Mummynista!

Many friends and acquaintances I know are actually pretty skeptical about giving birth in Jakarta due to the lack of medical know-hows and emergency infrastructure locally. Hubby G and I decided to deliver in Jakarta after much consideration. (You may want to read about it here: Deciding To Give Birth in Singapore or Jakarta ) Couple of blog readers have been asking me about my childbirth experience in Jakarta and hubby G is also constantly pestering me to record the birth experience so that we won't forget in the future.(Birth amnesia is real~~ I am starting to forget details of my delivery with my first child) And also, for the sake of anyone like myself who's frantically trying to research about delivering in Jakarta; for those who has tried googling for e.g 'delivering in Jakarta', 'giving birth in Jakarta', 'experience childbirth Jakarta', 'natural birth jakarta', 'expat giving birth Jakarta', etc and yet got not much information i...

A tough dilemma isn't it? Giving birth in Jakarta or Singapore has its pros and cons. We know of many expats and affluent Indonesians moms would fly down to Singapore to have their delivery there. After all Singapore's healthcare is unarguably one of the best of the region and the entire country runs efficiently. The price difference between delivering in Singapore's hospitals and the prestigious hospitals here in Jakarta is not that huge either; and of course Singapore's hospitals are definitely way better maintained so it does seem like a very attractive idea to deliver in Singapore. There's couple of considerations when hubby G and I were debating to give birth in Jakarta or Singapore. 1. Medical Care. How comfortable and confident we feel about the local hospital facilities? 2. Logistics. If I were to give birth in Singapore, it means I have to be there a month before I am due and only be able to fly back a month after I deliver. Plus minus..I ...

Are you looking for a gynaecologist/obstetrician in Jakarta? Perhaps you may find this post useful for your research or contemplation on which gynae you should go to. The moment the pregnancy stick indicated that I was pregnant, hubby G and I were eager to find a Gynaecologist/Obstetrician in Jakarta to confirm the results. The first place we thought of finding a gynae for me was Jakarta Women and Child Clinic as we have been taking our toddler to the paediatrician there and we were quite happy with there (Read about our experience with JWCC's paediatrician  here -  Part 1: Finding a Pediatrician in Jakarta ). *Warning*  This is going to be a lengthy post so please bear with me. I found there's a lack of information on gynaecology care and childbirth in Jakarta so I thought a post on our experience would probably help other moms like myself. **All written below are also based on my own experience and personal thoughts, and it could be subjective to different individ...

I totally forgot about this. I did this interview with Expat Arrivals (www.expatarrivals.com) when I first moved to Jakarta (like 7 months ago from the date of this post) . Hopefully this may help to shed some light to those who are considering to relocate/move to Jakarta or those who has just arrived. And well of course some thoughts and feelings have changed after being here for a while, I'll write a part 2 really soon.. Taken from: http://www.expatarrivals.com/indonesia/expat-experiences-in-indonesia About Cassandra   Q: Where are you originally from?  A: Singapore, and my husband is from Canada.   Q: Where are you living now?  A:  Jakarta, Indonesia   Q: When did you move to Indonesia?  A: September 2013.   Q: Did you move alone or with a spouse/family?  A:  We moved here as a family; with my husband and one year old toddler.   Q: Why did you move to Indonesia; what do you do?  A: ...

Have you ever wondered what a private make up lessons are like or perhaps you are thinking if you should take up one? Perhaps my experience below will help you to decide better.  It was almost another typical morning in Jakarta for Katie, an expat housewife with three lovely children; just that in between her usual schedule, she has squeezed some time out for a makeup lesson. The great thing was that she did not need to waste any time travelling as the lesson will be conducted right at the comfort of her home and the lesson fee costed her less than her usual grocery bill. Katie was kind enough to allow me to crash her make up lesson. I had been to beauty classes organised by some beauty brands like Dior which took place in classroom settings with at least ten other people, so I wonder the difference between those type of lessons as to private ones. Founder of Sahana Sky, and also a good friend of ours, Janet arrived at Katie's promptly at 9am. With Espressos, notebooks and m...

I don't know if I am being overly critical or just plain fussy but I find that manicure and pedicure services in Jakarta are not up to par as compared to the other Asian cities like Bangkok, HongKong, and even Singapore! And by all means, the services aren't cheap as compared to overall standard of living locally. To have manicure/pedicure at somewhat a decent place with clean tools usually starts at 220,000 idr (22usd)...and you are not guaranteed OPI or internationally known brands. Nail salons at shopping malls will set you back about 450,000idr (45usd/52sgd)- funny how manicure in Jakarta cost the same in Singapore. Whoever said Jakarta is cheap?! Once, I accompanied my friend to a salon at Kemang where she wanted to have a hairwash and blowdry and I decided to have a manicure/pedicure there while waiting for her. The girl/manicurist came with a large plastic container (like the ones you store miscellaneous stuff in the wardrobe/storeroom) and inside it, the tools and ...

Image Credit: Photodisc/Getty Images   Nausea? Puking? Food Aversions? Loss of appetite? Welcome to the club. I would like to think that we who experience these revolting symptoms of morning sickness as a highly privileged club- noble and sacrificial mothers-to-be. Not saying that women who breezed through pregnancy are not, it is just a good positive reinforcement to have when we are running to the nearest bathroom every couple of minutes (for the ones who got it real bad). And if you need more encouragement like I did!! - Nausea has long been known to be a sign of a healthy pregnancy; it's been linked to a lower miscarriage risk and a lower risk of heart malformations in the fetus. Read more:   http://www.ctvnews.ca/study-links-morning-sickness-to-brighter-kids-1.392315#ixzz2wtLuxi00 - The more severe the morning sickness is for the mom, the higher the IQ is for the child  Read more: Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina ( http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Ru...