Hospital Tours : Mount Alvernia & Mount Elizabeth
Our gynae, Dr Dolly Wee, only delivers at Mount Alvernia and Mount Elizabeth, which has been described by some (no one in particular!) as countryside versus urban city (which by no means implies that one is better than the other, and boils down simply to personal preference).
Since there were only 2 options to choose from, it was almost like flipping a coin, except that I couldn't really do that, could I?
Having committed our hard earned money into our new home, I wanted to be certain that we were within budget and not end up having to eat instant noodles for the rest of our lives. Plus we only just managed to fill the emptiness in our piggy bank which was left behind as a testimony of our wedding a few years back.
Yet, this being Mama Lamb's first pregnancy, we had no benchmark of what makes a reasonably pleasant hospital stay. So it was really about how much we wanted to throw into the pot and hope we strike gold.
Since I am the kind of person who strives to get $2 value out of every $1 spent, I set out to ensure that we were betting on the right horse, I meant hospital (no, I don't gamble, really).
Ok let me break it down:
1. Cost of hospital package for Natural Birth (with Epidural)
As a dad-to-be, knowing that I didn't want to miss any part of this experience, I knew from the start that we were definitely going for the single room (yes all dads-to-be, single rooms are the only rooms you can consider if you want to accompany your moms-to-be during the nights and for babies to room-in with you). Since Mama Lamb would be going for natural birth (with epidural), staying at both Mount A and Mount E would have cost us between $3000-$4000.
Verdict: Although either of the hospitals would burn a hole
in my pocket, staying in a single room in Mount A
would save me a couple of hundred dollars.
Any money saved would go into Emo Lamb's diaper fund!
2. Room (based solely on our own observations*)
Strange as it may seem, we would be getting rooms in Mount A's St Raphael ward that felt more spacious than the rooms we saw in Mount E (not verified with exact floor area, so we could be mistaken). To be fair, the rooms in Mount A's St Michael ward, which were newer and looked similar in size and feel to Mount E rooms, would also cost approximately $100 more than rooms in St Raphael ward. For us, larger rooms that cost less just made more sense with the number of relatives and friends who would be coming to take a peek at our little one and having more space to sit around and poke his chubby cheeks.
But if fresh interiors are more important to you than room space, Mount E or the St Michael ward in Mount A may suit you better.
Verdict: Single rooms in Mount A's St Raphael ward
were most spacious (sometimes size does matter)
3. Nurses (based solely on our own observations*)
This one is tough to assess, given that we are not in the hospitality industry and do not (fortunately) have much experience with hospitals.
We managed to make an interesting observation of the two nurseries though: Mount A's was full of babies, perhaps 3 or 4 times more than Mount E's at the time of our hospital tours (we did not do a row call so please accept some inaccuracies in this estimate). Since we toured both the hospitals on the same day, it could have been just an isolated case of Mount E having a dry spell while Mount A was harvesting those couple of days.
Nonetheless, we decided on very layman terms that the nurses at Mount A's maternity ward are likely to be very experienced since they had to take care of so many babies (or likely overloaded - you can read more about this in Our Mount Alvernia Experience.
Verdict: Mount A maternity ward nurses are likely to be
very experienced
4. Security (based solely on our own observations*)
This is important. No parents would ever want to go through what happened at KKH in 2012 where two newborns were accidentally swapped!
Since then, all hospitals have probably stepped up on their protocols to ensure that the probability of such incidents occurring again is minimised.
During the tour, Mount A explained that the hospital would issue a matching pair of RFID tags to the mom and her baby at the point of delivery. This pair of RFID tags will resonate with a beautiful melody when close to each other to allow moms to identify their newborn.
While swapping of newborns in hospital is not common in Singapore, it is indeed reassuring to be able to know for sure (it may seem instinctive for a mom to recognise her newborn, but I would have opted for this service for the peace of mind even if it meant paying extra. Some things are just worth more than money).
On the other hand, although Mount E's RFID tags may have similar features, we left the hospital tour remembering only that it will sound off alarms and trigger auto lockdown of the ward if someone other than the mother carries a newborn out of the ward. Furthermore, there were several alarming posters in Mount E's maternity ward warning patients of babies being kidnapped.
Generally speaking, we can never be too safe, but I felt that being able to recognise our newborn was good enough for us. If a stranger could barge into a nursery (which is typically staff-access only) and kidnap a newborn, then something is seriously wrong with the nursery. However, if you prefer to leave nothing to human error, then you may find the system in Mount E a pre-requisite rather than a value-add.
Verdict: Although either of the hospital is likely to be secure,
Mount E seems to have a more advanced system
4. Other considerations
A romantic dinner would have been included if we had taken up the single room package for Mount E
Our decision
Frankly, both hospitals met our expectations. Since Mount A was more gentle on my wallet, we proceeded to pre-register and await the due date. You can read more about Our Mount Alvernia Experience (still working on it!).
We believe in providing people with balanced views, so here is a post from a mother who chose Mount Elizabeth (Orchard) in 2014 after a prior experience at Mount Alvernia.
Ultimately, it is a personal choice which hospital you choose to deliver at, depending on your priorities, past experiences, word-of-mouth, luck etc, and we hope that every moms-to-be get the best experience regardless of which hospital they choose.
Note: Our observations are based on our hospital tour of Mount Alvernia and Mount Elizabeth (Orchard), and not Mount Elizabeth (Novena)
