Monday, July 11, 2005

New Life

Well, what can I say? Our baby has been born!
Labour was nasty, it, if our baby had been a bit smaller, would have been doable, but he was just a tad bit too big, and took just a tad bit too long in coming into the world. Having a C-section was doable, just not the option we wanted.

Interesting though, I did a search on-line last night for information on recovering from having a c-section and there is surprisingly not a lot of information out there! Most people experience what Jim and I did. Go home and take it easy. I find that horribly shocking! It took some searching to find out how I should care for myself over these next few weeks.

From what I could tell from people out in computer land, what I should do is the following
1. I should have help in the house for at least 2 weeks following release from the hospital.
2. I should go up and down the stairs as infrequently as possible.
3. I should rest. Sleep whenever I can, use pillows, chairs whatever to get myself comfortable.
4. I should not bend over and pick things up.
5. I should not carry anything heavier than our baby.
6. I should avoid anything that could add to abdominal stress - avoid constipation, gas, etc. It means eating healthy,taking stool softeners, and so forth.
7. It means walking in order to keep the body's systems active.

So why don't doctors tell their patients these things? Like seriously, I am sure that I could have avoided adding to my pain levels IF I had been told these things. So why wasn't I? Why do most women not know these things and have to rely on other women to fill them in? That makes for a lot of misinformation being passed around and greater chances for women to actually find themselves damaging themselves and needing more recuperating time.

It just seems like doctors don't really care about their patients if they don't give them good post-operative care and kinda just willy-nilly send them home when perhaps they shouldn't because the patient might have a better recoup time if they stayed in hospital even one more day, or it gave them more time to learn about what they should do when they are at home and so forth.

I have found that it has just been rather interesting learning about people's experiences in this. I was blown away too by the numbers of women who choose to have a c-section because they don't want to go through the bother of labour. The prevailing attitude among such choice makers is that they want to avoid the bother of labour, and they like the idea of having to do nothing for at least 6 weeks after the baby is born. One lady was even rather bummed that (after choosing to do c-section for four children) that her doctor said....Okay, no more children are you allowed to have.! And she was SO mad at her doctor. Why didn't he tell me this might limit the amount of children I could have? What's his problem, I should be able to have more children, all they need to do is c-section it, even if it's a bit a early! I just find that type of attitude so ... not sure of the word to use....shocking, frustrating, mind-boggling. Definitely NOT one that I would agree with.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the new baby - what gender, what name? Glad you like garage sales too. I like them as well. My daughter and I are fossickers and refurbishers. My daughter has a shop, Avec Amour. I talk about it at my other site The Trad Pad http.//tradpad.blogsome.com. As well as garage sales, I do opp shops (short for opportunity - they are charity shops) and, best of all, the hard waste. The hard waste is when households put their rubbish out on the footpath for the Council to pick up. My biggest prize so far has been a roll top desk back in February. The hard waste is great for garden stuff like pots. I have recently picked up a tiny garden setting for a child. The difficulty is finding the time to do it all up. A young woman has been selling things to Shelley for her shop but has to move house and there is no room for all her undone up finds. So Shelley has bought them off her. Now our carport was already chockablocka with stuff and we have added an armoire and boxes of stuff are in the dining room! To-day Shelley is working on the three piece cane lounge suite that I brought home from hard waste a couple of months ago. There are no cushions so when it is painted (antique white) I will have to buy cushions and upholster them. We do things up shabby chic or french provincial style. Glad you are reading Jeremiah. I love the prophets. My favourites are the 8th century prophets, particularly my friend Amos. Full of justice and reminders that holier than thou worship is not the be all and end all in God's eyes.

Annette said...

We had a son...Justin. Growing like a good weed! Can't say a bad weed... 'cause what would that say about such a sweet little boy? :)