Previously, we shared about the costs of giving birth at Thomson Medical Centre (TMC) when Tofu E was delivered in Dec 2024.
There was a lot of interest in the financials, but we’ve yet to deep-dive into the overall experience. This is really what makes or breaks your decision on whether to deliver at TMC, so here we are with our review!
Disclaimer: this review is solely based on our experience and may not apply to everyone. We’ll add in some bits about the birth story here & there for better context!
Labour induction in TMC
Tofu V was scheduled in for an induction at 39W 6D on a Monday by her OBGYN. They checked in around 11am and spent a few hours in TMC’s observation area.
This area is different from the labour ward and hospital room. This should be the ‘holding area’ where mothers are monitored for labour progression. You share this area with other mothers (about 1 or 2). Of course, you can get some privacy with the curtain drawn. Unfortunately, you’ll be able to hear everything every sound and conversation in here, and vice versa.
Tofu V ended up being in this area for about 3 hours. This was because she had to do additional blood tests while being monitored for any initial irregularities after getting induced.
We did start to observe that the nurses at TMC were very busy. Different staff kept going in and out of the area, sometimes having to call back other nurses to do something that they may have forgotten.
Premier Room in TMC
As the induction process was expected to take a day or so, Tofu V was allowed to return to her room first to wait it out.
She opted for a Premier Room and was quite surprised to find out that there was room concierge. It’s a bit like hotel room service!
You can use the TMC web application to order your in-room meals. If you need to make last-minute purchases at ThomsonBaby Shop, you can also have them delivered to your room. There’s a high chance you never know what you need until after delivery, or that you leave out something from your hospital bag.
The Premier Room is a little bigger than the 1-Bedded Room. The former allows more space for you to walk and wheel your cot around.
Our main priority was a private room for better rest, and also allowing for Tofu G (husband) to stay overnight. Hence, we felt that the Premier Room was just nice and comfortable enough for us.
We highly recommend booking the hospital tour to get a good sense of the difference between the rooms and suites. You may want to consider the suites if you need to accommodate more visitors at the same time too.
Sadly enough, the Premier Room that we got had a window with a blocked view.
Tofu G said that the sofa bed is a little uncomfortable to sleep on, but it beats having to sleep on a chair haha.
The Premier Room comes with a large TV for you, but you’ll have to connect to your own Netflix account if you want to catch up on your shows. If you don’t have an account, you can just scroll through YouTube videos as well.
Tofu V managed to watch Netflix for a bit before the labour cramps became too intense and was wheeled off to the labour ward. Unfortunately she stayed in the labour ward from 8pm till 4pm the next day, but was still charged for one night in this hospital room. Do take note of this if you’re calculating your possible hospital expenses.
Food at TMC
If you choose to deliver at TMC, rest assured that you will never go hungry. Tofu V was a bit shocked at how often the nurses sent in meals, including various snacks (usually bread) throughout the day. She couldn’t finish everything!
One of the best parts about staying in Thomson Medical Centre is having their famous Fish and Green Papaya Soup. It was really as delicious as people say, with the added bonus of fantastic macros.
If Tofu V recalled correctly, they served this soup once every day. She really wished they could serve it for every meal though!
For the rest of the meals, you get to choose between types e.g. Chinese (confinement), Western, etc. The portions are very big and you may struggle to finish, especially if you do not have a hearty appetite after birth. Based on Tofu V’s experience, you will likely be too exhausted to eat if you are doing a vaginal birth.
The good news, however, is that you get to share the extra food with your companion. This is especially if you opt for a room where your companion doesn’t have meals provided. Your companion will be very happy as there is a severe lack of food options in TMC: it’s either Subway, Killiney, or the staff canteen.
The best part about the meals was definitely the special Kinmemai Rice that is chewy and contains fewer calories than the usual white rice options. Tofu V would sometimes finish the rice but not the other dishes, and she’s not even a big fan of rice.
Frankly, the food at Thomson Medical was pretty good and some of their confinement food was even better than that of Tian Wei. Their Western breakfast options were less stellar and probably worth a miss.
Another nice touch is that you can request for refills of red date tea if you’re keen on doing the Chinese traditional confinement.
Patient care at TMC
This was a bit of a mixed bag, BUT Tofu V thinks the poor parts were most likely due to bad luck.
The nurses at TMC were mostly very nice, friendly, and gentle. They were very professional and will make sure your needs are taken care of. During Tofu V’s induction, she had intense labour pains and the alarm constantly went off. The nurses promptly responded every time the alarm went off and came in to check frequently.
However, there was some miscommunication (?) or error (?) during the induction at night and it was rather distressing. We won’t go into specifics here, but let’s just say that it kind of ruined the overall impression we had about the patient care.
We could also tell that the nurses got overwhelmed when four mothers (including Tofu V) were ready for labour at the same time.
(Yes we know, what are the odds, right?)
Unfortunately this meant that nurses kept flitting in & out of the labour ward. Sometimes it seemed like no one was sure where they were supposed to be.
The bad timing of multiple mothers delivering at the same time also meant that we had to wait for hours for the bills to be settled and for us to be discharged.
Overall review
If you’ve been researching and found out that Thomson Medical charges one of the lowest fees, you may be curious as to whether delivering at TMC is considered value-for-money.
On the whole, we felt that it was not bad. The food served was (mostly) commendable and the staff were (mostly) very kind and gentle.
We also liked that they supported breastfeeding by arranging for a consult with their in-house lactation consultant. Despite advocating for breastfeeding, they aren’t pushy about it and are also okay if you want to keep your baby in the nursery and catch up on sleep.
However, one of the biggest downsides of delivering at TMC is the road construction works, which can cause massive jams. It wasn’t a problem for Tofu V since she was induced. It’s not great if you are really rushing to deliver though.
Have any questions regarding delivering in TMC? Feel free to drop them in the comments or reach out to us on Instagram!
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