this is a list i wrote for my sister, based on my experience at the hospital and what i did to prepare myself for d-day and what i did after that.
maybe someone out there will find this useful. but caveat: the context is malaysia/ singapore so the information mightn't be 100% pertinent to someone who lives elsewhere.
what to expect and how to prepare
Pre-delivery1. Start packing your ‘hospital bag’ and have it on standby. It should contain:
1) Nightgowns or big t-shirts that will allow you to nurse (i.e. breastfeed) comfortably
2) Disposable panties
3) A pair of slippers (for shuffling to and from the toilet)
4) Nursing bras
5) Going home clothes – this can simply be the maternity outfit you wore when you were admitted, as you will definitely still be big post-delivery
6) Toiletries: toothbrush, hairbrush, cleansers, etc. (The hospital’s stuff is basic.)
7) Face towel and bath towel
8) Hospital appointment card, your I/C, etc.
9) Birth plan (signed/acknowledged by your own doctor) – you can remind the nurses and doctors of what you want and not want for the labour.
10) Books, magazines or CD player – to provide distraction as you can get bored, especially post-partum
11) Camera - to capture the special moments!
12) A set of baby clothes: 1 babygro, mittens, socks/booties/, hat
13) Receiving blanket
14) Snacks e.g. muesli bars, chocolate
Optional:
1) Maternity pads – the hospital will provide them. You may wish to have a few of your own disposables as extras.
2) Bathrobe
3) Aromatherapy stuff
4) Breast pads – you may not need this unless your milk “comes in” while you’re still in hospital and you’re leaking badly.
Note: No need to bring wallet or wear a watch. Hub-unit can be in charge and can buy you stuff from the hospital’s sundry shop or outside supermarket if you really need it. Keep all jewellery at home.
2. Make sure hubby (and whoever is accompanying you to the hospital) knows where the hospital bag is, as he will need to get it if in a rush.
3. Make sure that the infant car seat is installed in the car. You and hubby should definitely practise installing it a couple of times beforehand. Then leave it installed in the car before your EDD. When you bring baby home you must install him in the car seat for his safety.
4. Have everything bought, unwrapped, washed, assembled and in its place at home, before your EDD. For instance, that the changing mat, wipes and rubbish bin etc are where they should be for your convenience. The cot should be assembled and the bedding in place.
5. At the hospital, speak to the maternity ward reception desk. The nurses will bring you to the room you request for (specify what type you want: suite, single, etc.).
Then, the admissions process: your IC will be required here, as well as the doctor and hospital appointment card(s). Hubby's or your credit card may be asked for. You will need to sign some forms.
Ask about sleepover arrangements (if you wish it) for hubby, and the sort of bedding available in the room for him. (My hub-unit stayed over when Leah was born, bringing our yoga mats to lay on the floor, with my hospital bed’s duvet --- i didn't need it --- and extra pillow as bedding!)
6. You will be given a wrist tag that you leave on till you get discharged. Your baby will also get a tag – this will be in your name.
7. Every now and then you will be hooked to a CTG machine that monitors your contractions and you will be able to hear baby’s heart beat. The nurses will periodically come to monitor baby’s heart rate with a handheld device, squirting gel on your belly before doing so.
8. Your doctor will pay you a visit once or twice a day to check on you, if things are still slow. If not, he will advise on the next steps.
9. The hospital should provide free meals. You can order via the menu daily. But once you are prepped for delivery, they may tell you to stop eating. Speak to your doc about whether you can have a light snack (e.g. a muesli bar) and liquids.
If you ask for an epidural, they will wheel you (transfer you to another portable bed) to the anaesthetist’s. There, you get transferred again to another bed. The doctor will come in and do the epidural. A pillow or other support will be provided if you do the procedure sitting up instead of lying on one side. The doc will give you a local anaesthetic first and you won’t feel the needle at all.
