If you are weighing whether to have your baby in China — or, more specifically, which hospital to choose — here is the checklist our team actually uses when assessing a partner hospital for international patients.
1. Accreditation and level
Look for a Class-III (tertiary) hospital with a dedicated obstetrics department. JCI accreditation is a useful external benchmark but is not the only one — many excellent Chinese maternity hospitals are not JCI-accredited but hold top-tier domestic accreditation and have demonstrable international-patient experience.
2. Neonatology and NICU
Every delivery can become a high-risk delivery in seconds. Confirm the hospital has a Level-II or Level-III NICU on the same campus and a senior neonatologist on call 24/7. Ask how many NICU beds they have and how often the NICU is actually used — busy is usually good.
3. Anesthesia cover
For painless delivery (epidural) and for cesarean section, you need 24/7 senior anesthetist cover — not just “anesthesia available during business hours”. Ask specifically whether the anesthesia team is in-house at night.
4. English-speaking clinical staff
An English-speaking receptionist is not enough. You need English-speaking obstetricians, midwives, pediatricians and the discharge nurse. Our partner network confirms this in writing for every international case.
5. Single-room LDR and postpartum suites
Ask whether the LDR (Labour-Delivery-Recovery) suite is single-room and private, and whether the partner can stay throughout. For the postpartum confinement stay, ask whether the suite has a companion bed and a private bathroom.
6. TCM integration (if you want it)
If Traditional Chinese Medicine is part of why you chose China, confirm there is a dedicated TCM department on campus and that the TCM physicians work in coordination with the obstetric team — not as an add-on.
7. International-patient infrastructure
Visa invitation letters, English-language medical records, multilingual coordinators, halal or kosher meal options, partner accommodation, airport transfers — the operational layer around the medicine matters as much as the medicine itself.
8. Cost transparency
Ask for a written, itemized quotation covering the full pathway — not just the delivery day. A quotation that excludes anesthesia, pediatric attendance, NICU standby, or postpartum confinement is not a real quotation.