How much I spent on prenatal visits and giving birth to my son

People think that raising kids is expensive and I agree that it is so in Singapore, but if you do your research and take good care of your health, it can be low cost just like how it should be. I'm sharing my experience and the amounts that I paid to help parents out there who believe in doing their own research. As the saying goes, when we fail to plan, we plan to fail, and giving birth to a child is quite a huge thing and involves risks as well. I personally did a lot of research and watched many YouTube vids to help myself ensure a smooth birthing process, and even then there were things that went unexpected, or rather there were things that I didn't know how to expect. Imagine going into the whole process without doing any research at all! I gave people the links to my resources and when I asked them if they watched them, they said they didn't have time to. Some of them ended up with an emergency csection. It's not really about the money, but the traumatic experience due to the lack of preparation that makes childbirth scary. Many people think they just need to follow their gyne's guidance, but truth be told, 10 minute visits aren't going to be much guidance. I loved my birthing experience and I don't think it could have been as smooth without all the prior research. My baby came 5 days late and it could have ended up in an induction or even csection which I was trying to avoid. So moral of the story, do your research! 

Anyway, today's post is mainly about my expenditure for prenatal visits and labour. It shows how childbirth can be cost effective if you do your research. 

Disclaimer: I do have medical background since I'm a TCM physician (I do not specialize in gynecology though), which is why I skipped quite a few visits and dared to override some of the Doctor's instructions.

Number of prenatal visits: 6

I got a referral from the polyclinic around 11 weeks or so, then visited NUH (subsidized) for weeks 18, 19, 22, 23, 32. By right you should go before week 12 for your first scan in order to get an accurate EDD, but the polyclinic gave me this date and I didn't bother to change it. On hindsight maybe I should have asked for it to be changed since the Dr got my last menstrual period wrong the first time. I made him change it but I'm not sure if he changed the hospital visit accordingly. But I could only realize all this on hindsight since it was because my boy was late that I concluded it was due to an inaccurate dating scan.

Total spending for pre-natal visits: $426.20 (From medisave)

I didn't do any screens for Down syndrome since I'm low risk, and I skipped most of the urine tests. Only did it the first time (which I felt is the basic) and one more time when my belly was much bigger (32 weeks). But I had to keep asking for refunds since they key it in automatically. It's not a lot of money, but it was during covid and I didn't like squeezing with many others in a small unsanitary space.

I also did the tetanus jab (week 19) but skipped flu and covid. I didn't take any supplements from the hospital since my diet is very balanced. I skipped OGTT and GBS screening as well.

I did one blood test (antenatal screen) on my first visit, one dating scan (week 19), one FA (detailed) scan (week 22) and one growth scan (week 32).

Total spending for labour: $980.87 (From medisave)

The amount includes the A&E attendance fee which is common procedure (I went there in a taxi). I was under NUH subsidized class C ward. But the ward was full so they moved me to class B2 for the first night and moved me back the second day. Before labour I had to do an ART and PCR which was fully subsidized. Labour was done unmedicated but they stitched a tear and put me on oxytocin drip + jabbed me with oxytocin (which I actually didn't require but it's their protocol). They also gave my boy a vit K jab (they never used to do this in the past but now it's part of standard protocol). There were also a few other tests and jabs done for baby but I think these were either fully or heavily subsidized.

So in the end I had no cash payment. It was ALL from my medisave. Total paid from medisave was $1,407.07.

But prenatal visits had to be paid upfront and they would only reimburse post-delivery. We also have to settle the medisave payment stuff when I was warded post-delivery, but I didn't realize I had to do so (lol blur lah) and settled it via email afterwards.

So those are the costs I incurred for my prenatal visits and delivery. "Free" because of medisave and prior research done. You might think it's because I took certain risks, but childbirth is never risk free. And not doing research beforehand puts you under even more risk. Of course, don't listen to anything and everything under the sun, weigh the risks vs benefits and consult professionals if you are unsure of anything. The gov is already paying so much for us, shouldn't they provide the basic service of answering our healthcare queries?