K and I compared notes as she attended to her old helper and I attended to ours (who had babies within days of each other)...most of the time we were saying: 'did you know....? and what in the world?' (kudos to J on being very much involved in two of these births, so much so we started calling him a 'doula')
Abby had called us every week updating us and asking questions. She did not go into labor, but three days past her due date she went for a check up and was told her amniotic fluid was too little and it was dangerous for the baby, a c-section was a must. We told her this was not necessarily the case (I have been told that about my fluid and while I did have C-sections it was not for that reason). She asked if we thought she should stay in her local small town hospital or come here to our bigger (but still small in China standards) hospital. We did not want to sway her too much, but even our current helper who is friends with Abby said she should come here. After talking it over with her family, they came to town. We were thankful, now we could be with her every step of the way.
(waiting with Abby and her husband)
With Sophia at school in the afternoons, our helper watched the other two and David and I both could go wait with them for another ultrasound. David had already been with them a few hours by the time I arrived. It was pouring down rain. In order to get an ultrasound they had to walk to another building in the downpour, where the waiting room was outside. This seemed to be where all the hospitals x-ray type machines were. We also saw them bring a prisoner here to be x-rayed on a few different machines, we assumed they were checking for drugs via ultrasound.
see the rain puddle? It was raining sideways for a time, so we got a little wet in the waiting area.
this hospital is actually not the main/biggest one in town, but we liked it a lot better. It is newer, which means it is cleaner (the main building, not this area).
We knew that we could not convince our helper/her family (this is a whole family affair, every decision) to go against the doc, and nor should we, so in the end a C-section was inevitable. Most people here get C-sections, this is amazing too, at the drop of a hat they bring out the knife. I won't go into all the reasons why....let's just say it is a whole health system that....(if you don't have anything good to say....) frustrates us. We are constantly educating people on the simplest of health things, things a doc should say....anyway....I will leave it at that.
'Grandma' anxiously awaits
Beautiful baby boy, and the whole family cheered
proud new dad
so cute. He was just over 6 pounds. Five months ago I had one almost this small, and I already forgot!
Things that 'amazed':
1. Most seem to not know much about breast-feeding, and no one told them (nurse, mom, etc.), except us. Like, you need to start as soon as possible, and it is okay that you don't have milk yet. breastfeeding seems really unimportant. I did learn that they usually give rice cereal in bottles very early, I know they do not use formula, it is too expensive, and they definitely used sugar water. All this, too me, makes for one malnourished but satisfied child, and it appears to be the norm. Abby has seen me with two of our children from birth, she was asking a lot of good questions, and really trying to nurse, lets hope she sticks with it! (I told her to look at Tobin, so fat and healthy, all he had for the first 5 months of life was breast milk).
2. The giving of sugar water right away.
3. Nurses do not really take care of the patient here, they just really administer medicine and watch vitals. It was up to the family to empty the catheter bag, help to the bathroom, get the patient moving, etc. (Sophia noticed this as compared to what she witnessed in our posh hospital in Thailand, after being in the room for thirty minutes she asked, where are all the nurses?) (this actually did not surprise me, though it is on the list of interesting things).
4. This family used a water soaked Q-tip and let the baby suck from it when it started to cry.
5. When we visited, lots of other family members brought their newborns down the hall to see the room full of white children (most astounded that we were allowed to have 3), one of these other families took local honey, also on a Q-tip and rubbed the baby's gums with it. This, they said, would keep the baby from 'being yellow'. I made a mental note to look up alternative medicines to treating Jaundice to see if this had merit, but I never got around to it. I only have heard feeding honey before one-year could be harmful, who knows?
6. cost: her C-section cost a little over 200 U.S. dollars this with a nice 2-person room, had she chosen a 4 person room it would have been cheaper.
7. Squatty potty after C-section! Enough said.
8. Thankfully Sophia was looking my way when they brought a man by whose foot was soaked and pouring out blood. His friends just carried him straight into the hospital, in all the other elevators used by everyone, with a trail of blood. These type of things (lack of sanitation) are common.
9. Back to Jaundice, our current helper got a call and Abby's mom who wanted her to go buy some stuff that you put in a bath to bathe the baby because the baby was Jaundiced. 'What stuff?' I asked worried. She said she didn't know. I told her to tell them to listen to the doctor. And when she came back they had done normal treatment, put the baby under lights, etc. whew. No bath.
