Antenatal and Birthing Classes in Singapore: Where to Go

An antenatal class is the class you take before the birth. It prepares you for childbirth and teaches you how to feed and care for your baby.

Five of Singapore's hospitals run their own: KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Thomson Medical and Mount Alvernia Hospital. Four of the five publish what their class costs, and across those four the published fees run from S$50 to S$438 as of September 2026.

The cheapest is NUH's online video course at S$50, which you keep for two years. The lowest full in-person price among the four is SGH's S$217.60. Mount Alvernia's course pages did not list a fee as of January and February 2026.

Here is what each of the five gives you for the money, and what to check before you pay.

What an antenatal class covers

"Antenatal" means before birth, and the same course goes by several names: Thomson Medical's page calls its single course an antenatal class, a childbirth education course and a prenatal class. "Birthing class" is an everyday name for the same thing.

The Health Promotion Board's guide to antenatal classes lists the usual syllabus: nutritional needs during pregnancy and after delivery, exercises to build stamina for childbirth, what to expect during labour and birth, breastfeeding, and care of your newborn, including how to carry or bathe her. It adds that many hospital classes "often include a tour of the delivery suite".

The four published hospital syllabuses overlap with that list, though not on all of it. Preparing for labour and delivery, and breastfeeding, appear on all four. Three of them name newborn or baby care, SGH's nearest equivalent is "parent craft and postnatal period", and nutrition appears on SGH's alone.

Pain relief is named on two of the four, SGH's and Thomson's. So the real difference between those four is format, price and who is teaching, more than what gets taught.

One thing the class is not: medical care. It does not replace the check-ups in our guide to antenatal care in Singapore, and nothing in it answers a question about your own pregnancy the way your own doctor or midwife can.

The five hospital classes, compared

Fees as published on each hospital's own page on 1 September 2026, for the four that publish one. Mount Alvernia's row is dated January and February 2026 and carries no fee. GST means the goods and services tax, which three of the four hospitals that publish a fee include; KKH's class page does not mention it.

Three caveats sit under that table, and they matter more than the headline numbers.

The fees are not measured the same way. NUH, SGH and Thomson all state that their fees include GST, and KKH's class page does not say either way.

The partner question splits them too. Thomson says in writing that its fee covers one couple, and Mount Alvernia's FAQ answered "yes" to whether the fee is per couple as of February 2026. NUH's fee buys one place, and its page lets each in-person participant bring one person, while the KKH and SGH class pages do not say whether the fee covers a partner.

A S$408 Thomson course and a S$306 KKH course may therefore not be the comparison they look like. The question to ask when you book is simply whether your partner is included.

SGH publishes three prices for the same class and does not say whose is whose. The columns on its antenatal class page are headed SUB, PTE and NR, with no expansion anywhere on that page.

SGH's outpatient charges page lists the hospital's patient categories as Private Patient, Non-Resident and Subsidised Patients. The class page does not connect the two. Email the O&G centre (obstetrics and gynaecology) at [email protected] and ask which rate applies to you before you assume the S$217.60.

Mount Alvernia is the gap here. As of January 2026, its childbirth education page sent registration to a portal called Alvernia Connect and carried no course details, and as of February 2026 its childbirth education FAQ carried no fee. One may have been published since.

What the FAQ did give, as of February 2026, is the rest: the fee is charged per couple, Alvernia Ladies Card holders get 10 per cent off it, and you may start the course after 20 weeks. For a price, call Parentcraft, Mount Alvernia's course enquiry line, on 6347 6641.

What you are actually buying at each

KKH is the only one of the five whose published price depends on whether you are already its patient. The gap runs from S$20 on the 1-day course to S$56 on the 4-week one.

Classes are taught by the hospital's lactation consultants (breastfeeding specialists), midwives, physiotherapists and parentcraft nurses, who are the nurses who teach the practical side of newborn care and preparing for parenthood. Both formats include a complimentary two-hour "Nurturing Your Child" talk, and KKH patients can also sign up for a free antenatal breastfeeding class at the Patient Education Centre, separately from the paid course.

Two lines on KKH's antenatal programme page are worth reading before you pay. Registration closes two weeks before the class starts, or earlier once the slots go, and there are no replacement classes if you miss one.

NUH gives you the most ways to take the same course of the four that publish their formats: three, where the other three give one or two. Five Saturdays of two-hour classes plus a baby massage session is the full version, at S$288. For S$238 the express class condenses the essentials into one 4.5-hour Saturday, again with the baby massage.

S$50 buys the online-video option: more than five hours of recorded content, and two years of access from the date you register. Both in-person options include the videos as well, though the online subscription is for personal use only and NUH says sharing a login may suspend the account.

NUH also names its instructors individually with their departments. The list runs from maternal fetal medicine consultants, who are the specialists in higher-risk pregnancies, through a lactation consultant, physiotherapists and an occupational therapist, to its Women's Emotional Health Service. NUH and non-NUH patients may both sign up.

SGH publishes just one course, and the lowest in-person price of the four hospitals that publish one: an intensive day, 8am to 5.30pm on the first Saturday of the month, from S$217.60. Its course highlights include a labour ward tour.

Pelvic floor exercises and pushing technique are handled separately, as a one-to-one physiotherapy assessment which SGH's antenatal class page says is excluded from the 1-day course, held at SingHealth Tower or Outram Community Hospital Level 4, by appointment only.

Plan around one more line on that page. SGH says class slots are limited, and that priority may go to its own patients who are further along in their pregnancy, giving 30 weeks and above as its example. If you are not an SGH patient, or you are still early in your pregnancy, treat the seat as uncertain rather than booked.

Thomson Medical has the highest published fee of the four hospitals that publish one. Its course comes in three parts: a four-hour theory class run live on Zoom by a lactation consultant on the first Saturday of the month, a three-hour in-person practical class, and an e-learning portal you keep until one month after your due date.

