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 5th 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
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