF in the total costs of the stay.
In the end, we are very happy with this decision. We got a great room just for us, with an adjacent living room (shared between two patients in different rooms) that could be used by families visiting. This was during Corona times, so there was no use for the living room, though. We also got a bed for the partner (me), so that we could spend the nights all together. For me, as the partner, it was absolutely amazing to be able to spend every single minute with my wife and daughter during this unbelievably beautiful time. For my wife, as a new mum, and having no family in the country, it was a great relief to have me around all the time to share the load as much as possible.
