Stuffs I learn from pregnancy and childbirth

I was a pretty lazy and clueless mom-to-be, staying in hostel, juggling with assignment, reports, lab sessions, clerkships in hospital, classes. Roughly took care of the basics and a little extras. Took a number of things for granted. So, there were a number of things I wish I did, I wish I knew and some that I'm glad I did. Might not be able to recall all so here's few that I wish to save here.

#1 Do research, read, learn, ask, google about pregnancy and labor stuffs like healthy diet during pregnancy, practices to ease childbirth, milk boosters etc and do put them into action. 

#2 Palmer's cocoa butter cream for preventing stretchmarks works wonders provided that you apply it before the stretchmarks appear. 

#3 Consume olive oil on a regular basis. Biiznillah, it may ease childbirth. Suggested by one of my lecturers. They have olive oil in capsules nowadays so need not go through the discomfort of swallowing the oil. I started late and pretty much regret that.

#4 Glucose drink during pregnancy may help prevent jaundice in newborns - a pharmacist told me. Not sure how and whether this really works for everyone but she spoke from experience. Sis-in-law's recommendation was Ribena and air sengkuang cina (water chestnut).

#5 Learn about perineal massage and you may do it or get help to get it done. From kakak's labor experience in the US, nurses would do perineal massage in the labor room. I'm not sure which hospital in Malaysia provides that or whether it is upon request. 

#6 Attend prenatal classes if possible. I didn't and kinda regret that.

#7 Solcoseryl jelly works wonders on episiotomy wound.

#8 Sitz bath is really great to ease the pain down there and somehow helps to trigger bowel movement. For cleaning purpose, instead of just warm water for the sitz bath, asam keping and a bit of salt may be added. From sis-in-law's experience at Bagan specialist, the hospital provides sitz bath in the ward. I didn't get that. Sobs. But million thanks to sis-in-law for pharmacy-hopping to find the sitz bath basin for me. From kakak's experience in US, the hospital provides sitz bath and even let you bring the basin home. And not just that, they too give squirt bottles which squirts water gently, in which you could fill with warm water for washing down there. Kakak brought hers for me.

#9 Check if the hospital provides infrared or UV therapy for episiotomy wound. Sis-in-law got that and it was pretty helping with the healing, she said. 

#10 There are plenty of stuffs for pregnancy and baby which you don't really need. The marketing people made them sound like a necessity but nah they're not. It's easy to think  you need them and end up getting those unnecessary stuffs when you have plenty of money in hand. Best decision is when you have financial limitation, you'll tend to consider a lot of things and reconsider and maybe reconsider again. Aha. 

#11 Choose the most comfortable place possible for confinement. Consider less about what other's got to say. Listen to yourself. Because you're the one who will be in pain and much discomfort. And know that you will need lots of help so do ask for help when you need and let yourself be helped.

#12 Use suitable barut/bengkung/corset whatever as early as possible. Starting late might make it somewhat difficult to get back in shape. You don't want to look like 3 months pregnant even after baby is already out for 3 months. Ahaha siapalah tu kan.

#13 Not all elderly tips/advices are right/safe though many are. Do research/ask doctor etc.

#14 Tell your gynae about your birth plan. Make sure they are aware of how you want it to be like all natural, no induction etc. Make sure you know their plan as well like if there's complication other than the ones that would need c-sec, what would they resort to - vacuum, forcep etc. 

#15 Pregnancy and childbirth experience would differ from one person to another. Some could happily dance through all that, literally. Some had a truly tough time. Some are in the middle. C'est la vie.

#16 You gotta be strong and stay strong. 

Fatimatuzzahrah 7 days old :)

Rawak

It's been a while... been busy with final year, pregnancy, long distance marriage and whatnot...and at the end or shall I say now, when I finally decide to bring this blog back to life, I'm not sure where to start so I guess I'll just go random first :D

#1 A year could do so much. 360 days ago from this date, I was just married, going into final year of my studies, staying in hostel and now I've alhamdulillah graduated with a baby girl and moved in with husband. Being put that way, things really sounded like a smooth sail don't they, but God knows what the 360 days were like.

