2.5-hour journey: After her water breaks, woman braves weekend congestion at Woodlands Checkpoint to give birth in JB

SINGAPORE – It was still two weeks before she was due to give birth.

So when her water bag broke, Ms Cheng Kai Ling, a Malaysian who has worked and lived in Singapore for more than six years, was determined to cross the Causeway to have her baby delivered at a private hospital in Johor Bahru.

Not even the expected hordes of people heading into Johor Bahru on a Saturday morning would stop her from trying to deliver her baby the way she and her husband had intended – even if it meant they needed a little help from some Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) officers.

Ms Cheng, 29, was woken up by her husband’s alarm with a sensation that she was lying in a pool of water, at around 7am on March 25, nearly two weeks before she was expected to deliver her first child on April 7. Typically, labour begins after a pregnant woman’s water breaks, and contractions soon follow.

Despite the ahead-of-schedule surprise, the couple were determined to stick to their plans.

Ms Cheng and her husband, a Singapore permanent resident from Malaysia, began the journey to travel from their flat in Woodlands, about 10 minutes’ drive away from the checkpoint.

Once there, she summoned all the energy she had to walk the tunnels and pathways familiar to most daily commuters between the two countries with her husband, to reach the counters and clear their passports.

“We were not thinking about other options, even though I was in some pain and discomfort,” Ms Cheng told The Straits Times over the phone on Saturday. “I thought about losing more amniotic fluid, which would affect the baby’s safety, but just kept going on.”

Even after her water broke, she said it never occurred to them to go to the nearest hospital in Singapore instead.

She received the most help at the checkpoint from Singapore’s ICA officers, she said, on a day when it seemed like “there were more people than usual”.

Once her husband told the officers on duty she was due to deliver after her water had broken, “three to four” of them helped expedite their clearance, she said.

From clearing a path for them to walk through, to an officer showing up with a wheelchair to escort her aboard a public bus – whose driver the officer had instructed to take just her and her husband across the Causeway without delay – Ms Cheng said the officers went beyond their expectations in helping her complete that part of her journey.

“We were both really surprised. We didn’t think they would bring out a wheelchair and help push me but it provided a lot of relief,” she said, as she sees out her confinement at a dedicated centre in Johor Bahru.

The ICA has been approached for comment.

The assistance she received in Singapore helped alleviate some delays she experienced when clearing the Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Johor Bahru, including when she was not able to present some documents verifying her stage of pregnancy.

Throughout the journey, Ms Cheng said she had been coaxing her yet-to-be born baby to “cooperate” and wait till they reached the hospital to “come out”. 

In spite of the arduous journey – which took around two-and-a-half hours from the time they left their home – the couple eventually arrived at the hospital where Ms Cheng safely delivered her son, Torrex Ong, around 4pm that same day.

After the memorable episode, Ms Cheng, who will be operating a home bakery business online after her post-partum recovery, has one takeaway that stands out among others.

“Even though there may be worries over how many days of leave mothers-to-be should take before they deliver, they should try to be in the country where they want to give birth,” she said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.

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