Two little lines = baby #2
By Olga Meckling (Poland)As my daughter started going to a day-care centre, I began attending a Dutch language course concentrating on my thesis. I also managed to do some work as translator. I was busy and happy to be doing something that was totally unrelated to having a child. Somewhere in the middle of all this, I saw the magical two strips on a pregnancy test. Here I was, in a strange country with strange ways of treating pregnancy and childbirth, and expecting a baby. Then I realised that this could actually be a good thing. I remembered how stressful it was to see a doctor in Germany, and, for various reasons, other doctors in Poland. Sure, they did all the tests, and ultrasounds, and basically made sure everything was fine. But they didn't listen because they were busy. I remembered the rather hard experience with my first daughter's birth. So this time I wanted something different. I wanted personal one-to-one care, I wanted 'my own' midwife. Also, after reading about the natural way the Dutch treat pregnancy and birth, and the high homebirth rates in the Netherlands, I wanted a homebirth too.
Because my pregnancy was low-risk, I went to see a midwife. They work in independent practices of one to four midwives. In the midwifery practice I went to there were 4 midwives and I was given appointments with all of them. I didn't have any problems in this pregnancy so I only saw the midwives. If something had been wrong, I would have been transferred to OB care.
Even though everything went well, I was worried about many things and my questions were usually answered to my satisfaction. In the end, not everything went as planned, and my baby was delivered in the hospital by a midwife I didn't know. However, I was very happy with the care I got in the hospital. They even allowed us to bring in our older daughter and she was there during her sister's birth.
Usually if the birth takes place in the hospital, the mother and her baby are released after 6 hours. I was released after 12 because they wanted to have a closer look at the baby. Luckily she was fine and I recovered very quickly. When we got home, the kraamzorgster arrived. She was a friendly lady and helped with the chores so I could rest and take care of my little baby. Actually, she was such a help that my husband even didn't apply for paternity leave until much later. I was really impressed by how well this system worked. I am not so sure if I would have chosen this for my first pregnancy, but the prenatal care and the conditions in the hospital made a very good impression on me.
Tuesday 10 July 2012 at 09:27 am.
No comments
