First midwife/postnatal care nurse visit

Yesterday I had a visit from my midwife/postnatal care nurse. The way this
works is that she is trained both in obstetrics and newborn care - and you
have 1 visit when you are around term, and around 8 visits (depends on your
needs really) after the baby is born.

You normally can't choose the midwife as they work with the local health
centre, and are assigned to you through your ob/gyn office and according to
the area you live in; but my accountant told me so much about her I decided
I wanted this one, so I pulled some strings and asked her directly if she
would mind being assigned for me & baby. She said she didn't. The good part
is that she lives in the same neighbourhood, and she told me to feel free
and stop by her house if there's something wrong with me/baby that does not
require specific medical help, but is something she can help with.

So, the things they are trained to do is to "feel" the baby's position,
listen for the heartbeat, check your breasts (which I am relieved she did,
since no one of my prenatal caregivers offered to do, although I've read it
should be done), educate you about the childbirth, breastfeeding, postpartum
and postnatal care. She also takes care of the paediatrician paperwork (I
just have to let her know which paediatrician we want), scheduling first
appointments, etc., and in the first couple of months she is basically a
link between you and the paediatrician (so that you don't have to go to see
the ped for every small thing). She is basically trained to see that
everything is going smoothly with the baby and the mother after the
childbirth.

The reason I was so happy with her at this visit was that she is very pro
breastfeeding and is willing to do everything in her power to help.

So, after the initial chat, she felt my bump, confirmed my thoughts about
where the baby's head, back, etc. is (head down, but still on its way to be
engaged), said the baby's heart rate is normal; she commented that she
"thinks" she knows what the baby's gender is, but as she saw from my
prenatal chart that we don't want to find out, she did not tell me what her
guess would be.
Then we talked some more about the childbirth - she gave me the rates for
episiotomy, C-section, etc. for the hospital where I'll go and they are very
good, explained into more detail how to work together with the midwife and
the dr on call to have the best possible birth, explained more prosaic stuff
(like if I go into labour and have to go straight to the L&D room where my
stuff would be situated, what can DH expect in terms of wanting to be with
me right away and how to handle the situation is we get separated for some
reason), etc. I asked her if there are a lot of pregnant ladies with the EDD
around mine (for some reason I don't see many of them at the ob/gyn's
office, they must come in on other days or something, and practically my
friend Alex and I are the only ones from the childbirth class who did not
give birth yet), and she said yes, she does have quite a few on her list -
not to mention that this is a county hospital, so there might be even more
births around my EDD. So I can expect the L&D ward might be quite busy.
After that, we discussed breastfeeding and how to eliminate negative things
that can impact it (like visitors, stress, the baby or me not handling it
well at the beginning, etc.). The hospital has the lactation consultant and
a team of trained lactation nurses, so you can get the help at the very
beginning - but this midwife will come to see me for the postnatal care
visit within 24 hrs after I come home from the hospital with the baby.
She checked the things I have prepared for the hospital bag and for the
baby, said all was fine, and basically not to worry - but if I worry or get
scared, I can call her at work or at home and we can talk about everything.

She is quite friendly, and I am quite happy with her - and I think the baby
and DH will be happy with her too (DH will get his lesson about postnatal
care on that visit when we come home from the hospital).

I've got a nice compliment from her, too - she complimented me on the way
the bump looks, of not gaining too much weight (she said my ob/gyn shouldn't
comment on that - remember my vent a 1,5 month ago? - when it's obvious it
all went straight to the bump), of not getting any stretch marks (I still
hope they won't appear - my father's family is very prone to them, and I do
have some on my hips - I got them when I had a growth spurt as a teenager),
about my diet, and said I was quite light on my feet. She said she feels the
pregnancy is progressing normally, and everything is as it should be. That
was so nice to hear!

Tomorrow I have my ob/gyn appointment (it should be this one and then 2 more
before EDD but will see tomorrow how it goes), so this is quite the busy
prenatal care week :-)

That's all.
Best wishes to you all,

Elly
37 weeks + 2 days
(18 days to go!)
EDD October 6th

"Elly" wrote in message
...

So, the things they are trained to do is to "feel" the baby's
position, listen for the heartbeat, check your breasts (which I am
relieved she did, since no one of my prenatal caregivers offered to
do, although I've read it should be done),

Okay, out of interest, why? What are they checking for?

This is something that's never been suggested to me, nor is it something
I've read about in any of my books. Is it another difference between US/UK
ante-natal care?

--
I will go down with this ship
I won't poke my eyes out and surrender

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 20:29:29 +0200, "Elly"
wrote:


"Linz" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

"Elly" wrote in message
...

