Category: Pregnancy

P.S. I know it has been a while since our last post. We have been really busy with work! Will try to post more in future – at least once a month okay? :). Leave a review if you like what you are reading!

It is quite apparent by now that I had went to NUH first, before transferring to KKH. In this article, I will elaborate on the experience I had visiting NUH as a subsidized patient. (I went to KKH as a private patient. Hence, the service I received cannot be an apple to apple comparison.)

I initially decided on NUH because of one factor, and one factor only – water birth. I was very keen to give birth using this method and to avoid the use of any medications. I understood that by using water birth, I could not take epidural and I was fully prepared to go ahead with it, having read many articles on water birth.

Water birth is available only in NUH and Thomson Medical Centre. Having decided against private hospitals, I naturally went to NUH. Furthermore, from what I have read, at Thomson, women are only allowed to be in the water for the labor process, but not the actual giving birth process – when they are about to give birth, they would be lifted up from the water and brought onto a delivery bed for delivering.

I wanted a water birth as I hoped for a medication-free delivery, and because I had a colleague last time who gave birth using this method at NUH. She described the process as very calming, but unfortunately her labor was short and hence the pain was intense. However, the water flowing around her calmed her down, and the way she described her birthing process captured my heart.

When preparing to go NUH, I thought I had to go to polyclinic first to get a referral. This was what my other colleague had went through and I assumed it was the normal process. As I had went through the polyclinic route to get a referral to NUH, I was asked to go to the subsidized clinic. I didn’t realize until later that if I had wanted to go private, I need only make an appointment directly with the hospital. So, ladies, if you are very sure you want to be a private patient, there is no need to waste time in going polyclinic – just call the hospital you are interested in and make an appointment with your chosen gynae.

As a private patient, other than higher costs, you will also be able to admit into a private ward. Private wards are 4 bedders, 2 bedders or single bedder, depending on the final class you stay in. You can also choose your gynae, a privilege that is not present in the subsidized ward.

During my first visit to NUH, I was asked to go to Clinic G, which was located near the Pharmacy. After registration, I was asked to take my height and weight and was given a cup to provide a urine sample. There were no toilets inside the clinic, and I had to go to one a short distance away. There were only two cubicles in this toilet, and it was a bit squeezy.

I then had to place my urine sample on a counter and a lab technician would immediately take it and analyze it to confirm pregnancy and to check on protein and sugar levels.

One word perfectly summarizes my experience at NUH – wait.

I had to wait a lot at NUH. For my first appointment, I waited close to an hour before I could see the gynae. To my surprise, the gynae did not give me an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, and only told me to come back at a later date for the scan. She said that the urine test confirmed my pregnancy.

For my second appointment, I was asked to go to the fetal scanning centre, which was located at a separate building from Clinic G. From what I understand, at NUH they will only provide three scans. The first scan is to confirm pregnancy, the second scan is when the baby is around 20 weeks to ensure there are no abnormalities/deformities in the baby, and the third scan is when the baby is around 30+ weeks to check on the growth of the baby. They apparently do not provide scans at every appointment, regardless of whether you are a subsidized or private patient. This is a very big factor of why I decided to go KKH in the end.

Also, the fetal scanning centre is the same regardless of whether you can a subsidized or private patient. My appointment for the scan was 11 am and I waited from 10.30 am to 2 pm for my scan. So even if you go to NUH as a private patient, be prepared to wait this amount of time for the three scanning appointments.

However, we were rewarded for the long wait with a picture – our first picture! – of a little tiny pea. By then, my son was 9 weeks old and had developed a heartbeat. It was surreal watching the blood vessels and the heart beating for the first time on the screen. There was a feeling of lightheadness, a realization that – I am going to become a mother. A strong sense of protectiveness, that I need to protect myself and the little one inside me. At that moment, my husband and I clenched our hands together very tightly, watching the screen light up with each pulse of my son’s beating heart.

If you’re reading this post, it means you may be trying for a child. If so, ladies, do start taking folic acid even before you get pregnant. Folic acid is commonly found at Guardian and is quite affordable – about $5 for 20 tablets. Folic acid is essential for your child’s brain development. As your child’s brain usually starts forming even before you know you are pregnant, it may be too late to take folic acid only after discovering your pregnancy. So go take those folic acid tablets now!

We started trying for a baby around February 2019. I used the Flo app to track my periods and to determine the best dates to make a baby (grin). After about three months, I felt disheartened when there were no results, and bought ovulation kits from Qoo10.

These ovulation kits were very affordable, and I used them around the time Flo told me I should be ovulating. That was when I realized that I somehow always ovulated slightly later than Flo’s calculations. With the ovulation kits, I was able to pinpoint the ovulation period more accurately. To give more context, I have a history of ovarian cysts and late periods. For couples who are trying to have children, I highly encourage buying these ovulation kits to help you in your planning.

In August 2019, taking advantage of the long National Day holiday, my husband and I traveled to Taiwan, Taizhong. It was a wonderful trip and we stayed overnight at an aquarium (I could write more about it in future if there is enough interest). On the last day, I even took part in a roller coaster ride.

A few nights after coming back from Taiwan, I felt nauseous after dinner and tested with a pregnancy test kit. To my ultimate surprise, the kit showed positive results. Not believing it, I tested with an ovulation test kit, and it was also positive.

