Kraamzorg

I am doing my research on hiring a kraamzorg. A kraamzorg is a trained maternity nurse.

Their role is like a confinement lady in our culture. But instead of one month, she comes for only 8 days, each day for about 5 hours. She will help check the mother's health, and baby health, keep track of all these statistics and report to the midwife. She also helps to take care of older children (if you have one), cook meals, serve visiting guests, help you out with laundry and most importantly, the hygiene level around the house. She also teaches you basic baby care like how to handle newborn, how to bath them, how to breastfeed them etc... (Definitely a great help for first timer like me!)

Basically, she is there so that the mother can rest as much as possible and have time to bond with her baby. Plus, it's covered by insurance. This is one of the best features that you can get when you deliver in the Netherlands. I know we have confinement lady service in KL, but I have yet hear that the payment is covered by insurance.

In fact, Dutch puts higher priority in post-natal care than pre-natal care. From what I read, the pre-natal care conducted by midwives are very simple. They stay with the idea that everything is normal, pregnancy is normal. They don't do unnecessary checks or tests. What I heard is, they normally measure your weight and check the baby, and this won't take more than 15minutes. No blood test, or urine test. No ultrasound scan after week 20th, unless it's necessary (normally when they suspect baby breech, or baby too small), or the mother feels very uncomfortable or stressed because can't feel the baby etc... so nothing to shout about, I would say.

But, the post-natal care is excellent. Mothers basically do not need to leave the house for any checkups after giving birth. All the helps and cares come to you, right at home. You might think that it is cruel to send a mother and newborn back hours after delivery in the hospital, but Dutch believes that you recover the best while you're at home. Of course if you did a c-sect, they will keep you in the hospital. Plus, insurance doesn't cover hospital stay after birth. Unlike in KL, you still get to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days after birth.

So, I'm still researching on which agency to book from because one: I need an English-speaking nurse; two: non-smoker; three: support breastfeeding.

Of course I also hear horror stories about kraamzorg being lazy, watch TV, didn't do the necessary check up for the mother and baby etc... well... there are confinement ladies who are like this back home isn't it?

Right decision!

Thank God it was a right decision to switch to Bronovo Hospital in the city.

I was having a quick chat with my apartment caretaker this morning and I told him our plan of moving into the city due to hubby's work is currently located in the city centre, and I want to be closer to Bronovo Hospital for regular checkup and delivery. He immediately commented that Bronovo Hospital is the best hospital in The Hague, everyone wants to deliver their baby in Bronovo.

I was relieved because I personally didn't know how good Bronovo reputation is. But my logic tells me, since Princess Maxima delivered all her 3 children there, and they handle expats community more, I feel more comfortable with Bronovo than the current hospital that I visit.

So as soon as I received the call from the hospital department saying that all my tests are normal and I double confirmed with her whether I can straight away book an appointment with a midwife, she said yes.

I called up Bronovo's midwife department to schedule my checkup with them. 4th June is the next upcoming one. The midwives in Bronovo work within the walls of the hospital, meaning, they don't do home delivery.

Yes, I finally decided to deliver with a midwife, in a hospital, and if anything happens, I'm still in a hospital. Best of both worlds! I've also decided not to sign up for pain relief. Yes you need to sign up for pain relief. Not all hospitals in the Netherlands provide pain relief, some only provide from 8am-8pm, some don't even give it to you if you didn't sign up for it. It does sound really scary when you compared to the usual experience in KL.

I want it to be as natural as possible. You can say that I'm crazy or silly but I feel that since I'm in this environment at this time, I would want to experience it to the fullest.

My mum asked me why I don't want to deliver back in KL.
Mum, after hearing so many stories about 'whatever also c-sect' kind of experiences even though some have reached 9cm (10cm is the goal for the baby to come out), going through pregnancy in KL sounded so scientific and such a money making opportunity to certain people than having the focus just on you and your baby at that time. On top of that, after I understand how the c-sect surgery is performed, I find it very eerie. I would rather go through it once and for all than to suffer from the after effect of c-sect a few days more. It of course, doesn't mean that if I deliver here, I won't have a c-sect, it really depends on how crucial it is. But I know that in Holland, the chances of going through that is a lot lesser.

