Just found out i'm pregnant - help!!!

[EllieC]

Hi - I'm hoping some of you guys out there can give me a little advice. I've just found out i'm pregnant and don't know where to start with looking for a Obs/gynae consultant, where and who do you reccomend and what do I need to do first?
as you can probably tell this will be my first!
appreciate any advice you can give.
Thanks

[ffsgrelier]

Hi
Are you singaporean or another nationality ?
Do you have a good medical cover ?
I arrived here very heavily pregnant last year from the uk and was at a loss of where to go. There were a lot of threads on this forum re obgyn if you do a search.
Mount Elizabeth have a website with a lot of their prices and "packages", same goes with Thompson Medical centre (where I personnaly chose to have my baby and see obgyn , Dr Paul tseng).
he was great, very laid back attitude, very professional and not too interventionist or pushy. Now it was my 3rd child and his relaxed but on the ball manner suited me perfectly.
I have also heard a lot of good things about Dr Yeo Swee Choo ( not sure of spelling ) or Dr Anne Heggarty .
Hope his helps and many congratulations, a baby is always such a wonderful gift. Best of luck.
Frederique

[EllieC]

Hi Frederique,

I'm British, been here a little while. I've heard a bit about this Dr Tseng which all sounds good from the forum threads. I think I want a very natural birth, without epidural if possible. He seems like the right way to go. How does it all work? do I book an appointment and then go along to see him and then if ok book a package? Does the package include his services alone or does it include the hospital too?
I'm a little anxious as my only way of knowing i'm pregnant is a home pregnancy test and nausea!, so i'm keen to qiuckly get checked to ensure all is well!
it's the initial getting organised with the right O+B that is getting me in a bit of a panic and not knowing how and where to start.
any advice gratefully recieved!!
thanks

[viajera]

if you've decided on dr tseng, just call his office to book an appointment soonest possible. the first consultation will be crucial, i suppose, as only you can decide if you're comfortable with him, or if you'd rather see someone else.

in my case, one of the things i also considered was convenience and proximity to our place, considering that especially towards the end, you'll need to go to consultations every 2 weeks. i go to NUH, with prof biswas, the head of the maternal-fetal health division. i'm fairly happy with him, but then it's already my second pregnancy, so i don't really ask for much. i just wanted to give birth at NUH because i've been told NUH has top facilities for neonatal care as well.

prof. mary rauff has also been highly recommended (holds consultations at mt elizabeth and NUH), but at the time i was looking for an ob/gyn, her calendar was so full and she wasn't taking new patients anymore.

the doctor packages usually include consultations/scans, etc from around the 2nd trimester onwards. aside from that, most hospitals also offer childbirth packages (birth, hospital stay, post-natal consultation, etc). you have ample time to mull on those though, so don't worry about those just yet....

[ffsgrelier]

hi ellie
Glad my message was of some help.
You contact the office 62542878 and they will give you an appointment. I did not get the package as I was too late into the pregnancy to make it worthwhile.
Beware, when you first come in , they give you a little stick of reactive paper to wee on to check and it is very much at the entrance of the room in front of everyone, that took some time for me to get used to it, bringing it back in front of all too. Minor detail that still grated initially as in uk, you get a plastic tube you give to the midwife who checks it privately. I don't think that's only in this clinic it is just the way it goes here.
Another plus for me to go with paul was that he allows a doula to come with you should you want to have one. To me, it was essential even though it was my 3rd because my husband may have had to stay with my 2 boys if no friends were at hand. I would not have wanted to go alone. My doula was also amazing and made a huge difference. Some hospitals and doctors won't allow doulas.
What i would recommend you do is call for an appointment and see what you think of him, you can also organise a tour of the hospital and see all the rooms. TMC was small but very well run and staff were great when I was there. Compared to any uk hospital, it felt a bit like a hotel and there was no carpet on the floor !(apprently Mt Elizabeth has carpet, ????)
Nausea is a dead give away,as is extreme tiredness and going to the toilet very often at the beginning.
Best of luck and let me know how you got on. no need to worry, plenty of time ahead and believe me, you would have a lot more to worry about if you were still in the uk ! Singapore has great doctors, amazing facilities and has a very high rate of babies being delivered , i have never seen so many pregnant women around !
Re viajera's comment about proximity, it is relevant not so much for the appointments but more for the labour. The taxi ride to the hospital on the night Ciara was born seemed to take forever and if you deliver during rush hour near orchard it could become a big issue.
Take good care.
frederique

PS : feel free to pm me if you need more info and i could give me my phone number. happy to help, been there too
frederique

[QRM]

Dont forget to check the potential imigration problem, at the last minute we discovered that if our baby was born in Singapore she would not have automatic rights to a british passport, even though both parents are british but both born outside the uk.

