Friday, January 08, 2010

6 days in the hospital

After the delivery, I stayed in the hospital for 6 days. Some people asked me why I had to stay for so long, since in Malaysia usually the mother and the new born will get discharged on the second or third day.

In France, on average the new borns and the mothers stay 5 days in the hospital. Beside making sure that the post-natal care could be carried out effectively, the young parents also learn to take care of the new family member.

After staying two hours in the delivery room, I was transferred to a private room. The baby was with me all the times. Everyday the midwife came to ask about my condition, took my temperature and pressure, helped me wash the wound area, gave me medicine if the painkiller was not effective, and answered my doubts. There was another team at the nursery that took care of the baby. The nurse came in from time to time to check on baby's temperature, showed us how to change the diaper and clothes. From third day on, we had to go the nursery to shower the baby, gave her vitamin, weighted her. The pediatrician came by twice during my stay to have regular check up on her.

New daddy giving the first bath to her daughter under the nurse's guidance.


The baby was crying non-stop, the nurse asked the new daddy to hold her in this way to imitate her position in the womb and help her release gas. She liked it and stopped crying instantly.


Baby changing room


Washroom for mommy. Notice that it has a tube water beside the toilet seat for woman to clean up their perineum area. It has only cool water, the midwife explained that cool water could numb the area and help the recovery process. A big no no to the Chinese believe that a new mother should never touch cool water during the first month.


It might sound weird to say it, but the food in the hospital was excellent. They even provide some Christmas dessert during Christmas eve. Due to the swine flu precaution only daddy was allowed to enter the maternity wad, but my in laws and my aunt came to the cafeteria to have Christmas meal with me.

Overall it was quite boring staying 6 days long in the hospital. Luckily hubby brought me books, my favorite CDs and movies to help me pass the time. Besides, it was important to make sure that the baby regains her weight before going home.

We paid 459 euros for all these services. My insurance is supposed to give us bonus plus take care of the room charges (59 euros a day) but well we are still dealing with it.


Scenery outside my room. Blue blue sky on Christmas day.

5 comments:

  1. I suppose it's a private hospital otherwise you don't stay that long ....The public hospital is so crowded .Good for you that everything went right :)

    Nghi

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  2. I happened to drop by, and felt joy knowing your baby has arrived. Congratulations, she's such a bundle of cuteness. God bless your family.

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  3. Nghi, yes it was a private hospital.

    Stardust, thx

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  4. Congrats! She's beautiful.

    Been following your blog since you got married and now, there's 3 of you :)

    REST plenty!

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  5. U are very lucky you got such a nice hospital with nurses and all. Somehow I always ended up with nurses from hell. Never bother to show me how to shower nor take care of my baby - I had to ask. Never showed me how to breastfeed V too. I had to learn it all by myself at home by trial n error and asking friends from Singapore. They were chasing me out by 2nd day. :p I stayed there for 4 days in the end.

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