Plus, if I were to deliver in KL, I will have to go back by the 6th month because I can't travel from 7th month onwards. My hubby won't be with me until closer to the due date. He will miss the experience of the last few months, which both of us don't agree that it should be the case.

I initially did contemplate whether to do home delivery as well. But it just doesn't feel right to deliver in a service apartment. I don't mind if it is our own place. If we are still staying in Holland, and I have another child, I will definitely opt for home delivery. Of course some people condemn how backward the Dutch's mentality is when it comes to still using home delivery, and the attitude of purposely denying women to have pain relief so that they suffer during delivery is inhuman (applicable to traditional thinking doctors/midwives, just hope that you don't bump into them).

Well, I personally disagree that home delivery is backward, since women have been delivering in toilet, in garden, in taxi, in whatever other places that you can think of, and women have been doing this for God knows how many years. It's just normal, instinct.

But I don't support the attitude where giving pain relief is unnatural. Since the olden days, midwives have been using methods like massaging, aromatherapy candles and oils to help relieve delivery pain for women. Making women suffer purposely just doesn't make sense. So why should pain relief in a form of big needle make any difference for these bunch of doctors/midwives?

Anyway, I'm really looking forward for this brand new experience.

Oh... baby is getting bigger

Today, both of us went for another round of ultrasound. The purpose of this ultrasound is to measure the length of the baby's neck to check whether the baby is a down-syndrome child or not. It is also the first time my hubby sees the little one 'in action'.

Well, the baby is not really in action. He/she is totally curled up like a ball, sleeping!

The obstetrician who did the scan is superbly friendly and motherly. She has such a sweet voice and man... she is fast in interpreting the grayish image on the screen! She quickly measured the size of the baby (normal), showed us the fingers (10, she said) and toes, the beating heart, perfect skull, spine is good... and she also let us listened to the baby's heartbeat. It was like thousand of horses galloping, strong and fast.

While she was doing the scan, I asked, "How do you find the neck?" She turned the scanner on my belly in a few directions, and stopped, pointed out to me using the scanner pointer on the screen and said, "There, you see..."

It was jaw dropping... I mean, how? The black and white screen is totally meaningless to untrained eyes because we can only read the general outline of the baby.

Then, the little one turned (just like how we turn to our side when we sleep), and kicked his/her legs a bit, and then continued sleeping. My hubby was so amazed and he pulled his chair even nearer to the screen.

The baby has grown to about 6+ cm now, still very little.

Expected due date is 11 Nov, exactly 1 week before the baby father's birthday.
Well, we never know when the baby decides to come out, but it will be very interesting to wait during that period.

Now I know...

I finally found out why I couldn't drink milk or soya milk for the past few weeks. Apparently it has something to do with hormones in my body at this time. As usual, I can't remember which hormone is that (I read a lot and I don't have a habit of remembering special terms, so I always go back to my bookmarks to double check when it is necessary). This culprit slows down the body's digestion process, making it takes longer to digest the milk, 'creating' gas along the way... hence my bloated stomach.

I guess I will take next 6 months to slowly discover about what food to take and which food to avoid to prevent these uncomfortable feeling, though before this I have no problem taking them at all!

I'm busy researching on various baby items, drafting out a budget and a list of necessary items to buy either new, or second hand. I also did up a check list of baby items that both of us need to go through so that when he goes back to KL in June, he will be able to buy some of them over. I have to admit that buying things in KL is still much cheaper especially when it comes to baby items. Luckily, the 2nd hand market in NL is quite huge. I can find many pre-owned baby items on sale, online, and I just ordered some belly bands to prepare for my growing belly.

Belly bands are very popular here because I can use them to sort of "extend" my pre-pregnancy clothes because these elastic bands can be worn around the hip, and helps to hide the unbutton part of my jean (well, I only have 1 pair of jeans here), thus extending the life time of my jeans. When the belly grows bigger, I can wear the band up till slightly above my belly to show off the, arhem, BIG belly. I find it more amusing to mix and match clothes than to purchase any maternity wear. I find it totally unnecessary to spend a huge sum on maternity clothes because I will only wear them for a certain period of time, plus, these prenatal wear in NL are just way TOOOOO big for me. Imagine their normal size, is already double of my size, what happened when they get pregnant?