9 Weeks... My Appointment
I had my first appointment with my midwife today at 1pm. Her name is Veronique and she seemed great. Very friendly and knowledgeable; two things I deem to be important while choosing a health care provider. She's a year younger than me and has no kids of her own.
We talked about my pregnancy with Jake, our moving plans and about the role the midwives play in Canada. I felt like I had pretty good knowledge of how it works in the UK, but here, I felt fairly clueless. Veronique told me that they don't have pregnancy notes for expectant mothers to carry around with them, like in the UK, but that they are trying to get that implemented now. She also told me that one scan is the norm over here, at between 18 and 20 weeks, where they can check pretty much everything as well as, hopefully, tell us the gender of the baby. We could have another scan, between 11 and 14 weeks, but that one is a screening test for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 and Open Neural Tube Defects. As we wouldn't consider an abortion, we will possibly skip that scan altogether.
The interesting part of the visit came when Veronique wanted 4 vials of my blood. That I can recall, I've never had troubles with my blood being drawn before but this time was different.
"Wow," she said, "you've got small veins."
Bad sign. She tapped and poked my left arm and got one vial of blood. Then between apologies, she tapped and poked my right arm. Didn't get the vein. Looking a bit embarrassed, Veronique told me that I was only the 4th person she'd ever had trouble getting blood from. Lucky me!
She called in Celine, who crouched down to give it a try. She tapped my left arm again, feeling around for a vein. "I can feel a vein here, but I can't see it," she told me. "I can TRY here or I can take it from that great vein in the back of your hand... but that'll hurt more."
So I opted for the back of my left hand, as I wasn't keen on being poked more time than necessary. Sure enough, the back of my hand did the trick and 3 more vials of blood flowed. But it did pinch a bit more than my arm did.
Tomorrow, I'll be sporting 3 fresh bruises!
|
(9.5.06 20:26) humm...what are pregnancy notes? Glad the visit went well, I have small veins and end up being poked over and over almost everytime i have to give blood. It stinks. Hope the bruises aren't too bad  )
|
|
(9.5.06 21:55) Pregnancy notes? Well, in the UK, they give you a folder. It has contact info for your hospital, midwife, doctor, etc, as well as useful stuff like when to alert your midwife, signs and symptoms and such. It also has loads of pages that various health professionals fill in as they see you during your pregnancy. So at every visit to my midwife, she filled in things like the fact that my urine tested fine, baby's position, heart rate, etc. As I ended up having Jake 4 weeks early and 330 miles away from home, the notes came in very handy. I just handed them over and within a few minutes, the hospital was up to speed on my pregnancy. It's something that the expectant Mum carries around, not that stays with the midwife or hospital. Although you do hand it back after the pregnancy. The bruises aren't too bad, thanks. Yipee! |
|
Vic / Website (11.5.06 11:44) I found the Brazilian notes much better than the English ones - I remember carting round practically that whole folder before I left. Over there they give you a tiny little card which miraculously carries everything - very handy if you want to take it on a night out! |
|
(11.5.06 18:50) I like the sounds of the pregnancy notes. It the heat of the moment I'm sure things will be forgotten and that's a bit un-nerving! Glad all went well and I'm glad you were able to get a mid wife. I wanted one and called when I was only 4 weeks preggo and they told me that too many deliveries are around that time and there weren't enough midwives to go around. CRAP! I see "we" weigh in at 4 grams (the same as 4 paperclips ya know) and we has the startings of fingers and toes..............EXCITING!!! |
|
(12.5.06 02:19) Yes, mylozmom, WE are!! |
