Raising a child in Singapore can be expensive, how about delivering a child into this world?

Singapore is an expensive place to live in. We has been dubbed the world's most expensive city to live in for the fifth year running. We are even ahead of New York, London and Los Angeles in the Economist Intelligence Unit's(EIU) Worldwide Cost of Living 2018 survey. Which really surprises me and possibly you, if you have ever stayed in New York for a while, either as a tourist or for work. 

No doubt, Singapore can be an expensive place to live in, just check out the cost of owning a car! But… as a citizen, I actually do not really think we are that expensive a place, at least for locals, to live in. There are certain assumptions in the survey that makes us the most expensive place for the 5^th year running which I will share more about in another post. 

Meanwhile, I like to share a little about the delivery related cost in Singapore, based on our own experience.

Before going into the cost per se, I just like to share while having a little one does indeed incur cost, the joy you get from raising your little one will far outweigh this monetary cost by a mile, or more. There is nothing that can replace the joy you get from seeing your little one grow and become more responsive to your actions and words. No words can describe the joy… So I shall not waste more words trying to… 😀

Our delivery was generally uneventful, which was a great thing! Mama’s water bag started to leak in the middle of the night (2 nights before EDD) and we took a Grab down to NUH. We entered the delivery suite at around 4am and by 430pm, Little Singa (LS) arrived into the world! 

For the delivery related cost, I guess we have little control over what we will / need to consume. We heard of a couple of our friends who tried natural birth and then had to do an emergency cesarean when things were not going right, hence incurring higher cost. All we could do was pray to have a smooth delivery. In the 3-4 months prior to EDD, we did increase our frequency of long walks on weekends morning, hoping it will help provide a smooth delivery. Thankfully, things went as per planned and Little Singa (LS) was delivered naturally, with epidurial.

I know there are some who regard natural delivery without epidurial as a badge of honor. Some say the pain is the rites of passage for a mother, which I personally think is hogwash. We are not some tribal people who need to prove that we are man / mother so we undergo some genital mutilation / tattoo nonsense or deliver without epidurial. If you did not use epidurial and delivered naturally, good for you, you have high pain tolerance. But on the flip side, there is absolutely Zero shame to use epidurial during a delivery.

All mothers out there are amazing, no matter delivering with or without epidurial. Our gynae gave us a piece of sound advice: use epi if you need it, do not use if you feel there is no need. There is no badge of honor for you not using when you need it. The only one to suffer is yourself. While I admit to be pretty frugal (to stingy) sometimes, this was one occasion where I was more than happy to spend the money. I personally find tooth extraction a pretty scary thing already and I feel giving birth is probably 10x scarier! So yea, whatever that can help reduce the pain during this experience, so be it.

I feel it is also important for Papa to be there in the delivery suite to support Mama both physically (though not much the hubby can do physically) and mentally (more so in this area). That, and also to witness the arrival of your little one!

The moment when LS was delivered was simply surreal. Words cannot describe how I felt and I could honestly say there were tears of joy at the point in time. Despite LS being still slimy and all, there was nothing you could love more in the entire universal (sorry mama 😆).

We did all the tests which the hospital required LS to do but there was the Newborn Metabolic Screening Programme which was optional, but we did anyway. I was hesitant to do this Metabolic Screening as it was very rare for the test to be positive (which is a good thing) and which means it will be a waste of money (cost approx. $150 if I did not recall wrongly.) Some parents might say this is small money for a test, but after hearing from all my friends who did the test for their newborn and 100% turned out negative, I was pretty sure the test would return negative (which it did) as well. The test essentially screens for rare but potentially serious disorders such as phenylketonuria (PKU), cystic fibrosis, and congenital hypothyroidism.

To be honest, the NUH bills were itemized but it was quite complicated and there were like interim bills and final bills a couple of week later, so I am actually not too sure of the final exact amount. I will usually look bills carefully and flag out any possible mistakes, but in this case, i think in the feel good moment of it all, we were just happy to pay the bills and bring Little Singa home with us! Besides, I like to think NUH will not overcharge us on purpose. 

All in, we paid about $2000 (cash) + $4000 (Medisave) for the 2 nights stay (One bedder) in NUH for natural birth. Notwithstanding, I note there are friends of ours who spend about $10,000 out of pocket when they deliver natural + e-cesarean. So the amount spent would definitely vary, depending on the procedures and level of complexity. But for a relatively straight forward case of natural birth for private ward class, I think an out of pocket cost of $2000 and $4000 from Medisave is still reasonable, given the quality of the medical care in Singapore.

