Friday, August 22, 2014

5 days in the maternity ward (法国生产记之住院)

We stayed in the maternity ward for 5 days. I don't know why, but I was sad to leave the day we got discharged.

I chose the same clinic as I had good memories from my first delivery. The team (doctors/midwives/nurses) was very professional and provided good advises. The foods tasted yummy but I could be biased since breastfeeding made me hungry all the times. I had breakfast around 7am, lunch at 12pm, snack at 4pm and dinner around 6pm.

My typical breakfast. I ordered hot milk but they gave me hot chocolate instead. They only corrected the mistake during the last day of my stay.

Lunch. It was amazing, I didn't have the feeling of being full anymore. For my first delivery, I actually ate the hospital food plus confinement food my aunt prepared.

Every day the midwife came to see me and gave me painkiller. I didn't really need it because I didn't feel too painfull, just uncomfortable. I was told that Jun, July and August are peak months for delivery so all the staffs were overwhelmed. I had a different midwife everyday and I felt that they were in rush everytimes. Nurses came to check on the baby everyday too. There was one that I adored, she gave me plenty of advises. She told me that I can let the baby cry as long as she is fed and her diaper is clean.

I prefer to have plenty of rest so only close family came to visit me. Aelig came everyday and accepted well that I had to stay in the clinic with the baby. She was proud to be big sister.

We had to learn how to bath a baby and all that jazz again. Frankly, I forgot some of the details, but it just came back after several practices.

This time around the nurses proposed to take care of the baby in the nursery room during the night (They didn't propose me when Aelig was born and I didn't ask). For three nights they came to fetch the baby then sent her back three to four hours later for nursing. It was heaven as I could sleep for several hours straight without a crying baby beside.

I felt that my recovery from the birth was slower this time. It was very uncomfortable to move around. The first few days I felt dizzy after standing up, I didn't have this problem last time. One nurse told me that was normal as some of the organs were displayed during the pregnancy, it takes time for them to get back to their original position. Another new experience for me was the painful uterus contraction. One night after sending the baby to the nursing room, I was hoping for a good night sleep. I was waken up by a sharp pain from my stomach and couldn't sleep for the whole night. The doctor told me that it was uterus contraction, that women with more than one delivery will feel it stronger compare to the first one. The sharp pain came from time to time and I had to take a stronger form of painkiller to ease the pain.

I was happy and relief to have the single bedroom. It was important for me to be able to rest without being disturbed. It costed 70€ a day and it was fully paid by the insurance.

Baby diaper changing area.

Private bathroom attached to the room.

Once the baby was gaining enough weight, we asked to be discharged. We had to get approval from the pediatrician and my gynecologist. My gynecologist actually came to see me the fourth day while I was taking my breakfast, so she said she would pass by again the morning after. She came again at 8am but I was sleeping (after a long night fight with the baby), so she left. I went to see her after being discharged as her clinic was located at the same area.

As for the baby, she cried a lot during the stay, hubby came to help me out everyday. Anyway, we were happy to bring her home!

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:29 AM

    Where did you have her? I was born at the Clinique Brétéché in Nantes. I haven't been there in a long time, well since my brother was born (in 1992) but your room reminds me of it.

    In Canada, I only stayed for 24 hours at the hospital. This is normal here, they don't keep you long. I didn't mind, the nurses were nice but there were three of us in the room and no one could sleep because all you could hear were babies crying. The food was okay but I found it was very little food considering how hungry you are after labour. Most people brought food from outside.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Polyclinique de l'atlantique. Clinique Brétéché is very famous in Nantes.

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  3. The room and food looked good. A good write up of your stay in the hospital for your 2nd delivery for you to read and think back next time.

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    Replies
    1. Exactly, that's why I still write up this post even though it happened two months ago.

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  4. such a nice room ... aaaww .. this post reminds me of my own stay in the hospital ...

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    Replies
    1. I hope this reminds you of those good memories...

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  5. Hi,

    Sorry to disturb, i had email you some questions.
    Kindly check it out ya, Thanks

    Regards,

    EeLing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    Sorry to disturb, i had email you some questions about working in france but delivery failure.
    May i have you active email address if you don't mind.? Thanks


    Regards,

    EeLing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, email sent.:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Seems like delivery a baby at your side is like staying in the hotel with room service.
    It sound very nice ;-)

    ReplyDelete