Chief, I had an appointment with Dr. Jimmy Mak at Baptist this morning and feel pretty good about delivering there. I really like Dr. Mak. If I had your budget, I'd still have chosen Matilda/Sanitorium but since your fiance has narrowed down between Baptist and Teresa, feel free to ping me with questions about Baptist.
Some things to keep in mind when choosing a doctor:
1. Does your fiance prefer to go natural or would she like a c-section? For elective c-sec, you'll find many many doctors happy to do it. For pro-natural, I'd say Dr. Mak is a good choice. He never once pushed me into a c-sec. This morning I discovered my baby is in breech position at 36 weeks. He gave me the options - exercises I could do to try and get the baby to turn, a procedure called ECV (which he is not specialised in but public hopsital might offer) and c-sec. He suggested I book the c-sec just in case nothing else works so I'm sure to get a date if I need it, that's all. I was impressed he didn't take the opportunity to push a c-sec and even drew me a diagram of the exercise I could do.
He also said I should write down a birth plan and they would try to accommodate as much as possible.
2. Pro-breastfeeding or not: Baptist, from what I understand, is so-so on this front. They have a four-hour feeding schedule (which the public hospital I delivered in had as well and I'm ok with that) but they have been known to 'top up' with formula without consent and from a bottle (not sure I'm ok with this). When I delivered in public, they were very pro-breastfeeding (but also on schedule) and only topped up with my consent after much trying to avoid, and cup-fed the baby so there would be no nipple confusion.
With your budget, you could get a private room and your fiance could have the baby brought to her as and when she likes, so if breastfeeding is important to her, she has more control over it.
Oh and one more thing, from what my friend told me, at Baptist, they won't let anyone but the mother handle the baby. So while you probably see the baby when it's born, after that it goes in the nursery and only the mother/nurses/docs are allowed to hold it. However, might be different in a private room though.
Not sure how Teresa fares on these counts or if they are important to your fiance. Just stuff I'm thinking about with less than a month to go.
