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Of healthcare costs and formula milk!!
Firstly apologies for being MIA from the blog (though with all the contributions from my fellow bloggers I’m pretty sure I wasn’t missed!!) I gave birth 3 months ago and I’ve been making full use of my maternity leave and I’ve recently returned home to Singapore to enjoy my last two months of leave with my family and friends here.
Other than stuffing myself with good ol’ Singaporean food, I’ve been having lots of chats with friends and family on the cost of having children here. Having given birth in Wales, most of them were keen to find out what it was like and with all the bad press the UK National Health Service has been getting…I suppose they were curious.
Don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with the details of my labour 
Since the NHS is publicly funded (i.e. taxpayers!!) I did not have to pay for my pre-natal & post-natal care and hospitalization. Technically its not free as I’m a taxpayer so in a long-winded and convoluted way I guess I paid for it via my National Insurance contributions.
Throughout my pregnancy I was looked after by my community midwife who even came over to my house when I was unable to make it for her ‘tuesday-clinic’ at my local GP surgery. Definitely top marks for service.
I was also give a number of birth options, I could have my baby at home, in the birth centre or hospital..I could even opt for a water birth if I wanted..though unlike Singapore, a C-section isn’t something you can opt for.
After labour where I went through 6 midwives(due to changing shifts and switching wards) and a doctor – my community midwife continued to visit me almost every other day when I was discharged to ensure that I was healing well and that I was coping. Once she discharged me from her car, I had a health visitor who would come once a week to check-in on baby and for a chat with me to ensure that I wasn’t suffering from post natal blues and as a 1st time mum..these visits really helped especially when you’re not really sure if you’re doing a good job!
All in all I’ve received lots of positive comments from my fellow Singaporeans and whilst in the past they had urged me to come home to have my baby…now they’ve changed their tune considerably. Some of my fellow mums have told me how they still have to cough up thousands of dollars despite being able to use their medisave and that the baby bonus given by the government is really to cover that outlay of money and not so much as additional financial support.
Next up is the actual cost of feeding a baby. I almost died of shock when I went to the supermarket to buy formula milk!I pay approximately $15 for a 900g box which lasts approximately a week or so and I really was not amused at having to pay twice that amount over here!!! (the one good thing of having a brother who studies in the UK is that when he comes home next Sunday I’ve instructed him to bring back 6 boxes of formula milk with him!!)
Now I do understand why my girlfriends keep telling me that its too expensive to have children over here!
I know you can’t put a price on motherhood and starting a family etc, but I can’t help thinking that the push by our govt to have more children to add on to the population numbers isn’t going to get anywhere if these costs stay as they are or increase as time goes by. Do people at the top(i.e. decision-making positions) know how much it costs to raise children on an average salary and that in most cases the option for one parent to take time out and stay home is not possible for most couples.
I do believe that in the next few years, the ruling party needs to seriously consider radical changes to the healthcare system to ensure that vulnerable groups esp the elderly and those on low-incomes are provided with the same quality of healthcare as those who can pay for it and that Singaporeans do not end up spending all of their live savings just on medical care especially in the case where one has a serious disease or illness such as cancer.
This is also crucial if they want to continue their push for Singapore to become a more conducive country for families.
Next up..applying for my son’s Singaporean citizenship by descent. Both my husband and I would like for him to do NS so I’m going to have first hand experience dealing with govt red-tape.
Wish me luck!
skeptic
December 10th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Hi Shereen,
I urge you to think very carefully about the NS issue. At least give him the option to decide when he is 18 (dual citizenship).
I know of people who liked NS but the majority of my peers who have been through it would rather not have done it if given the choice and that is after completing it many years ago.
Shereen Williams
December 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hi Skeptic,
Thanks for reading and the comment.
You are right in terms of the option.We would like him to but of course it is ultimately up to him. He has British citizenship due to his dad and we are keeping it until it comes to a point where Iesu (my son) decides.
The main reason why I’m applying for it now is because based from what I’ve read on the ICA website it is less complicated to apply for it when the child is under 1 then when they are older. Less paperwork apparently, but when it comes to red tape nothing is ever easy!
Because of FREDICK, I am voting anyone but the PAP
December 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
The PAP is driving true Singaporeans out of this country.This is a YPAP blog.First they have YPAP NMP Calvin Cheng, they have PAP NMP Gerard Ee.Now every6body is a PAP member and its being exposed.