I am not sure about the other pain relief procedures, but there will definitely be a gas machine connected to the bed that could be used.
You may be put on the drip. This is the thing I absolutely abhor the most. They will poke a needle into your wrist and leave a plastic thing that joins up to a drip bag that hangs from a stand. This stand has castor wheels so you take the drip with you everywhere, even going to the toilet. It makes sleeping sometimes difficult. I kept thinking of how irritating the plastic thing in my wrist was (the pain is like ant bites).
As for the C-section delivery process, see leah's birth story. You should already know what to expect for natural birth from your pre-natal classes.
Post-delivery (in hospital)
1. Baby will be taken away for measuring and a check by the hospital paediatrician. (If you have not appointed a paediatrician, ask your doc to recommend one.)
2. Expect a lot of gunk to keep coming out from the nether region. This is a good thing so long as it is not excessive, but your doc and nurses will monitor. The hospital will provide pads to soak the gunk up. I can’t remember what this gunk is called; there is a medical term. You will be sleeping on top of waterproof soaker pads provided by the hospital so don’t worry about stains. (The gunk should continue for maybe 1-3 weeks, depending on how fast your uterus contracts and drops back into its pre-pregnancy position.)
3. Baby will be wheeled back into your room lying in a baby trolley-bed. He will have been washed and cleaned, wearing a teeny hospital gown and may be swaddled in the hospital’s receiving blanket.
4. Ask the nurses to show you how to swaddle baby. It’s important to swaddle baby unless cleaning or feeding him.
5. Ask the nurses to demonstrate nappy wearing, and where they have kept the diapers and umbilical cord care stuff. (Ours were kept in a compartment below the baby trolley bed.) When you run out of diapers and other stuff, ask the nurses to bring more. While in hospital, all these would be provided FOC (or as part of their service).
6. A lactation nurse should visit you shortly, to teach you how to get baby to latch on and make sure you are breastfeeding correctly.
Make sure this is done soonest possible. If someone doesn’t come within the first 2 hours when baby is already rooming with you, press the buzzer and ask nurses.
Feeding at first may hurt a little bit, and don’t expect milk-coloured substances to come out for maybe one or two days. But it’s important that baby is nursing from the beginning because whatever you can’t see, or if you do see the translucent stuff oozing out, is vital for baby’s nutrition.
7. The nurses should bring baby away to be cleaned up each day. At the end of your stay, ask to see a demonstration of how they clean baby and what to do to take care of the umbilical cord stump.
8. Baby may need to undergo some UV treatment for jaundice. (Leah underwent that on the 3rd day, I think.) Just remind nurses to bring baby back to you for nursing every 2.5 or 3 hours. By the way, that is the frequency that you should be nursing from day one. (Keep to this schedule up to at least 8 weeks, to ensure your milk supply is adequate and that baby is given all the nutrition he needs.)
9. Hubby can help to change diapers and check that baby is latched on properly. It is great if he sleeps over and can do the late night diaper changes while you rest.
10. You can shower and ablute as soon as you feel better in the hospital. You will feel so much better after that! (I know I did.)
11. Post-partum blues: Mine set in around 30 hours after delivery. I was suddenly scared and depressed that I won’t make a good mother (esp. since Leah slept so much and ate what I thought was so little), until my doc came to see me in the morning and said this is a natural reaction. It’s ok to be weepy!
Discharging from hospital
1. The hospital will take back baby’s swaddling blanket and gown (unless they’re generous). You can supply the nurses with the outfit you brought. They will put it on him after cleaning him. When they bring him back to you, you can wrap him in his own receiving blanket.
2. Hubby and you then make the appointments for follow-up checkups that will be in a week’s time. Yours and baby’s should be on the same day for convenience.
3. The hospital will give you forms to register baby. Hubby’s passport/PR card etc will be required.
4. Hubby will have to pay up and finalise the discharge process. It may need some running up and down, depending on where the cashier counter is. You should rest and look after baby.
