Would you like to Upgrade that?

I'm not talking about a hamburger meal. I'm talking about a birthing experience.

Yesterday, Matt and I went to the hospital where we plan to give birth, and we took a tour. I was expecting to see a room with one bed, a room with two beds, a room with four beds, a nursery, maybe a surgery theatre, a waiting room? Who knows, but whatever I expected, I didn't see it.

We were on a tour with about 15 other couples, and it was one of the most interesting tours ever (Cheong Fatt Tse's house in Penang was cooler, as were the tunnels in the Old City in Jerusalem, the orangutan jungle...okay it wasn't THAT cool, but it was really interesting!). We saw different room/suite options. As Singaporeans tend to relate many things to food, the comparison was kueh lapis. Click on that, and you will see my favorite kueh lapis in Singapore (it's actually more "fun to eat" than "good," but I like it). Apparently they used to offer different layers of an experience - 4 bed room, 2 bed room, 1 bed room, suite. She said then they added yeast, thickened up the layers and added many more layers, and now they have about sixteen different options (all at different prices). To continue with the food thing...some charge like a buffet (all is included) and some charge a la carte (depending on what you use in the room). The fancier you go, you move into a la carte.

We started off in a room with a tub. This is a labour tub (not a birthing tub), and the room was stuffy, but nice. Then we hit the premium deluxe room which had a flat screen tv, pretty nice comforter, private bathroom, separate section for dad (with a bed/couch). Then we moved on to one of the three fanciest suites. It was way nicer and bigger than our apartment. Table with seating for four, big beds, internet, webcam to talk to the nurses. You know - the normal stuff that EVERYONE needs to give birth. Obviously. She told us that if you take one of the fanciest suites then the first night in the hospital they give you a candlelight dinner for two. All we saw were different birthing room options.

Basically, you have to "reserve" one of these types of rooms, and then all of the pricing is based on that. If you have a c-section, it's more expensive in a suite than a four bed room. If you get an epidural, same thing. Forceps, vacuum, everything - the price depends on which type of room you're in. Apparently the nurses are more attentive at the top, so that's really what you're paying for (well, and the facilities).

On another, related note, we don't have medical insurance that covers maternity and birth (as most people don't in Singapore, unless they're on an ex-pat package, which we're not). The whole birthing experience in the hospital, according to what we want to do, should cost about S$5,000 at the most (USD3,600) unless something goes terribly wrong. My 20 week scan the other day cost about USD120. While having no insurance sounds scary, prices here are so reasonable that we don't even mind paying them. I suppose that's all related to our expectations.