What is it like to be born in the lap of luxury? The modern five star child birth specialty centers promise to provide all whatever is possible. The promise is to minimise the pain, offer a soothing environment and an over-the-period personal touch offered by highly trained staff using the best of technology.

The birth of a new baby in a family is always a special occasion requiring special care for both the new born and the mother. In places where we do not have any technology and specialized doctors, it is the mid-wife who provides this expertise and helps with the delivery of the baby minus any technology or comforts, while in urban areas it’s the doctor that performs the role but with the use of technology.

So, can there be a market for reducing the pain and increasing the comfort of the mother and the baby while reducing the risk of lives and increasing prospects of a healthy baby and mother? With the rising disposable incomes of people and preference of just one or two children (as compared to the hordes of children earlier), people want that the birth of their much-awaited first or second baby should not be just a medical event conducted by professionals sans personal touch and in an environment full of smell of medicines.

Welcome to the business of luxurious birth. With a population of 1.18 billion, giving birth to approximately 75,000 babies everyday, the market for luxurious birth will only increase in size.

What is it like to be born in the lap of luxury?
Is it about getting all the facilities under one roof? Is it about minimizing the pain? Would it include avoiding a difficult environment and seeking a better and soothing one? Getting a personal touch via pre-birth through post birth association with the patient and the baby, and through a dedicated personnel, complete with emotional counseling would be amazing, wouldn't it? Shouldn't it also provide the highest level of care for both the mother and the baby using the best of technology which reduces the risk of lives as well? And then, having a highly trained staff to take care would make it a lifetime experience.

Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Well, this is all a part of what the modern five star child birth specialty centers promise to provide you with, to make your experience with the new born once in a lifetime. And true luxury would be when you get all the above mentioned things at one place. In this story, we explore what all the five star child birth specialty centers have been doing to give a luxurious once-in-a lifetime experience to their customers, what innovations have they brought into the industry to be able to differentiate themselves from the plain-vanilla labour wards of other hospitals, how big is their prospective market, and what bottlenecks are there for entering the luxury child birth industry?

Better and Soothing Environment
"Unlike labour wards of other hospitals, here there is no smell of medicines, other patients, wounds, etc." says Dr. Rita Bakshi, Senior Consultant (Obs & Gynae), Adiva, a birthing specialty center by Mother’s Pride Group. Subsequently, the family is given at-home feeling by offering them a fully furnished luxurious room, no less than a hotel. There is a personal television and such other stuff in every room, and staff is at your beck and call, just like the waiters in a hotel, while you are staying in the room. Even a few hours before the delivery, the mothers can be seen roaming in their rooms as they find the environment soothing. Later on, there is gentle soothing music playing, which blended with a nice aroma and visually delighting candles makes delivery less painful and a very pleasant experience with the feeling of a spa. Even the husbands are allowed inside the LDR (Labour, Delivery and Recovery) suites during all times, which helps in the emotional and psychological bonding between the couple and the child. Every doctor and staff is trained to offer as much personal touch as possible to their patients. Ten years ago, none of us would have imagined that a facility like this could exist for giving birth to a child.

Neo-natal Emergency Transport Service

"At Adiva, we have relatives of parents coming up in big numbers and we don’t restrict them for either the timings or the numbers," say Dr. Bakshi. Instead, at Adiva they are provided a photographer, a cake and a bottle of champagne (non-alcoholic) and are allowed to celebrate then and there and are not charged for things like food.

Best Technology for Best Care
Apart from the luxury factor, these birth specialty centers also claim to be technologically superior compared to their traditional counterparts. "Fortis La Femme (FLF) was the first one to start Neonatal Emergency Transport Service (NETS) with a dedicated ambulance and a hotline to the nursery. And along with four LDR Suites, it has a ‘High-Frequency Ventilator’ and ‘Neonatal ICU’ for the babies", says Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah, Sr. Consultant Neonatologist at Fortis La Femme. LDR Suites help avoid the hassle of transferring the mothers to delivery rooms from their rooms while they are in labor since the beds are convertible.

Now there is better technology available to deal with very ill or weak babies and to help the mother and the child deal with pre-term (pre-mature) birth. According to Dr. Mallaiah, La Femme has the capability to save babies who are mere 25-weeks old, in the womb. The team undertakes ultrasound and x-ray of the foetus and can successfully deal with a larger range of complications even at that stage. As a technological advancement, they have recently started genetic counseling of parents and metabolic screening for the foetus.

"At Adiva, there is a neonatologist with every baby and there’s a ultra high equipment and tertiary level ICU for the babies", said Dr. Bakshi. For minimising pain during labour and delivery, technically, there are practices like epidural anaesthesia (without side-effects) and massage which are used to soothe the delivery process.

Comments (6)

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written by jenny, August 11, 2010

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written by Nimesh Sharma, July 22, 2010

@ Saurabh123123123
These include Fortis in Delhi and mumbai, they have different sub names, like Mumbai has Fortis Hiranandani. Then, Fortis La Femme in delhi, Adiva (delhi), Phoenix (delhi), 1-2 more Mumbai. Wockhardt hospitals in 2 cities (one of them is named Cradle, in Bengaluru, i think). U'll find more on Google search.
And yes, big hospitals Max, are big but havent concentrated on this aspect, for whatever reasons.

"In a city like Delhi, there are only three such hospitals, that too in the southern region. Across India, among the known ones, there are less than ten, mainly in big metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, etc. Many of the other top hospitals like Max may have advanced facilities but haven’t focussed on this segment as a business strategy."

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written by Krishnan Sakotai, July 20, 2010

This article is too naive in thinking that a 5-star birthing suite is necessarily what mothers want. Actually it is these so-called luxury suites that have the most c-section rates in India - nearly 70%. What mothers need during labor and childbirth is a caring, empathetic and supportive environment where she is respected and allowed to give birth on her own. Today, even when mother and baby are healthy, the medical system forces her to agree to procedures, drugs etc, by feeding on her natural apprehensions for a healthy baby. Women today do not know what it is to give birth to their babies - rather doctors are "delivering" their babies. Most of the luxury birthing centers do not take the time or effort to teach mothers how to breastfeed, or to bond with their babies. In fact many actually suggest formula food.

So the answer is not in having a 5-star birthing room, rather bring back respect for the mother, constant, individual attention and empower them to give birth on their own. Certainly, 70% of all mothers and babies cannot be in danger, so why are c-section rates in urban cities and towns in India as high as 70% if not more?

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List of Hospitals
written by Saurabh123123123, July 16, 2010

Referring to below statement from the article. Can someone provide the list of those 10 hospitals in India.

"In a city like Delhi, there are only three such hospitals, that too in the southern region. Across India, among the known ones, there are less than ten, mainly in big metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, etc. Many of the other top hospitals like Max may have advanced facilities but haven’t focussed on this segment as a business strategy."

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written by Discount GUCCI handbags, July 02, 2010

Nice. I just bookmarked this site. Not sure why it's so hard to find logical code like this on the web but alas, it is. Thanks for posting!

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Nice article
written by Health Insurance Virginia, June 11, 2010

Good article, Nimesh. There is a lot of debate going on for children's healthcare and how babies die regularly in India at a neo-natal stage.

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