We had to have a sudden change of plan and fly to the uk to give birth to ensure the baby had the same british passport as the parents.

[Amelia Camelia]

Hi

I was born in London and fell pregnant here in Singapore. I gave birth at Mount Elizabeth hospital which I cannot praise enough. The care received was brilliant. We are covered by medical insurance but it didn't cover any birth related things. The cost was about $7k. I had a c-section.

So my daughter was born in Singapore and she has a UK passport which was obtained from the British High Commission here.

Try not to worry about things too much. My gynae was Dr Selina Chua who is extremely experienced but fairly serious, which I didn't mind at all. She reads the ultrasound amazing well and was able to tell me how much my baby was going to weigh at birth pretty much.

Take care,
AC

[in8mom]

I've heard good things about Dr. Paul Tseng as well. The key to having a natural birth is to educate yourself and be firm. Having a doula present would also be wise. I had considered a home birth here but feel that I'd rather go back to the states as it is more to my level of comfort. I had a doula and mid-wife and birthed at home. It was a fantastic experience for me, one I'd like to replicate. The Bradley Method is also something to consider.

Good luck!

[disneysea]

Hi ElieC, First of all, congratulations! It's going to be exciting for you. I just delivered last year april for my first baby. I had worked for 10 years and did not really imagine myself to be a mom but I am enjoying it now.

Secondly, i recommend you to see my OB Dr Douglas Ong that is if you do not mind a male OB. When I moved here from Japan, I did not like the environment and I was a a high maintainance patient. Dr Ong was very logical, hands on and encouraing in every step of my pregnancy. He would definitely encourage a natural birth but for my case because my baby was getting big, we opted for the C section. Let me also share with you that the stitch has heald and was not that obvious! All my friends praised him for his work of art.

Anyway, I thought you might be interested with him but since he became famous from mid last year, his booking might be very tight. Do pm me if you want to be referred. He is known to take difficult cases of pregnant women since he is very patient and reliable.

GoodLuck and again, congratulations!

[hogsee]

Hi there, am also British, been in Sg a couple of years and found out I was pregnant in December (a couple of years ahead of schedule!!) so I was a bit unprepared to say the least. The last few months have been spent trying to navigate obgyn/pre natal stuff here in Sg.
I spoke to my girlfriends, looked for what info I could online and settled on either Dr Tseng at TMC or another recommended doctor at Camden. I went to see three doctors in the end ( by the way you can switch as often as you want but its prob better to find someone you like as early as possible so that they know your history). I found Dr Tseng to be friendly and professional in his approach. This works two ways, firstly it means that you don’t wait hours for your appt as they run pretty much on time, but on the other hand if you are new to all this then there is not much in the way of hand holding/prolonged indulgent ultrasounds. I decided that being proactive with questions was fine by me and also really appreciated the proximity of Dr Tsengs office to the delivery ward!!! However there isn’t a package available with him and consultation prices vary according to how long you spend there (up to 10 mins/over ten mins etc). If you think you might like more attention it might be worth going to a doctor where there is a package and you can spend as long as you need asking questions without worrying about costs racking up. The other final thing I should mention is that initially I have been terrified by the thought of labour. Dr Tseng is pretty well known in Sg for being pro natural birth and that was a concern for me. On my first appt I mentioned that I was terrified and what did he think of elective caesareans, fully expecting to be given a very hard time. His response was perfect – he didn’t chuck me out his office but said he would do everything in his power to encourage me not to go down that route. That won me over 
Please PM me if I can be of any help.

[ffsgrelier]

Hi
I was shown a paper with a package with paul Tseng about 11 months ago but couldn't take it as 33 weeks pregnant by then. Worth checking with his office. I did not find him pushy for natural birth but i guess that was what i was considering in the first place. C section is after all a major abdominal surgery and is not to be considered lightly.
i did have to wait sometime for my appointment because he was gone to delivr a baby but hey ho, it could have been me delivering so never a problem. Mostly ran on time. Efficient, not hand holding but always happy to answer questions i found. i have a lot of time for him, he even came to my room of his own accord on his way to the airport for his holiday to make sure everything was ok after the baby was born as he was well aware I had 2 other kids and wanted to be released as soon as possible. very thoughtful and considerate person.
just my 2 cents . Good luck. f