(Unofficial) Maternity Tour at Mount Elizabeth Novena & other updates

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Last Saturday turned out pretty fruitful! Though it was quite tiring, because we had to get up at like 6am to visit my gynae, lol. We went for the glucose test at my gynae's Gleneagles' clinic and toured Mount Elizabeth Novena after that. :)
Summary collage
I took the glucose test to check for gestational diabetes (GD). This is quite common in many pregnant women, and most go on to have healthy babies as long as GD is managed well. GD usually goes away after you've popped, but it's still a pain to deal with. See more info here. 

Most gynaes will do this check if your family has diabetic history (higher risk!)... I don't think I have, but my doc told me to check it out anyway for peace of mind. It costs 70 bucks or so.

When I went down to the clinic, the nurse took a blood sample first, and she took a second one after I drank the glucose water to compare the samples. There'll be a two-hour wait in between, to let the sugars get into your bloodstream or something like that. 

The glucose water was damn gross. The first taste wasn't too bad, a little bit like Fanta Orange. But after I downed half the bottle... WAH LAU so gross lah! It was so sickening sweet, it even burned my throat a little bit. =_=

That's it, I'm swearing off Fanta Orange forever.
Anyways. During the two-hour wait, we went to Gleneagles' reception area to see if we could go up to the maternity wards to have a look. The customer service person wasn't the friendliest, that's for sure... She just gave us a number to call for maternity tour bookings. The thing is, maternity tours are damn hard to book - they usually have to be booked for a month in advance, and something always crop up for me. Always. -_- I only wanted a look! Le sigh. With nothing to do, the husband and I continued to stone at the food court, lol. 

We didn't book the maternity tour at Mount Elizabeth Novena in advance actually, because I thought it would be okay to just go up and take a look. :/ So we gave them a call. The tour at 2.30pm (the usual timing) was fully booked, but they decided to accommodate us for a one-to-one maternity tour! Service ish good. :D 

After the uber long wait, we went back to the clinic and the nurse took the second blood sample. I thought the results would be immediate, but it was not... we had to wait for a couple of days. But that's alright. 

We waited for awhile to see our doc for my routine check-up. D is now 1.036kg at 27 weeks 5 days, and my gynae came up with the bright idea that we should buy 4D since baby crossed the 1kg milestone (and we did!). :P HUAT AH!

We then proceeded to Mount Elizabeth Novena for the unofficial maternity tour (means no goodie bag!). We arrived a little early, so we waited for awhile before a nice lady named Zana greeted us at the waiting area next to Reception.

Look like hotel lobby sia.
If my admission on Labour Day is during office hours, here's where I check in. If it's after office hours, I'm supposed to go directly to A&E. And I don't need to call them in advance, just chiong walk in can liao. 


The corridors are generally very huge and spacious. Zana said that they have about 30 rooms reserved as maternity wards but the occupancy rate is usually about 50% - 99.99999% confirm got room, and you don't have to be stranded somewhere until a bed space is available. The environment is very nice, cosy and quiet... Sounds quite wonderful to me.


The family waiting area is HUGE. Looks comfy too. I was half expecting to see vending machines and a salad bar... but nope, don't have, lol. I'm not sure if the waiting areas at other hospitals' look like this too. 


The Birth Registration Counter is within the same space as the family waiting area. You can register your child's name here instead of heading to the queue-die-you ICA. There's an admin fee on top of the original $18 registration fee but... I don't want to queue lah, so it's okay.

Bad quality photo due to the sunlight zzz. iPhone not good for such shots.
A better idea of how the delivery suite looks like.
(Image Credit: The Asian Parent)
Not to be confused with the maternity ward, the delivery suite is the room where you scream. I don't think most birthing-in-progress mothers will be able to appreciate the room by then, but at least the dad can. :P In case of (CHOY!) emergency c-sect, the operating theatre is a stone's throw away on the very same level.

Nice and cosy!
Attached bathroom with handicapped/safety facilities.


Workspace... if erm, the husband wants to work on his laptop or something. 
Sofa bed with drawers at the bottom to store things. With a view. :D


All the rooms in the maternity ward are single-bedded. They come with a fully stocked mini-bar (not free-flow okay, free for first round only lol! A refill will be chargeable, of course...), free WI-FI, 46" Smart TV with in-room entertainment (heard got cable! woohoo), a tablet for mobile web surfing and Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries. There's also a safe inside the wardrobe (not captured in any of my pics) to store valuables.

Unlike other hospital packages, the package at Mount E Novena also includes daddy's lodging (sleep sofa bed!) and his 3 meals throughout the stay (song boh!). There will also be a multi-entry carpark coupon for the daddy, and a single complimentary carpark coupon for a visitor. Formula itself, if required, won't be chargeable, but they charge $1 per bottle. Breast pumps are also available for rental... I think it's either $32 or $38, and rental is for the whole duration of your stay.

Baby can also accompany me 24/7 in this room, but babies can also be placed in the nursery at night so that mummy can get ample rest. 

On the second day of the stay, there'll be a short Parentcraft class that teaches you about breastfeeding and how to bath your baby. This I need... *noob*

Creepy fake baby for demonstrations.
There's also a complimentary 15-minute massage, which is awesome because I'm a massage addict. 15 minutes better than nothing lah okay... considering that I'll have to wait another week for my Malay massage to begin. D:

I was already half-asleep by the time we got to the Junior Suite because I was tired from waking up early and the aircon was quite cold... can't remember a lot of the information from then on. D: 

Junior Suite... looks nice lah, but photo is overexposed due to the sunlight. -_-
I actually liked the single room slightly better, because it felt brighter and there's the work space area. But the living area of the Junior Suite is damn nice man! An additional family member can stay over if he/she wants to, and there'll be refreshments throughout the day for your visitors. Machiam can hold party liao. The mini-bar will be free-flow as well.


There's a connecting toilet between the living area and the room. The toilet bowl is very atas, automatic one okay. The toilet cover suddenly lifted up by itself, scare tio me. -_-


There's also a balcony area but it was locked, so no pictures unfortunately. :/ 

We've pretty much confirmed that this will be my choice hospital and thus we can do pre-registration to skip all the paperwork on Labour Day. :) As deposit, we'll have to pay the package price in full. The final bill (ugh) will be paid upon my discharge, after Medisave deduction.

Package prices as below. Yes, I'm going for normal delivery without epidural (but er, will keep my options open haha... must 加油!). 


If you want to take a look at the full package, feel free to email me to request and I'll send it to you! :) Mine should be accurate as of July/August 2014.

[Update]
The nurse came back with the glucose test results yesterday... PASS. HENG AH! Now I can continue indulging in my soft drinks, yay. But no Fanta Orange. Never again.


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serynn g. / missus chew / damien's mummy / 1985 / libra / b+ / live laugh love! / @ email me

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