Over the next coupleof weeks, I will expose all the PAP members who are business leaders,have directorships and you will see a lot of conflicts of interests.You have been warned.
They have PAP PA Grassroots leaders.PAP Non partisan Independent bloggers who are basically PAP mouthpieces.The PAP wants to control you like 1984’s Big Brother.Our Freedom as Singaporeans is coming to an end come this election.They have butchered the constitution for their own benefits.
They have removed inheritance tax,estate duty tax so that their actual assets are not released to the public.There is hell of a lot of Creative Accounting happening.
Why did HDB lose $3 Billion dollars over the last two years?Why is there no investigations?What is the actually cost price of a HDB Flat? WE WANT THE TRUTH PAP.
Please, readers.Be discerning.They are using propoganda online when they have 100% control of the 150th rank Press.
They will bring in another 1.5 million more foreigners and convert all of them into PRs.Soon PRs will get to vote.If not, Singaporean New Citizens will vote and suppress Singaporeans.
This is the master plan.Now, they have new citizens.The end is near.
Ju in UK
December 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Hi Shereen
I am so glad and excited to read your blog. Many Sporeans have been so misled by the mainstream media in Spore, esp the Straits Times. My family and friends were very impressed too after I told them what it was like when I had my son in England. More Spore women have joined me here and enjoying the ’special treatment’ that we will never receive back home.
The NHS had also offered me Amnio test (costs something like $500 in SG) and I took it without paying any additional penny. I really don’t mind paying the tax and National Insurance. What will also be very assuring is should your child become ill, you can take him to your GP as many times as you want. Everytime my neighbour’s child had a fit, the ambulance came to attend to her and took her to the hospital. Nobody hopes to have to use these services but it is so assuring to know that you have them for you.
My bad experience in SG was the incovenience of bringing my son out and about when I brought him to SG at age 14 months. There was no baby changing facilities even in posh places. The MRT had no lifts or ramps for pushchair, the buses do not cater for pushchairs. There was hardly any safe children playing facilities. This was about 10 yrs ago, don’t know how much have changed now.
My son is now in middle state school and doing incredibly well academically. His wealth of knowledge was accumulated through interest, curiosity and alot of thoughts to weigh up the facts. All these could have been stifled had he been educated in SG.
I am also so glad that I did not register him as a SG citizen. Some SG mothers got into trouble when the child turns 14. This is the time when the Govt wants some large sum of money to guarantee the child will return at 18 to serve NS.
I agree with skeptic that you should really think seriously what you are getting your child into. It might not be what he agrees when he is mature enough to think wisely. Not sure if you are aware, SG also does not allow dual citizenship, so you would have to give up one anyway. Why don’t you let you son come to SG like the PRs, without having to do NS? If you like him to do NS to toughen him, there are lots of activities and groups he can join to toughen him up in the UK.
From what I read about the things that go on inside the NS, there is no proper procedures of safety (concerns life & death), no accountability of officers and no complain procedure that works. And there were a lot of mundane work (like moving tables and chairs) which some intelligent young men find difficult doing for 3 yrs. Not all the time in the NS are fully used for military training.
Enjoy your motherhood while your son still needs you. There are so many things we can do with our young child in this country. The child needs all the nurtuing (body and mind) he can get at early age. It does not last long before he wants to go to school all by himself.
Best wishes and lots of luck.
Shereen Williams
December 10th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Dear “Because of FREDICK, I am voting anyone but the PAP”
I just wanted to make it clear that I am not a member of PAP or Young PAP. I am Singaporean, Malay and I left Singapore 4 years ago and moved to Wales after I got married.
Nevertheless I still feel very much attached to Singapore because all my family and friends are here and I try to come back as often as possible.
I do believe Singapore as a nation has a lot to learn from countries from other parts of the world and I hope my entries could bring an insight into systems of what works and what doesn’t work in a different part of the world and maybe it can be modified to deal with issues here.
Like you I belief that politics only works if its clean and transparent. Any conflict of interest needs to be stated from the outset and those involved should not have a say in decision making that is related to them.
I have seen how a scandal like the UK’s MP’s expenses has crushed the trust of the electorate and I am shocked that such a list of directorships etc for our MP’s are not already available publicly.
I also think that there needs to be more nurturing of critical thinking skills amongst Singaporeans.
We need to be constructively critical about our government. In fact maybe we need to look at bold ideas on how to improve the balance of the opposition. There are systems in Europe that allow for the opposition to have a significant representation and I am happy to pen an entry about how that works in Wales.
I wish you luck with your research and hope that you will make that list available.
Shereen
Shereen Williams
December 10th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Dear Ju,
Thanks for reading and also echoing the positive experience you’ve had with the NHS.
I have to be honest before I moved to the UK I had a negative view of any type of ‘benefits’ system.
But after 4 years I can see how the vulnerable groups are taken care of and like you I don’t mind paying tax and national insurance. I admit there has been ongoing abuse of the system but managing the UK with a population of over 60 million..these things do happen.
Our plan is to educate Iesu in Wales via the Welsh-medium schools which means I do need to pick up the language soon!!
Thank you also for the advice regarding NS and I will have a re-think about it.
Shereen
JB
December 10th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Encouraging your son to be a killing machine, an exploited digit in the Great System? LOL. Stupid mum.
Shereen Williams
December 11th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Dear JB,
Whilst I get the fact that you have a huge issue with the way Singapore is governed, I do wonder if having so much pent up frustration inhibits your ability to be polite. I’m more than happy to accept constructive criticism and even advice, but if all you want to do is be insulting and launch personal attacks this really isn’t the space to do that.
And in response, a majority of my male friends who were more inclined to the ‘wild child’ lifestyle found NS to be beneficial for them and helped them learn discipline. However I am also grateful for Ju’s and Skeptic’s comments and the issues they have highlighted and consider them seriously.
Regards,
Shereen
skeptic
December 11th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Your experience with the NHS was different compared to what I experience I was a student more than 10 years ago. It was really bad. There were long delays to get treatment, they even lost some of my test results.
Of course the plus side is everything was free for me. Now that I am living in the US, my experience is the opposite. Everything is very fast. You get results asap but the down side is that everything is really expensive and overpriced. A simple blood test that cost SG$5 in Singapore would cost US$80. Even insurance doesn’t cover everything.
skeptic
December 11th, 2009 at 2:14 am
To JB,
I myself am angry/annoyed over my NS years which I considered a big waste of my time but my anger is with the government which formulated the policies, not with a mother trying to figure out what’s best for her son.
She’s not responsible for your predicament so it is best to direct it somewhere else.
We are voting PAP out
December 11th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
It’s Decided.I would like to confirm here that we are starting a petition to vote the PAP out.
If you guys are reading this, you guys obviously do not understand Singapore anymore.Can’t believe you are now recruiting foreigners to tell us how to vote and decide our futures.
We have an e-mail petition going out with all these posts and we have already gathered more than 100 signatories.We are aiming for 5,000 by the end of the month.We shall show you our grassroots network.
To my fellow singaporeans, we will have a website up soon and would encourage you to sign up.Thanks for your support.
And for the opposition, you have our support.Watch the swing in electoral votes this election.My colleagues, there are 20 of us all voted for PAP last election and we are regretting.We talk about our votes and we don’t care if it is a secret.We don’t even care if the PAP decides to track our IP address to our office.
And we have received more than 100 votes of supports from our friends in just one day.We thank all the Pro Singapore posters here for educating us and expressing our heartfelt feelings about our country.
Continue the good work.Vote the PAP out.Vote for Change.
Ju
December 18th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
One more glaring difference that needs to be mentioned is that Caesarian section for child delivery is rightly, NOT an option in the UK. It is shocking for me to know that the C-section is an option offered to healthy mothers in Singapore, who could have had normal births. This is a major operation and as with all operations, should be done only when absolutely necessary or as the last resort. To think that the Spore Ministry allows hospitals to offer the C-section as an option for childbirth is unbelievable to me. It is indeed a ‘free for all’ to do business in Spore (but not so free when the authorities want the business). This leads me to mention the super cheap long distance phone calls that I can make from UK to Spore. It costs me only 1 pence or 3 Sing cents per min to call Spore from UK (assuming exch rate is 1:3).
Shereen, do you know about this? It is using Telediscount. If not, see http://www.telediscount.co.uk.
limewire
April 30th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
shoot sweet stuff man.