#2 Not sure what's becoming of Malaysia's economy but am starting to feel the aftermath. Price hiked like crazy, currency falls, addition of taxes, increasing toll charges, corruption here and there etc. The feel of the effect is less intense when you're just staying with parents and they pay for almost everything. Once money has to come out from your own purse....

#3 How sure are we that when we die, our path is straight to heaven?

I was in the middle of one of my monthly pregnancy check-up when the head nurse in the clinic which was in the same room got pissed off over something her son told her on whatsapp -  slippers with one of Hindu gods printed on it being sold somewhere (she's a Hindu). 

And that reminded her of an incident perhaps couple of weeks ago - a Muslim pregnant mom came for check-up with her little boy around kindergarten age. The boy noticed the dot the head nurse got on her forehead (is it bindi...I'm not sure what it is called but I know for sure it's not sindoor) and he said to his mom something like "Look Mom, she got that dot on forehead, if she dies, she'll go to hell." . I was surprised but that for sure couldn't beat how surprised the head nurse was when someone said that to her face. I don't remember exactly but the mother got very very embarrassed and sort of pinched the little boy or something and tell him to be quiet. Anyhow, the head nurse just had to say something so she went "I know I'm Hindu, I'm going to hell but is the heaven yours to decide like this?". Of course, no answers. The end.

The head nurse then went on about how she taught her kids to respect all other religions. It's like respecting mom, she said. You respect me because I'm your mom but doesn't mean you can be disrespectful to other mothers out there, they are moms too and they deserve the same respect. Same goes to God.

No, the heaven is never ours and who are we to decide oh that man, he's not going to go to heaven, hell's doors would be wide open for him. Nauzubillah but we're not even a confirmed resident of Jannah, We only get to enter by His mercy (may Allah grant us that). And who knows how the other's gonna end up. That man who killed a 100 others died in repentance and was granted Jannah.

God knows where that kid got that idea but that incident truly highlighted that raising kids is really really really a BIG deal. Can I say, I'm scared T_T

#4  Being a fulltime housewife at the moment gave me the privilege to watch tv more. Not to my surprise, almost all Malay dramas are about - kahwin paksa and the guy is trying to win the girl's heart, kahwin paksa and the guy is bad but at the end he realize his wife is great and he actually loves her very much and it seemed like it's already too late but naa it's not, suka sama suka tapi family tak suka, annoying boss and poor girl, triangle love...too much repetition, different storyline but same idea, sadly. It's really isn't easy to come up with good storyline and script and people always wanna sell what sells regardless of quality but...

#5 Where can I find roti naan in Bintulu? Mana satu rumah sewa yang decent below 1k? Beberapa batang daun kari  (batang panjang macam pembaris pendek) costs seringgit lebih, seriously? Apple dua ringgit lebih sebiji, seriously?  Cheap halal street food? Tomyam thai-like?

#6 Kedai-kedai makan here in Bintulu have a good practice regarding spoons and forks hygiene. Spoon and fork would be either wrapped in tissue or served in a cup of hot water. Belum jumpa lagi la yang serve sudu garfu dalam bunch banyak-banyak sekali dalam satu bekas yang pindah-pindah ke meja ni meja tu, orang ni pilih, orang tu pilih, dia ni pegang dia tu pegang.

#7 Hujan batu di negeri orang, hujan emas di negeri sendiri. Haha. I miss Penang so much.

#8 Since she could see and smile, my baby girl, Fatima has been waking up every morning smiling when I say Good Morning excepttttttt on my birthday on which she woke up crying and was fussy much that day. It just have to be on Mama's birthday ehhh~

#9 Was trying to order Pizza Hut's triple pack just now. The price I saw in the ad was RM39.90. In the delivery website, it says 49.90. When I try to order, it's 52.90. Apekahhh?? Was pretty much in a rush so I didn't bother to research the price difference. Aaaand no, didn't go for that. Went for some cheaper alternative in the menu =.="

#10