What are your thoughts? 

Signing off for now!
Frugal Singa

And along came a little Singa...

Many things in life can and will happen along the way that forces us to update our financial plans e.g. getting a car, buying a flat, getting married, but most impactful (or longest term) of all, is having an little addition to your family. 😁

One plus year ago, being already not so young at 31 back then, both my wife (also 31) and myself felt we were ready to start a family, and wanted to try for a baby. 

Like many couples, we thought that it was be pretty easy. But it was not an easy journey, after many months of trying, visits to both Western doctors and TCM, we were fast becoming disheartened. 

When you see your peers getting pregnant one after another, it does gets to you. Facebook was a bane to me back then. People posting cheerful photos of baby bumps, new borns, full month celebrations. Call me selfish, but sometimes I just wished to quit FB or unfriend these (insensitive) people until I had my very own little one (or maybe forever). It is also along this line of thought that I do not really post much on FB, whether happy or otherwise occasions. Meaningful occasions are for family and loved ones to experience, not for the whole world to know how great your life is. Last, but not least, I also hope to preserve whatever little privacy we have left in today's world of social media. 

[If you, like us, have been trying to conceive without success, besides living a healthy lifestyle, exercise more, eating clean, stop alcohol and smoking, it might actually be a good idea to wean off / reduce your time on social media for a while because it does really get demoralising. Besides you are not missing much without social media.]

And so tried and tried we did. It got to a point where we had exactly Zero expectations when we did the test kit. After almost 7 months of trying and on the brink of giving up, we were stunned when we finally saw the two lines. It was pretty surreal and we both did not quite believe it. MS tested it again and the next day as well at the poly clinic. 

While I was physically at work that day, my mind was miles away when wife whatsapped the photo of positive results, certified by the doctor! The next few moments were simply amazing and I was totally feeling light headed. This was the additional line we have been waiting all these while and it was HERE!!

Daddy (Boys) being Boys after all, the first thing I actually thought of getting for Little Singa was his/her ride (stroller)!! Hahaha, not too sure but maybe all daddies' are hardwired that way? As it was our first born, we chose not to know the gender even when it was possible to do so. Both wifey and myself had no preference on the gender because we know we will love and protect him/her to bits, regardless. 

One of the thing we had to decide was the hospital / gynae for the regular check ups and delivery. After some research and asking parents friends for recommendations, we decided on NUH. While it was far from our place in Punggol, we were assured that the cost would be somewhat reasonable (being a public hospital) and they had excellent medical facilities (NUH being the other hospital, besides KK, that all private hospitals will direct newborns to for further procedures, in case of complications where private hospitals did not have the necessary facilities.)

We first went the public route for the first few regular check ups before signing for the Antenatal package (approx $900 for senior consultant) at Week 22. With the package, it meant that all future consultation were covered and we could stick with the same gynae through out. Milestone scans were also included in the package. The key benefits for going private are shorter waiting time, more comfortable waiting areas and the same gynae each time. Before week 22, while on public route, some of the doctors which saw to us were housemen, aka trainees doctors. Nothing wrong with that but sometimes we just felt more assured with a senior consultant. 

Our consultation sessions with the gynae were quick, barely 10 minutes and we were out! That is of course great news, cos that meant that Little Singa was growing well. 

Source: NUH

One other key factor why we chose NUH was because of the possibility to downgrade to Public in the event your newborn needs to be admitted to NICU. A1 NICU daily ward fee was almost $650 which we could ill afford in the event it was necessary. Wifey requested for a single bedder so we going for A1 but in the event if NICU was needed, we could try to request to downgrade perhaps to B1 or even public, subjected to means-testing. If you were to go to private hospitals, you will not be able to do this downgrade within their hospital as they do not have public wards. 

Source: NUH

This above essentially summaries the start of the whirlwind 40 weeks to the arrival of Little Singa. Happy to share more in future posts. Do stay tuned!

[After note] Since the delivery of Little Singa more than a year ago, i also had the chance to visit friends / relatives who delivered at other hospitals, e.g. TMC and MA, and i felt that we made a right choice with NUH. Personally, I felt that NUH nurses were more pro-breast feeding, less $ driven and were more patient in general. But that is just my personal observation. 

Would you also be welcoming a little one soon? Feel free to reach out if you need more information, and heartiest Congratulations in advance. 


If you are still trying for a little one for a while now, pls do not get discouraged and try, try and try again. One fine day, you will be rewarded for all the hard work. All the best now! 

Bye for now!
Frugal Singa