I was about twenty-eight weeks pregnant, sitting in yet another prenatal appointment when my OB asked whether I had any preferences for labour. I opened my mouth and realised I had not thought about it. I was half expecting it to come from her as my lack of understanding meant I did not know it well enough to turn it into a decision.
On the way home, my husband said, half-joking, “Maybe we need someone who actually knows what they’re doing.” That half-joke is how we ended up hiring a doula.
Is hiring a doula in Singapore worth it? Let me share my story.
Why We Even Considered It
Hiring a doula in Singapore wasn’t something anyone in our family had done before. Our situation was fairly common for Singapore. My mother lives overseas and couldn’t fly in until after the birth. My husband was supportive but, by his own admission, unsure of what would come our way. Our private OB was excellent, but appointments were fifteen minutes long, and I always walk out remembering the three questions I’d forgotten to ask.
What I wanted, I eventually realized, wasn’t more medical care. I had that covered. I wanted someone whose entire job was me. Not the monitor, not the paperwork, not the next patient down the corridor.
That’s essentially what a doula is: a trained, non-medical birth companion who provides emotional, physical and informational support before, during and after birth. She doesn’t deliver the baby, check your cervix or make clinical decisions. Your doctor and midwives still do all of that. The doula fills the space around them.
The Doubts We Had First
I’d be lying if I said we signed up immediately. After spending time on understanding on how professional doulas can support us on this journey, we had three hesitations, and I suspect most couples here have the same ones.
The cost. Doula packages in Singapore generally range from around S$1,500 to S$3,500, depending on how many prenatal and postnatal visits are included and the doula’s experience. On top of a private delivery bill, that felt like a lot. What shifted my thinking was putting it in context: it was a fraction of what we were already spending on the birth, and it was the only part of that spending aimed squarely at how I would feel during it.
Whether the hospital would even allow it. They do, with a condition. Doulas need to be registered with the specific hospital you’re delivering at. Hospitals where registered doulas can currently serve include Gleneagles, KKH, both Mount Elizabeth hospitals, NUH, Parkway East, Raffles Hospital and Thomson Medical Centre. At many of them, the doula doesn’t count as your birth partner, so your husband doesn’t get pushed out of the room. We checked this with our hospital before signing anything, and I’d tell anyone to do the same.
The fear that it was a “natural birth only” thing. I had a vague idea that hiring a doula meant committing to a drug-free birth and feeling like a failure if I asked for an epidural. That turned out to be completely wrong, and I’m glad we asked about it directly.
How We Chose Her
We interviewed three doulas. The one we hired wasn’t the most experienced on paper. She was the one who listened longest before speaking.
The questions that turned out to matter most were these:
- “Are you registered at our hospital?” Non-negotiable. Everything else is irrelevant if the answer is no.
- “What happens if I want an epidural as soon as I arrive?” Her answer, “then we get you an epidural, and I help you rest,” told me everything I needed to know about whether she’d support my choices or push her own.
- “Who is your backup if you’re at another birth?” Babies don’t check calendars. A good doula has a named backup you can meet in advance.
- “How many prenatal and postnatal visits are included?” Packages vary a lot here, and the postnatal visits ended up being more valuable to me than I expected.
- “What would you do if my birth becomes a caesarean?” Doulas can stay with you through a C-section and recovery, which mattered more than I realised at the time.
I’d add one thing no list tells you: notice whether she lets you finish your sentences. How someone behaves in a calm interview is roughly how they’ll behave when you’re not calm at all.
Our Birth, As It Happened
Water broke in the morning around 2.30am, on a Tuesday, a week before my due date. My husband called the clinic and was instructed to send me to the hospital after 6am to meet the OB, while waiting for contraction to happen.
By four, I was on the phone with my doula, wondering whether what I was feeling was actually labour. She stayed with me for about twenty minutes, helped me time the contractions and suggested that, if everything otherwise seemed well, I could eat something light and try to rest while keeping in touch with the hospital if things changed. At four in the morning, having someone calm to talk to felt like everything.
She met us at the hospital around seven. For the next several hours, she stayed beside me through the contractions, using counter-pressure on my lower back, suggesting different positions when I was comfortable to move, and reminding my husband to eat when he had become so focused on me that he had forgotten to look after himself.
When the medical team explained what was happening, she helped me slow down and ask questions when I wasn’t sure I understood. She never made the medical decisions for me. That was the doctors’ and midwives’ role. Her role was simply to stay with me through everything else.
Around three hours in, I was exhausted, in excruciating pain, in great discomfort and around six centimeters dilated. I asked for an epidural. I remember looking at her, half-expecting disappointment.
Instead, she simply said, “Good. Let’s try to get you some sleep.”
She supported me while the medical team administered the epidural, then helped make the room feel calm enough for me to rest. My husband went for coffee. For the first time in hours, I closed my eyes.
Our daughter arrived just after lunch. The birth was longer, messier and more medical than I had imagined. It wasn’t the birth I had planned for.
But I never felt lost in it.
The doctors and midwives cared for me medically. My husband was beside me. And my doula gave me the steady support I didn’t know I would need until I was in the middle of it.
What a Doula Did, and Didn’t, Do for Us
It’s worth being clear about this, because expectations around doulas are often too high in some places and too low in others.
What she did:
- Helped us understand our options before labour, so we made decisions instead of just reacting
- Provided continuous support through a long labour, when the midwives had other patients to attend to
- Supported my husband, not just me, which neither of us expected
- Handled comfort measures: counter-pressure, positioning, breathing, reminders to drink water
- Visited us twice after the birth, helping with early breastfeeding and letting me talk through the birth until it made sense
What she didn’t do:
- Make any medical decisions or override my doctor
- Guarantee a particular kind of birth
- Replace my husband. She made him more useful, not less necessary
There’s solid research behind this, too. Studies on continuous labour support have linked it to shorter labours, fewer interventions and higher birth satisfaction, which is part of why doulas have become more mainstream here in recent years.
Was Hiring a Doula in Singapore Worth It?
For us, yes. Without question.
But I want to be clear about why, because I don’t think it’s worth it for everyone. It was worth it because I was a first-time mother with no family nearby, a nervous partner, and a habit of freezing when faced with decisions I didn’t understand. A doula addressed all three of those directly.
If you have a mother or sister who has been through birth and can be with you through labour, or a partner who is calm and well-prepared, or you’re on your third baby and know exactly what you want, the value is probably smaller.
Two practical things to check before you decide. Some international health insurance plans, especially expat ones, may cover part of the cost, so call your insurer first. And book early: experienced doulas here fill their calendars months ahead.
What I Would Tell Anyone Deciding
I didn’t hire a doula to have a perfect birth. That’s not what I got anyway.
What I got was a birth I understood while it was happening. Every decision felt like mine, even the ones that went against my original plan. And when I think back on that day now, the thing I remember isn’t the pain or the waiting or the epidural I once thought I’d feel guilty about. It’s the steady voice in the room telling me, again and again, that I was doing exactly what I needed to do.
That feeling was worth more to me than any number on the invoice.