After reading up, I realized that if one is pregnant, both ovulation and pregnancy test kits can show positive results. I confirmed my pregnancy by using up all my pregnancy test kits, and then buying some more from Guardian to test (kiasu much).

I then went to polyclinic to get a referral letter to my hospital of choice (NUH). The polyclinic doctor did not ask me to do any test, which surprised me. He said if the conventional pregnancy test kits bought from Guardian show a positive result, then it is very likely I am pregnant since they will use the same urine test at polyclinic. I was hoping to do a scan to confirm the pregnancy, but they don’t do that at polyclinics.

1^st Trimester

I was joyous about my pregnancy, but the joy lasted only about two weeks before I was brought on a roller coaster ride.

According to Chinese customs, a pregnant woman is not encouraged to announce her pregnancy until the first trimester is over. However, I had to let my sister know first as I needed her advice on whether I could have ovulation and pregnancy kits positive at the same time (she works as a nurse).

After securing my NUH appointment, one day I felt slight pain in my stomach and rushed to the toilet – there were a few spots of blood. The spots were small and infrequent, but they were enough to make me jump and worry. I was afraid that I would lose this precious baby. That night, my husband and I told our respective parents about the pregnancy. Both sides were delighted – and I was assured by my mother that she too, had spotting when pregnant with both my sister and I. Ladies, tradition is tradition, but if you are pregnant and need some advice, the best person to seek from is your mother. This is because many things you experience during your pregnancy would be something she had experienced too. Genetics have never played a stronger role, as I was going to find out.

Morning Sickness

I started vomiting about two weeks later. It came suddenly. I was walking to work when I felt an urge to vomit. Luckily, I had prepared plastic bags and I dumped my breakfast into the bag. After this, I vomited daily. I usually vomited my breakfast, no matter how little I ate or drank. On bad days, I vomited my lunch too.

I felt extremely nauseous and weak and lost the energy to go out to buy food. I had to rely on help from my colleagues and simply told them I had stomach flu. The only food I could stomach was porridge with some vegetables and tofu. I could not handle meat. And there were many triggers for me – the most prominent one being the smell of lemon. The moment I smelled lemon, I felt like heaving. I had to switch out all my shower products as they contained lemon then. Even until today, I feel a bit uncomfortable when smelling it.

If you are also suffering from morning sickness, hang in there! Morning sickness is the toughest part of the entire pregnancy journey. Nothing seemed to make it better. I tried many different remedies, but even if they worked, the effectiveness was lost after a few days. And by ‘worked’, I did not mean they stopped the vomiting – it seems nothing could – but rather they reduced the frequency and intensity of the vomiting episodes and made me less nauseous.

Some of the things I tried included ginger tea (worked the longest, for about 2 weeks), orange juice and mints. For some reason I hated plain water. The taste felt strange to me, regardless of where I got the water from. I could only stomach juices and sports drinks such as 100 Plus.

I lost weight during this period actually. Don’t worry, soon to be mothers, if you don’t feel like eating anything during this period. 80% of pregnant women experience morning sickness, and it is common to lose instead of gain weight during this period. Luckily for me, my morning sickness was not the severe type of morning sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). HG starts earlier and ends later than morning sickness. A colleague of mine suffered from it and had to be hospitalized for IV drip as she could not stomach any food/drink.

Morning sickness peaked at around 9 – 10 weeks pregnancy for me and started to get better after the 11^th week. The final time I vomited was after a dinner with some friends on a Sunday night. I remember this vividly because it was my final and most – violent – vomit. I had been vomit-free for a few days by then. After dinner, we took a cab back and the moment I alighted, I vomited so badly I tore my throat and I tasted blood. I was 13 weeks pregnant then.

Does nothing make it better? Any medications at all? Pleaseeeeeeee?

The happy answer is, the gynae does prescribe pills that claim to help with morning sickness. The one that I got was Diclectin, a white pill with a picture of a pregnant lady. The unhappy answer is, from my own experience and from what I read, the pills have limited effectiveness.

Perhaps it would make us better to know the reasons behind morning sickness. Unfortunately, there is no definite explanation as to why we suffer from it. One theory state that it could be our body’s reaction to higher levels of the hCG hormone, which is highest during the first trimester. So, in fact, it is good to suffer from morning sickness – it shows we have a healthy baby. Studies have suggested that women who do not suffer from morning sickness actually have higher rates of miscarriages.

And, if you really want to know if you can avoid this stage altogether, go ask your mother about it. Genetics play a very big factor in morning sickness. If you mom had it, likely you will go through it. And if she hadn’t, you may be the lucky 20% who can avoid going through this terrible phase. My mother suffered from morning sickness until her 5^th month of pregnancy, so I guess I am lucky mine stopped at 13 weeks!

To make it better, remember to take note of your triggers – is there a particular smell or food that would especially trigger you? If so, avoid it at all costs. Drink and eat whatever you can, regardless of what it is. At this stage, it is important to ensure your body still has some nutrition, no matter how little. Having said that, eating overly spicy and fried foods would only make you more nauseous, so I suggest holding off on KFC until morning sickness is over.

Lastly, to all the husbands and soon-to-be fathers, please exercise some prudence and patience during this period. Your wife is going through a hard time. Volunteer to do the housework, wash the dishes, massage her feet and shoulders, and endure if she scolds you (this is good training for the REAL scolding during delivery). A healthy mother will have a healthy baby 😊.