It’s not too expensive to have a Baby~!!!

Hihi All :D

First of all, Happy Teachers’ Day to all the Human Development Engineers in Singapore ^^

Hahaha, which includes my Laogong of coz :P

Finally, I am almost done with packing over at my mum’s place. And I had started picking up the momentum to pack our tiny room to make space for baby Jamie.

Frankly, being a parent is not easy. First of all, we must be financially capable to welcome our little bundle of joy. Many had said, don’t worry lah, when the time comes, you will have enough one. But hor, seriously, do you know how much CASH we need before we can commit ourselves to taking care of another human life?

It’s really easier said than done.

But of coz, it depends on how much you wish to contribute to this human life too. You can have a cheap gynae, or even a heavily subsidized delivery package. My mum and my MIL was saying during their times, they also don’t have designated gynae. Not sure why we need one.

That’s where education comes into place. Sometimes I think being more educated seems to make things sounds more complicated. If in olden days, they can do with no designated gynae, why can’t we? Well, it’s all because of education. We received too much information from the internet, from books, from many other media sources… and hence we become a bit more paranoid and wish to give our children the best we can to welcome them into this world.

But of coz, as first time parents, we are definitely more lost and not sure if we can deliver in peace too. And since ‘money makes the world go round’ has always been what most people believe, we hence believe that spending a bit more money can buy us some peace during our pregnancy and delivery too.

However, there are some other extreme cases too where people thought you need $20K to give birth to a baby. Hmmm, maybe that’s true for babies or mummies who have complicated pregnancy or delivery. But in most cases, I don’t need per normal pregnancy and delivery will cost more than $10K (that’s if you don’t stay in the BEST ward-suite). But for a normal single bedder delivery (be it normal or C-section) shouldn’t be more than $8K. And you can use between $2250 - $3000 from your medisave to make the payments.

Frankly hor, me and my Laogong are going into detailed calculations on how much we need to give birth to our baby Jamie. And as I checked around, I realized not many will be able to give you a clear breakdown of the various spending. Hence to help more mummies or to-be-mummies plan their finances, I am most willing to share my detailed expenditure template with you all after I deliver.

For now, I will just list out the various breakdown of the basic payments required from pregnancy to delivery. Hope this is useful:


Part 1: Pre-Delivery Expenses
1. Monthly Visit to your Gynae + ultra-scan
2. Monthly Supplements and Medication from your Gynae
3. 3 Major Scans/Tests (with gst)
a. 11-13 wks: OSCAR plus inner blood test ($321) + external blood test ($155)
b. 20 wks: Detailed Scan ($192.60)

Note: Most Pre-Delivery Monthly Visit comes in a package, which includes the Ultrascan (about $30 for ala carte). They are also known as antenatal packages and ranges from $500 onwards depends whether your gynae is from a private clinic or from the private hospital itself. But most packages started from the 8-10th weeks onwards. So any monthly checks before that have to be paid separately.

Please also note that during the last one month of the pregnancy, you will need to visit the gynae on a weekly basis.

Hence signing on a antenatal package is useful, especially if you have a complicated pregnancy and need to visit the gynae on a more regular basis.

As for Supplements, the gynae will provide the mummies with Folic for the first 3 months and then Multi-vitamins for the next few months. If the mummies are lack in calcium or/and iron, the gynae will prescribe them with additional calcium or/and iron supplements. They normally cost not more than $50 and can last for 1-3 months.

For Medications, it’s valid for mummies who complained of serious morning sickness or giddiness during the first trimester. And for mummies who have fungus problems will be prescribed with antibiotic or fungus cream. It seems to be very common for mummies to have fungus problem during pregnancy and have to take good care before their babies are born.

Medisave Limit is $450 for Pre-Delivery Expenses, for Thomson Medical Centre. Not sure about the other hospitals.

Part 2: Delivery Expenses
1. Delivery Expenses + whatever assistance (epidural, vacuum etc) given during Delivery
2. Ward Expenses + Doctor Care Expenses
3. Nursery Stay + Nursery Care Expenses

Medisave Limit is from $900 for Delivery Expenses + $450/day for Ward Expenses, for Thomson Medical Centre. Not sure about the other hospitals.

Part 3: Shopping for Baby

Tip 1: Get as many hands-down as you can. Especially newborn babies clothes because babies tend to outgrown very fast~!!!
Tip 2: If you are not sure of your baby’s gender, then buy neutral colours like white and yellow. For me, I started shopping only after I confirm baby’s gender.
Tip 3: Measure your room before you buy the big items. If not you will end up not being able to fit in the big items you bought!

Buy only items you need at different stages of baby life… Don’t buy items you don’t need and stock them up. They will end up dusty by the time baby can use!!! I will share with you my shopping list once I sort it out :)

I will share more about what types of toys to buy also, for your newborn babies :) If you have any experiences you wish me to share with the rest, drop me an email at jolene428@gmail.com.

Hope you all find what I shared useful :)

Feel free to give me comments if I missed anything out k?

I will slowly share more about my baby planning~!!!

Tomorrow, I will blog about how to be a Happy and Pretty Mummy!!!