Thomson also publishes something none of the other four does, a class size, and it is a small one: three to eight couples, each practising on a baby doll. The practical class comes with a learning kit Thomson values at S$80, and members of its First and Subsequent Born Incentive programme get 10 per cent off the fee.

Mount Alvernia's FAQ gave the per-couple fee basis, the Ladies Card discount, the 20-week start, and a rule that cancellations and rescheduling need written notice at least two weeks before the class, unless the reason is medical. It gave no price, as of February 2026. Registration had moved to the Alvernia Connect portal as of January 2026, and we would ring Parentcraft rather than plan around anything else here.

The class and the antenatal package are different things

Both are called antenatal, KKH sells both, and they cost very different amounts.

An antenatal package is medical care bundled at a package price. KKH's, for private patients, starts at S$818 excluding GST as of September 2026, and it covers six antenatal consultations with bedside ultrasound scans, six urine dipstick tests for glucose and protein, a 20-week scan that is either the detailed scan for fetal structural anomaly or a growth scan, and blood tests for anaemia and gestational diabetes. An antenatal class is teaching, and the four published here run from S$50 to S$438.

Buying one does not include the other. If a page lists consultations, scans and blood tests rather than class topics, you are looking at the package.

When to book

The hospitals do not agree on when to start, and none of the five names a latest week of pregnancy for signing up.

KKH and SGH both recommend registering after 16 weeks. Second trimester is NUH's window, and it says outright that earlier or later is welcome too. Thomson wants you registered as soon as the pregnancy is confirmed, then picking a class date after your 20th week, and Mount Alvernia's FAQ said you may start after 20 weeks.

Book earlier than any of those dates suggests, for one reason: the popular runs go. The Health Promotion Board makes the point plainly, that some classes "are very popular and may have waiting lists", and KKH closes registration two weeks before a class starts, or sooner if it fills. NUH's schedule moves as well, and as of 2 September 2026 its next 5-Saturday run does not start until 3 October.

Which one to choose

If you are delivering at one of these hospitals, start with its own class. At the four that say who teaches, you get the hospital's own staff, and at KKH the patient rate is cheaper as well. If you are still choosing where to deliver, our guide to hospitals and clinics for pregnant women covers the wider choice.

Do check where the class actually meets. Four of the five list a venue, and they are not all at the hospital. KKH's listed venues are its own Patient Education Centre, the Great Eastern Centre at 1 Pickering Street, and, more surprisingly, the Sunflower Lounge at Woodlands Hospital, 17 Woodlands Drive 17, which is a different hospital.

NUH's FAQ names 463 Clementi Avenue 1 and NUHS Tower Block at 1E Kent Ridge Road, though as of 2 September 2026 its class listing also puts an Express run at Tengah Polyclinic. SGH holds its class in the Learning Space, Block 4 Level 1. Thomson's practical class is at 1 Thomson Road, Balestier Hill Shopping Centre.

Neither archived Mount Alvernia page, January or February 2026, lists a venue.

Beyond that, three shortcuts.

If time is the constraint, NUH's online course at S$50 is the only antenatal-class fee under S$200 among the four that publish one, and two years of access means you can watch the newborn-care sections after the birth, when they suddenly make more sense. It has no in-person part, so there is no hands-on practice with it.

If you want hands-on practice, Thomson publishes the only class size of the five, three to eight couples in its three-hour practical class. The whole three-part course is S$408 on a weekday, and only that practical class is in person.

If cost is the constraint, compare the cheapest in-person price at each of the four that publish one. Those are S$217.60 at SGH on its lowest tier, S$238 for NUH's express class, S$240 for KKH's 4-week course at the patient rate, and S$408 at Thomson. Read them next to the partner question above: Thomson states that its S$408 covers a couple, while NUH's S$238 buys one place and its page says each participant may bring one person without saying what that person pays.

A class cannot tell you what your own labour will be like. Use it to learn the vocabulary, the pain relief options and what the room looks like, then take the specific questions to your own obstetrician or midwife.

Three questions to ask before you pay

1. Is my partner included in this fee, or is that a second seat? Thomson says the fee covers a couple, and Mount Alvernia's FAQ said so as of February 2026. NUH's fee buys one place, and its page lets each in-person participant bring one person. The KKH and SGH class pages do not say whether the fee covers a partner.
2. Which fee tier am I in? It changes the price by S$90.74 at SGH, and by up to S$56 at KKH.
3. What happens if I miss a session? KKH and NUH both state that no replacement classes are scheduled, and NUH adds that missed classes are not refunded. Mount Alvernia's FAQ, as of February 2026, wanted two weeks' written notice to reschedule unless the reason is medical, and said any change is subject to class availability. Thomson's page does not say, and SGH's says its fees are non-refundable.

Once the class is booked, the bag is the next thing worth doing early, and our hospital bag checklist covers what to pack. The rest of our pregnancy guides pick up from there.

Sources, accessed 1 September 2026. KKH Antenatal Programme, KKH Classes and Workshops, KKH Antenatal Package and Delivery Charges, NUH Community Antenatal Programme, SGH Antenatal Classes, SGH Outpatient Charges, Thomson Medical Childbirth Education Course, and the Health Promotion Board's Talk of the class (Antenatal class), last reviewed 17 June 2026.

Mount Alvernia's details come from archived copies of its childbirth education page (captured 19 January 2026) and of its childbirth education FAQ (captured 16 February 2026); the hospital's own page is at mtalvernia.sg. Fees change without notice; confirm with the hospital before paying.

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

A Singapore parent writing the guide he wished he'd had — practical, calm, and grounded in what actually works.

chunguy.comMy Miracle Baby