So, the things they are trained to do is to "feel" the baby's
position, listen for the heartbeat, check your breasts (which I am
relieved she did, since no one of my prenatal caregivers offered to
do, although I've read it should be done),

Okay, out of interest, why? What are they checking for?

This is something that's never been suggested to me, nor is it something
I've read about in any of my books. Is it another difference between US/UK
ante-natal care?

I'm not in UK, I'm in Italy.

Doh! You'd think I'd remember that!

I can't give you a conrete answer about what they are checking for -
probably for flat/inverted nipples, lumps or something like that that might
be a problem for breastfeeding.

I think around here they just expect you to tell them if you have
flat/inverted nipples.

Here are some links that suggest breast check up:
http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/folate/pregcheck.htm

Prior to pregnancy - which most women should be doing anyway.

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/1/T011200.asp

Suggests that one _may_ be carried out. But then, it also says you'll
have internal exams and regular blood tests, which aren't the norm in
the UK.

It's interesting finding the differences in ante-natal care.
--
EDD 1/11/03
33 weeks

"Elly" wrote in message
snip
So, the things they are trained to do is to "feel" the baby's position,
listen for the heartbeat, check your breasts (which I am relieved she did,
since no one of my prenatal caregivers offered to do, although I've read
it
should be done), educate you about the childbirth, breastfeeding,
postpartum
and postnatal care. She also takes care of the paediatrician paperwork (I
just have to let her know which paediatrician we want), scheduling first
appointments, etc., and in the first couple of months she is basically a
link between you and the paediatrician (so that you don't have to go to
see
the ped for every small thing). She is basically trained to see that
everything is going smoothly with the baby and the mother after the
childbirth.

I've never heard of this kind of program before--sounds rather neat (nice
one-on-one attention/care). She sounds nice too and very available for help
(it is good that she lives so close by too).

The reason I was so happy with her at this visit was that she is very pro
breastfeeding and is willing to do everything in her power to help.

So, after the initial chat, she felt my bump, confirmed my thoughts about
where the baby's head, back, etc. is (head down, but still on its way to
be
engaged), said the baby's heart rate is normal; she commented that she
"thinks" she knows what the baby's gender is, but as she saw from my
prenatal chart that we don't want to find out, she did not tell me what
her
guess would be.

Was she guessing based on something in your chart about the gender, or based
on heart rate and bump-shape and things like that? (on a side note, my bump
does seem to be consistent with what a boy bump "should" look like, but his
heart rate is consistently in the "girl" range :-).

snip
I've got a nice compliment from her, too - she complimented me on the way
the bump looks, of not gaining too much weight (she said my ob/gyn
shouldn't
comment on that - remember my vent a 1,5 month ago? - when it's obvious it
all went straight to the bump), of not getting any stretch marks (I still
hope they won't appear - my father's family is very prone to them, and I
do
have some on my hips - I got them when I had a growth spurt as a
teenager),
about my diet, and said I was quite light on my feet. She said she feels
the
pregnancy is progressing normally, and everything is as it should be. That
was so nice to hear!

That sounds like great reinforcement! (makes up a bit for the OB's "diet
plan" ideas!)

Glad you had such a nice visit!

--
Em
edd 9/23/03
(39w3d)

"Em" ha scritto nel messaggio
newspOab.521335$YN5.346480@sccrnsc01...
I've never heard of this kind of program before--sounds rather neat (nice
one-on-one attention/care). She sounds nice too and very available for
help
(it is good that she lives so close by too).

Yes; the-living-close-by factor was definitively one of the reasons I chose
her.



she commented that she
"thinks" she knows what the baby's gender is, but as she saw from my
prenatal chart that we don't want to find out, she did not tell me what
her
guess would be.

Was she guessing based on something in your chart about the gender, or
based
on heart rate and bump-shape and things like that? (on a side note, my
bump
does seem to be consistent with what a boy bump "should" look like, but
his
heart rate is consistently in the "girl" range :-).

Don't know. She did see in my prenatal chart that we don't want to
find out the baby's sex before its birth so she didn't elaborate. But, my
guess is that she based it on the heartbeat rate - she did say that right
after she measured it, so maybe it's the whole "slower heart beat = boy,
faster heart beat = girl" theory. She mentioned she's got some practice
about "guessing" the sex.
Later on DH & I discussed it - as we don't know the sex and as we won't know
it until the birth, we won't really be sure she guessed right - she can
always say *that* gender was her guess. It's not like we know it's a
boy/girl, and she said at this visit "it's a boy/girl" - that can be
confirmed or not, so you can check out directly her "practice about guessing
the baby's gender".

Elly
38 weeks + 1 day
(13 days to go!)
EDD October 6th