How do you know you will need a c-section?

It really is going to depend on your choice of hospital.

When we had out first daughter nearly 12 years back, we went initially to a "second tier" hospital (BNH) as my wife wanted to save a bit on the costs. We really did't like BNH and the attitude of the female doctor we saw, and there were some possible complications with the birth based on the ultrasound, which left us even less impressed. I would never go to BNH for anything again after that experience, and I rank them last tier . At that stage we switched to Bumrungrad, which we always do for anything serious. My view is when it's serious I want the best, and saving a few thousand baht goes out the window.

Bumrungrad were excellent. My wife's gynaecologist, Dr.Noppadol Saropala was execllent. Studied and trained in the UK. So a quality, open-minded doctor, in whom we developed complete trust. My wife was 17 days early, and I was out of the country in Indonesia as a result, so she ended up going to the hospital by herself in a taxi on the day. They sorted everything very well, and worry free.

www.bumrungrad.com/doctors/Nopadol-Saropala

For cost: It was a couple of thousand baht (THB 2-3k if I recall) for visits before the birth every 3-4 weeks (if I recall - less frequent at the start, more frequent towards the end). Then about 55k altogether for a normal vaginal birth with epidural, and couple of days stay at the hospital for her.

I did a quick google on what they are today, and packages as follows:

www.bumrungrad.com/en/womens-center-obgyn-thailand/packages/delivery

Normal: THB 91,000
Normal + epidural block package: THB 111,500
Caesarean: THB 144,700

On top you would have a few visits before at a few thousand baht a time - guessing 4k-ish a time now, plus probably a bit more for ultrasound scans. I'd budget ball park 40k give or take for these beforehand visits if doing at Bumrungrad.

One of our friends went to St.Louis, another hospital we regularly used when living in Sathorn area for day to day stuff / average importance which is of decent quality. Around the same time. Their costs were about 60% of Bumrungrad. They seemed fine. Less international/ more local, but still OK for foreigners.

Bottom end of the scale are of course the Thai government hospitals. So I'd think you'd be able to get prices from 15k - 25k depending on how far down the scale you want to go.

We live very close to Sikarin hospital now and have been very happy with any visits there so far for other stuff. Probably better than St.Louis, but probably not as good as Bumrungrad. So if we had another baby it would be a choice between Bumrungrad (the best) or Srikarin (good but very close and convenient for us and we're comfortable with them)