[baby] A fall, a visit to the hospital, and the last evening of the birth preparation course

[pne]

This evening, just before Stella wanted to leave to go shopping and then to the birth preparation course, she leaned against a door that she thought was closed but wasn't, and fell down sharply onto her behind.

She lay down for a little while to see how she was feeling and whether everything was all right the child; after a quarter of an hour, she decided to leave. She asked me to keep my mobile switched on in case she needed to call me, though, after I had left work.

However, just before I left work, I got a call from her saying that she'd prefer to have the midwives at the hospital check her out to make sure everything is all right, and I promised to accompany her there.

In Harburg, I hurried so that I could catch one bus earlier, so we'd have a bit more time at the hospital before the course starts.

We went up to outside the delivery rooms; there was no nurse in the duty room, but one came fairly quickly, along with a trainee. She bade Stella lie down and the strapped the CTG onto her and said they'd leave it on for about half an hour. She also asked how it had happened, whether she felt pain, and what the pain was like. Later on, she would also measure her blood pressure, her temperature, and her pulse, and wrote that down on the CTG printout.

Apparently, the CTG was fine, though one could see that the child was fairly active; it had probably been rather startled as well. We also had another ultrasonogram taken in another room, where the doctor who performed it also pronounced everything to be fine.

Even though the amniotic sac protects the child, Stella thought better safe than sorry, and the midwife agreed with her; better come once too often than not.

So after all that was done, we were relieved—and also €10 poorer since it was our first visit in the quarter there and we didn't have a note from a doctor where we had already paid the quarterly payment. But it was worth it for our peace of mind. And we're both thankful that the child is fine.

---

So then we were about 45 minutes late for the birth preparation course, which was at the other end of the hospital campus. We had missed hearing about some of the less natural methods of birth, such as venteuse and forceps, and came just in time to talk about caesarian section.

The greater part of the meeting, though, was talking about breastfeeding; she asked all of us what our position on nursing was and was glad to hear that all of us intended to nurse if we could.

We talked about some things that may make nursing difficult and about how nearly any mother can nurse "as long as she has breasts", and about the advantages of nursing especially at the beginning of a child's life.

While she said that they could also teach you bottlefeeding and give you advice if you did not want to (or could not) nurse or chose to wean very early, the hospital placed great emphasis on nursing and helping you to do so successfully; after all, it got the title "nursing-friendly hospital". (Another thing she mentioned was that there was no dummy on the station and that one shouldn't give a child a dummy or bottle teat for at least the first eight weeks if one can help it so that the child will not be confused or nurse less well at the breast.)

And then that was it! Several women said they would give birth in Mariahilf hospital, not far away, but slightly more than half said they'd do so in that hospital (Harburg General Hospital), and Astrid said, perhaps we'd see each other again :) (since she works there as a midwife).

So, we shall see. Another nine weeks or so to go.

And so to bed.

Comments

[asciident]

I'm glad Stella and the baby are okay. :) And 9 weeks left! Wow, the time seems to have gone by so quickly.

[swelegant.livejournal.com]

Phew, I'm glad Stella and the baby are ok!! :):)

[pne.livejournal.com]

You and me both, Swel!