My review of the doctors and confinement lady

[mylittlething]

hello, everyone! When I was pregnant, I was so hungry to find any information about doctors or hospitals or confinement lady but it seems like doing review isn't a common thing in Singapore! So now I have been there and done it, I think I would like to give a little help to our mother-to-be netizens. Just remember that everything will be fine and things will work out eventually.

Dr. Choo Wan Ling

Pros:

• Great facility. Nice waiting area. Clean, bright, comfortable. Right in Mt. E Novena Hospital.
  
  
• Nice staff. Specifically Teresa. Very personal (can tell that I was nervous so held my hand when answering my questions and tried her best to give as much info as possible), patient, and knowledgeable. She even came and visit me like the doctor during my hospital stay every morning.
  
  
• Doctor is patient and answered our long list questions. Also it might due to the fact that the clinic is right next to the hospital, she came to visit me every morning during my hospital stay before she went to clinic.
  
  
• Doctor is quite gentle with the cervical test etc. -- I have came across a gyno before that was really rough about it so I am quite appreciate the gentleness.
  

Cons:

• The waiting time can be quite long when they are busy and it is rare that I can meet the doctor on time even if I was there punctually.
  
  
• I find Dr. Choo condescending sometimes. Some questions I asked might be obvious from the doctor’s point of view, and she will still answer them patiently, however the assumptions that she made or just the general tune that she used made me feel uncomfortable and want to withdraw my option in front of her.
  
  
• One of the reasons I choose Dr. Choo is because in her introduction online she mentioned that as a mother, she knows what journey the patients are going through and I find that helpful. But after I started visiting her, I find myself difficult to get the empathy from her. If I am asking any objective questions, I usually don’t get any useful info. And ironically enough, I got more empathy from another male doctor than from her.
  
  
• Dr. Choo mentioned it to me before my delivery that she will not do episiotomy but just to let it tear by itself. She didn’t explain why and I just accepted it thinking it is the preference of the doctor. It turned out that my tear was really big and painful and now think back, I wonder if episiotomy is more suitable. But I didn’t get the chance to ask and neither did she explain it to me why the choice.
  
  
• My labor was a long one and most of the time I was assisted by the nurses. Dr. Choo only came in on the final stage. I was quite despaired during the labor because it is obvious that if your doctor isn’t even there then you are not even close to the actual racing sprint. I was really expecting that she will be more presenting.
  
  
• And of course the bill...
  

Dr. John Yam

Pros:

• Dr. John is very knowledgeable and patient. He is also quite willing to share the info with the patients and explain the synergy behind his decisions. Or if it is up to the patient's decision, he will make sure that all the info asked for is provided and maybe some more.
  
  
• Dr. John has the empathy with his patients. He might not experienced the pain women go through during delivery but he certainly tried his best to comfort the patients.
  
  
• He is quite good with sticking with the timing. I usually arrived punctually and I can see him around the appointment time.
  
  
• He is also very calm and professional when facing stress. There was one time that I can tell he was in a hurry because he walked with a much faster pace. But we still went through all our questions and there wasn’t any show of rushing in his tune. Later turned out that he was having a delivery right after us… We were really impressed!
  

Cons:

• The clinic is slightly small and crowded, shared with another doctor so sometimes can’t even find a sitting place.
  
  
• His nurse Jackie is a very vigorous and resolute lady. When she has time she will make the effort to talk to you and be personal, but when she is busy she could be bluntly direct -- professionally. You are at her mercy.
  
  
• The whole clinic closed in the afternoon in Gleneagle. Dr. John has another clinic in Boon Lay and they do the business there in the afternoon.
  
  
• Dr John did warn us that if I am going to deliver in other hospitals rather than Gleneagle he might not reach on time -- which I can understand. But Gleneagle is not so easy to reach from my place so I set my heart on Mt. E Novena.

Jenny Yee:

Pros:

• Jenny is very experienced with confinement work. She has been doing this for around 8 years and has her way of doing things.
  
  
• She cooked some herb tea for me everyday. I literally drank no water during the confinement month but only the tea. It is not bitter and the efforts that she made the tea is quite appreciated by me -- my colleague complained before that her confinement lady never do that.
  
  
• She can really build up the relationship with the baby. If I choose to, I might be able to do nothing but just feeding for the confinement month which is suggested by her. But I really want to build up my connection with my child so I chose to be hand-on. The kid was so rely on her that when we looked after the baby in the last week, if he cried, and Jenny just stood at our door, he would stop.
  
  
• When Jenny first arrived our place, she literally put down the luggage and rushed into the kitchen and started all the cooking. We had all 3 burners on cooking separate things for the whole afternoon. That was to my surprise, in a good way. This was consistent throughout the stay; although there were period when she did not want to be disturbed (see “cons”), there was never any issue of work remaining undone.
  
  
• One of the difficulties we had when we were looking for a confinement lady was there is no certification or qualification that we can ask for to see whether they are good or not. During our initial call she claimed to have studied at KK Hospital. Jenny actually worked on that and she showed me some cert that she obtained in Malaysia for lactagogue massage.
  
  
• I was having some serious milk blockage on my breasts and it was hurting. I was quite scared because I heard horrible stories that milk blockage can cause infections and fever. Jenny helped me to massage a lot and did all the hot compressing etc. I managed it without any actual damage.
  

Cons:

• Jenny isn’t flexible with her way of doing things. We asked her in advance if she would adjust her way to suit our needs and she gave affirmative answer, but we ended up with a lot of disagreements and went through the same issues again and again. Mostly I believe that she wasn’t trying to go against our will intentionally but she did think her way was better for the baby -- which we disagreed with based on the science. Most significantly, she wanted him to sleep with a pillow, which is considered a dangerous thing. Also, she strongly pushed to add formula to his diet when we were afraid that he might not be getting enough milk. This second point in particular made our life very stressful as it scared my mother to tears. She eventually gave in to our insistence when the pediatrician agreed with us.
  
  
  
• This isn’t a con for us but I can see it might be an issue for other people -- Jenny requests some private time. She needs rest during the afternoon (which I can understand because she takes care of the baby during evening), and she needs at least 2 hours praying time after dinner, which she prefers not to be disturbed by adults but babies are fine. She could get pretty emotional with the praying time and might cry loudly during the period -- so in my opinion, it might be better to leave her alone for that period to find her inner peace.
  
  
• Jenny isn’t sensitive about the prices/costs and I don’t know if she will adjust the budget according to the mother’s needs. She certainly never asked what our budget was or if we were uncomfortable with the money she was spending. My husband and I were shocked at how much we spent on groceries and in the wet market, and also the extensive usage of electricity/gas. We also needed to buy additional things that already existed but were not satisfactory for her. We did get to keep the things but we do not need extras. But on the other hand, all the ingredients that she purchased are for the new mothers benefit (such as expensive fish, dark chickens etc.) so I didn’t complain. And the result of that was worthy too -- I had enough milk for the baby eventually.
  
  
• Jenny is rough with stuff. Our stove top lighter was broken (can’t come back up) and she mentioned it to us; and she broke the tip of one knife and we didn’t hear about it from her but only found out after she left.