A huge step forward

So, after rampaging through the scores of forums on the internet, intense grilling on friends who had just delivered their babies, my wife made the most important decision of which Gynaecologist to consult.

Pricing, it seems, should not be the priority factor. What is important is that the Gynaecologist must be reliable, warm, friendly, caring, gentle and yet, remain impressively professional. He have to appear to be a close friend of the family. And so, she has decided, and I support her decision, to employ the services of Dr. Douglas Ong.


A pic of the Gynaecologist's business card.


The Gynaecologist's clinic locations.

We had our first appointment with Douglas on Wednesday, 17 August 2005. My wife had her blood pressure, weight and height taken by the nurse before the consultation. First impressions of him came across as warm, friendly and easy-going. His consultation desk is kept neat and tidy, and the wall just beside his desk was decorated with pictures and photos of babies he delivered for his many other "patients". There were hampers, gifts and "Thank-You" notes and letters too. This guy looks promising.

He got the usual details from my wife, stuffs like "first day of last menses", "self pregnancy test done", "food and/or drug allergies", "current and historical medical problems", etc etc.

Then came the scan. My wife was terrified that the first scanning would be done with a vaginal scan. However, Douglas convinced and assured her that the scan is only done for the first time during the early stages of pregnancy as the fetus sac is too small to be scanned with the abdominal scan, and there's only a very slight discomfort while doing the vaginal scan. Douglas was nice in offering my wife to do the abdominal scan first, and if the image turned out to be undiscernable, he would proceed with the vaginal scan. My wife finally agreed and the scan was done. As Douglas said, the image of the sac that appeared on the monitor was indeed very small, roughly 2 to 3 mm in length. He calculated that the fetus is approximate a few days off from being 6 weeks old. Much to my wife's relief, the scan was completed. There won't be any printed scans for us to bring home due to the fact that the image is so tiny, we won't even see the sac clearly if the scan is printed.

Our next appointment was scheduled to be on Wednesday 31 August 2005, which is 2 weeks later. Another scan would be done. This time, it will definitely be an abdominal scan. My wife was delighted.

Now, came the charges. Douglas's services ain't cheap. First appointment is a flat SGD80.00, each time a scan is done, an extra SGD50.00 is charged. These charges do not include medication, mind you. Goods and Services Tax (GST) was excluded too. Also, from the 4th month onwards, Douglas will be putting us on a common package. His package costs SGD1500.00 excluding GST. This package includes monthly scanning, consultation, a one-time 3D imaging scan and delivery at either Mount Elizabeth Hospital or Mount Alvernia Hospital. The package does not include additional medication and hospitalisation charges.

So... i guess this little one is gonna be a huge investment for both my wife and me. heh. (: