What to Expect When Expecting
I welcomed my little girl into the world about 4 months back and it has been quite the roller-coaster ride of a lifetime – exciting, rewarding, yet unnerving at times.
Besides buying your first home and planning for your retirement funds, the other greatest expense for a couple is having a kid. Parenthood is one of the most fulfilling experience in life but also one that can turn it upside down with the many changes it brings.
Planning ahead, especially financially, is crucial if you want to be able to meet the needs of parenthood without blowing up your financial game plan.
This post will cover what you need to know in terms of the needs of mummy and baby for the 9 months to delivery. Factor in all these costs, as well as the help available, to work out the budget you need. It can be daunting if you don’t prepare ahead and realize the costs keep adding up.
Expenses for Mummy
Pre-natal Care and Consultation Fees
Expectant mothers are encouraged to get pre-natal care to provide them with professional health advice and regular medical check-ups to ensure the health of baby and mummy.
For this, they seek the consultation of an obstetrician/gynaecologist (ob-gyn for short). Depending on which ob-gyn you choose to engage (public or private), the fees will cover their consultation as well as medical examinations and scans, and typically add up to a couple of thousands, for a normal pregnancy.
One thing to note is that your choice of ob-gyn tends to affect where you deliver your baby, and that is one of the big decisions you will grapple with during pregnancy. A private ob-gyn have their preferred hospital they have so far delivered in (typically where their clinic is located or near to) and an ob-gyn at a public hospital will deliver at that public hospital.
Keep in mind when making your choice that this will affect where you give birth and hence your delivery charges.
Delivery Charges
So you wonder if you should go to a private or public sector (restructured) hospital for delivery. That really depends on your preference and priority (cost or comfort). Just be warned, the charges vary quite a fair bit.
One of the greatest benefits of having your baby in a public hospital is that medical cost tends to be a lower price than in private hospitals, especially if you are a Singaporean citizen. Another benefit is the fact that you are right where you need to be in case of complications as some of the smaller private hospitals are not equipped to deal with complicated deliveries or birth problems.
On the other hand, some mothers shun public hospitals because of the potential long wait times and lower comfort level, with some even commenting they feel like they are in a “factory line” to deliver. If cost considerations matter less and your priority is to deliver in comfort and be pampered, then going private might be your choice.
What's important is to know what you want and research on the delivery charges and facilities at the respective hospitals. See this table of delivery charges by different hospitals on the Ministry of Health website. If you want some anecdotal comparisons, check out this extensive post from The Asian Parent which compares private versus public hospital delivery.
Other Maternity Expenses
Pregnancy comes with other costs that you would not be aware of until you are in it. They may not be big ticket items but they can add up. Maternity wear is a cost that cannot be avoided because growing bigger cannot be avoided. What helps is to ask for hand-me-downs from your friends or relatives, or just bigger sized clothes, to save some costs.
Food or grocery expenses definitely will rise as pregnant ladies are expected to eat more calories (nutritious ones too, not junk food) each day.
Get ready too for post-delivery items you will start to buy during pregnancy, such as lactation equipment.
Maternity Insurance
One other item that is a key consideration is getting maternity cover. As much as we don’t like to talk about it, in the event of pregnancy complications or congenital illnesses, having insurance cover provides some reassurance in the midst of your distress.
There are two types of maternity cover: one is when you are already pregnant and one is before you even got pregnant.
For those who are already expecting, there are group maternity plans or life insurance plans.
Group maternity plans tend to be one-off, with a one-time premium. The offer coverage to both mummy and baby, from as early as 13 weeks until the child grows to a certain age, say 1 to 3 years old. They usually provide coverage to the child too and cover for congenital illnesses.
For life insurance, these are more complex as they begin as a cover for the mother. Once the child is born, the cover then switches to the child, covering him or her in full. What you need to take note is this is only available in an Investment-Linked policy type.
If mummy already has an Integrated Shield Plan (an upgrade from Medishield Life – see my post on this), note that it already covers for pregnancy complications. The caveat is, conception should not happen within 10 months of policy inception. In other words, if you want to get an Integrated Shield Plan as maternity cover, you should only try for a baby 10 months after you start the cover. It is worthwhile to highlight that what is defined as complication varies from insurer to insurer so be sure to check your terms.
GET SUPPORT
Additional expenses are inevitable during pregnancy but some help is available. The Medisave Maternity Package (MMP) lets you use your Medisave for the pre-delivery medical expenses, delivery expenses and daily hospital charges.
Under the MMP, you may withdraw up to $450 for each day in the hospital, plus $900 for pre-delivery medical expenses ($450 for deliveries before 24 Mar 2016) and an additional surgical withdrawal limit between $750 and $2,150 depending on the type of delivery procedure. Check out the link above for how it can be claimed.
Expenses for Baby
Paying for Baby’s Needs
While the expenses so far focus on the needs of mummy, baby is not far behind! Even before he or she makes an entrance, you’ll find yourself spending (sometimes uncontrollably) on stuff for this little one.
Pram, carrier, car seat, milk bottles, food, clothes, all the works! Shopping for baby is part of the fun of being pregnant but be practical about incurring these expenses. A useful way to curb the temptation to buy every little cute thing is to write down a list. Split the list into needs and wants to help you manage your budget. You may even crowdsource the list by getting friends and family with experience to contribute to it, and then ask them for any hand-me-downs on the list!
Infant Care
For first-time mums, having a confinement nanny for the first month to share the load helps, especially if you do not expect full-time family support. Discuss your need for a helper with your spouse in the first to few months post-delivery and factor in the costs. If you are considering getting foreign domestic help, levy concessions are available.
Medical check-ups with a paediatrician will likely happen sometime in the first week and then at 1 month. At regular intervals thereafter, visits for medical tests and immunizations will also be made. Again, this is a private versus public dilemma, with almost the same considerations when choosing to deliver the baby, except that you also need to take into account any special needs of the baby which require specialist attention.
GET SUPPORT
Singapore’s bid to raise her birth rate has spawned various schemes to support Singaporeans to form families and raise kids.
It may seem like the Government is “rewarding” parents for every Singaporean baby born with its Baby Bonus Cash Gift but don’t complain, it is definitely good news and extra cash for all the baby needs! You get $8,000 for each of your 1st and 2nd kid, and $10,000 for each kid thereafter. For information on the Baby Bonus Cash Gift, please refer to the Baby Bonus website.
From 24 March 2016 onwards, eligible Singapore Citizen children will receive the CDA First Step – an initial balance of $3,000 deposited into the Child Development Account (CDA). The CDA is a special savings account where savings deposited by parents are matched dollar-for-dollar by the Government, up to a specified cap depending on the child’s birth order.
Each citizen newborn will also have a CPF Medisave account opened for him/her, with a Medisave Grant for Newborns of $4,000 deposited automatically. The grant helps parents defray their child's healthcare expenses, such as MediShield Life premiums, recommended childhood vaccinations, hospitalisation, and approved outpatient treatments.
After the Roller-coaster Ride Ends, It’s the Whole Amusement Park…
If this boatload of information has overwhelmed you, let me remind you this is only for the 9 months of pregnancy and at most 1 month post-delivery! I'm not saying this to scare you but to prepare you.
Your child’s education, healthcare and other needs require further planning. Starting early can help you better decide your options and manage your finances for the next 10-20 years!
To say that having a child will change your life forever is a statement you will deeply appreciate only after you become parents. There are some things you can prepare for, like this, and there are some things you just can’t, like how many times the baby will wake up in the night. Embrace it.
References: www.moh.gov.sg | www.heybaby.sg |