5. Make sure to take the cord care stuff and all the things the hospital can give you (e.g. the leftover diapers, bottle of saline water to wash baby, maternity pads, etc).
6. Take your time to carefully pack your things and check that the room and toilet are empty of your belongings.
7. You may wish to get dad and mom to help bring all your barang back on discharge day. Remember that hubby will have to carry baby in the infant carrier/car seat to the car. (You should not be lifting anything heavier than baby for several weeks!) Or hubby will need to make a few trips to the car to put all the belongings in the boot, if you have a lot.
8. Put baby in the car seat/infant carrier, belt him up and leave together for the car. Hubby could fasten the seat (with baby) in the car and drive the car round to the front to get you – to save you from walking so much.
Post-delivery (at home)/ “Confinement”
1. You can shower and wash your hair. Just make sure it’s done in the daytime and that you are dry and warmly dressed before you come out of the bathroom (esp. if you have air-con in the room).
Your doc will probably give you some medication and/or cream/ointment for your wound.
Note: Your pregnancy books should have information on the medical (biological) side of what happens after delivery. And the doctors (yours and baby’s) will let you know about the follow-ups.
2. You can engage a Malay masseuse now, and drink the Chinese/ Malay herbal stuff. (Although, my paediatrician had advised against taking herbal potions for the first 2 weeks to prevent infant jaundice from occurring.)
The Malay lactation nurse who was looking after me said that the Malays believe eating bananas is not so good while breastfeeding as it may lead to baby getting diarrhoea.
Continue to take the vitamin pills given to you during your pregnancy.
3. Breastfeeding: Make sure you stick to a 2.5-3 hr feed schedule round the clock. It means waking baby up even if he’s sleeping and waking in the night to feed him. If he screams for food feed him too.
It’s ok to go up to only 15 mins at each feed. That’s what Leah could accomplish before falling sound asleep. But if baby wants more, that’s great; let him!
Always have a large tumbler of water (plain is better) beside you while feeding baby, as you will get very dehydrated and the fluids will replenish your milk supply.
4. Keep a logbook to record feed times, length of feed, which breast was fed on, poo times, poo type, etc. This helps you to monitor if baby is developing correctly, and you won’t forget which breast you last fed him on. (Important to single side feed in the early days.) A B4 or A4 size diary will do, preferably one with a day a page.
5. You can also engage a midwife to do post-natal visits at home. She will check on your stitches, advise on exercise, check your breastfeeding technique, weigh and measure baby, and advise on baby care (e.g. on cradle cap) and development.
I found such a service very useful. One, it reassured me that Leah was growing well. Two, that my breastfeeding was fine. These regular checkups make good information for by the time you get to see the paediatrician it may be a month or two later. You can ask the midwife any- and everything concerning baby and yourself.
I believe in Singapore that Birth and Beyond, Mother and Child et al provide such post-natal services.
6. Your pre-natal classes should have covered baby cord care. Use the alcohol swabs to gently wipe round the area connecting the cord to the navel at baby cleaning times. Once the cord falls off (it can take as long as 2 weeks) you could keep it as a souvenir!
Other baby issues such as colic, reflux etc are covered in the book What to expect: The First Year. A lot of useful information: breastfeeding, diet, baby's developmental milestones etc, is inside.
Other Resources/ Additional info
Foods to avoid - PREGNANCY and Diet
www.parentingjoy.com
www.bimandruth.com/daniel/resources.htm
www.fourtrimesters.com
Baby Bonus (SG)
New Mothers' Support Group - Singapore
Babies and Sleep
La Leche League (www.lalecheleague.org)
Breastfeeding.com (www.breastfeeding.com)
Forums for S’pore moms and pregnant women
www.baybsupplies.biz/forum/default.asp
www.singaporemotherhood.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/discus.cgi?pg=topics
IDOBABY.com - Singapore's Baby and Parenting Portal
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