It has been 2 years into my marriage life and we decided to embark on our TTC journey. It was not always smooth sailing as we had 1 mis-miscarriage. It was a rather painful experience that all couples wouldn’t really want to go through. The excitment and disapointment that happened is something nobody would want to go through.
As a result of this this experience, we found ourselves visiting several gynae in Singapore and I feel that that it would be a good information to document down my journey as someone may find it useful. I, myself, relied a lot on information found on Google. Some of them positive
In total, I had went to 3 different gynae, all 3 happen to belong to different category.
Dr Ann Tan – The Gynae for the rich
Without knowing much, we simply googled for Gynae and decided to visit Dr Ann Tan for our first Gynae trip. Our friends also shared that Dr Ann Tan has helped to give birth to their children without complications. Reviews found on Google is super promising and she does seemed to be 1 of the best.
She has even helped Fann Wong deliver the baby.
Located at Mt Elizabeth at Orchard, her clinic is rather inaccessible from my house. This was made worse as her clinic is not near the MRT. The clinic is located behind Paragon. This made traveling to the clinic to be quite a hassle. But I suppose people who can afford to give birth at Mount Elizabeth generally has a car.
Originally, we visited her clinic for fertility checks and the clinic arranged an afternoon session at 4pm for us. After we have arrived and done the check, the doctor/nurse inform me(the husband) that the clinic doing male fertility test has closed and requires me to return on a different day. I was quite pissed that the clinic did not help to facilitate both male and female check up to be done on the same day. Every checkup requires me to take 1 day of vacation leave as night time and weekends are “reserved” for preggy at later trimester.
Subsequently, my wife seemed to be pregnant based on the HGG level. Dr Ann Tan continued to scan (without providing any images of the scan).
We need to check if the pregnancy is viable
That’s all she say and does not tell us whether it is a good thing or bad thing.
Additionally, each visit cost approximately $500. This was also quite expensive for us and we cannot feel that our trip is worth $500. Her clinic is usually full on a weekday afternoon and we spent our time waiting without really know what we are waiting. At times, it feels like other people are even given priority over us. (Maybe we probably looked young and cannot afford this place? )
Despite coming for a “less” popular slot on a weekday afternoon, there was lots of queue. The nurse doesn’t really seemed to give any concern to us but we do see them chating with other preggy except for us.
Dr Claudine Tan – Tender Loving Female Doctor
With the bad impression left from Dr Ann Tan clinic, we decided to try another gynae and decided to try Dr Claudine. The place is closer to my house and cost half the price Dr Ann Tan charged. She was also the nearest female gynae doctor.
When we visited Dr Claudine, she immediately told us that our pregnancy was not viable as she could not detect a heart beat. We were quite shock as it was days after we visited Dr Ann Tan(In fact we visited her on week 4 and week 6 but was not informed of such scenarios).
Dr Claudine gave more TLC (tender loving care) to my wife compared to Dr Ann Tan. I find Dr Claudine to be more friendly and frank compared to Dr Ann Tan. Additionally, Dr Claudine immediately printed the photo from the ultrasound machine of the womb without asking. We were surprised as this was the first time we received the photo.
Subsequently we also engaged Dr Claudine to do a D&C to remove the mis-miscarrage.
The clinic is not very near to the MRT but similar walking distance compared to Dr Ann Tan’s clinic. The clinic can be packed at times, but it is still quite bearable. The clinic do limit the number of preggy per day based on a 15 min slot. As such, each trip is usually less than 1 hour.
Lastly, the cost for each trip is approximately $250, half the price of Dr Ann Tan.
Although I am sure that Dr Claudine is capable and experienced enough, there are many times when she says things that doesn’t sound good. She say words that undermine her abilities and this makes me worried. Nevertheless, she does have lots of preggy patient as well as delivery that happen frequently.
Dr Adrian Woodworth – the fast and furious doctor
My wife manage to get pregnant again 2 months after the D&C. We wanted to visit Dr Claudine to check but it happened to be year end where Dr Claudine is clearing 2-3 weeks of leave. As such, we decided to visit another doctor as we were rather worried after experiencing a miscarriage earlier.
We decided to visit Dr Adrian as going to his clinic is very convenient as his clinic is located right at a shopping mall. He has clinic at Sengkang and Chua Chu Kang operating at different timing. In fact, it takes me 15 minutes to reach his clinic compared to 1hour for other gynae.
Additionally, we do not need to take any vacation leave to visit him as his clinic closes at 7.30pm. we could visit him after our work at 6pm. Unlike the other doctor who arranged for a fixed timing in the afternoon, the nurse state that we could come any time from 4.30 to 7.30pm.
It turns out that this flexibility in timing was a result of the Dr Adrian’s efficient consultation. Each consultation session with Dr Adrian usually only lasted for 5-10 minutes. Hence, waiting is usually 5-15 minutes depending on the queue.
Before you know it, the consultation has ended.
Dr Adrian will print a copy of the baby photo, point out the heart beat, head and legs of the baby, all of which happen within 5 minutes. This is totally a different type of experience from Dr Claudine.
Mr can come over now. Here is heart beat, here is the head, here is leg. Everything looks ok.
Dr Adrian also skipped many blood test that other Doctor ordered. He did not even order a HGG blood test. This makes me wonder why other gynae order a HGG test.
Each trip cost approximately $280 but there is a package of $600 that helps to reduce this cost to $0.
As the consultation is so fast, it would be good to prepare your questions before hand. I would say that short consultation meant that the pregnancy is ok. I would wonder if the previous couple has issues when their consultation took longer than normal.
With Dr Adrian being popular with his “fast and furious” method, there are quite a lot of preggy outside his clinic. As a result, it is also the clinic of choice for many promoters. I had not seen any promoter at other clinic. Somehow I am ok with promoters that appears here as I can usually get free products. I have gotten a small can of mummy formula milk (worth $20) as well as cryoviva’s freebie.
Conclusion
We decided to stick with Dr Adrian as he seemed to be the most experienced. He gave me a sense of confidence that the other 2 doctor did not give. Additionally, he is the first doctor that does not require me to take any vacation leave.
Additionally, Dr Adrian is also part of Thomson Medical Group. This is the hospital which I hoped to deliver my baby instead of Mount Elizabeth. Thomson hospital is slightly more affordable as the average cost for a single bedder after deducting Medisave is approximately $5500.
I suppose I would recommend Dr Claudine for preggy who prefer a female doctor.
Let’s hope that the next update is a good update.
Life is Sinple 