My wife's first midwife appointment

Last Friday, my wife had her first midwife appointment at Sunshine Hospital. Her appointment was set at 1.30 p.m and she took half day off to get there on time. Since, it was a public hospital, there were a lot of pregnant ladies who were also waiting to be checked upon and each one has waited for their turns, including my wife. She patiently waited until finally she was attended to at 2 pm.

Her midwife has oriented her first on hospital policies and guidelines on maternity and has given her lots of informations to read about. There were some leaflets regarding vaccine for Hepatitis-B, Vitamin K and D deficiency and its effects to the child. She was also provided with her VMR, it is her pregancy Diary that will bear all informations about her and what has been going on with her all through out. She needs to bring it whenever she will be having her appointment as it is more possible that she will be looked upon not only by one midwife but quite a few. It depends on who will be the mid wife working on the date and time of her appointment. All schedules are properly set for her. She will be seeing an Ob-Gyne on the 27th of November. As mentioned to her, the purpose of this, is for her to be assessed whether she will be falling under either Low or High Risk pregnancy. If she will be assessed as High Risk, then she needs to be attended by the doctor each visit and upon actual delivery but if she will be assessed otherwise, which we hope and pray she'll be, she will be taken care of the midwives. Before she left her midwife's clinic to proceed to pathology for her blood test, she was given a mother to be bag. The bag was full of brochures on baby stuffs and promotions. There were a few samples of different items like nappy, cream and vitamin.

As she was referred by her midwife to the pathologist on the same day, she had her second blood test. The first one was done months ago to check her Vitamin D level. She was a bit deficient that's why she is currently on Vitamin D tablet. The second blood test was to check for her blood count and Hepatitis B. She was taken more blood samples. She said that there were about 4 tubes of blood taken from her. The pathologist said that it was part of the procedure so they could have more accurate testing.

We are really satisfied on how all aspects are looked upon and are all set on a timely basis. We didn't pay for anything and yet we are confident that my wife and our child is being taken care properly. We are also excited as she is booked on the 2nd of December for her second ultrasound. Just in time for us to know the gender of the baby as well. We hope that it will be a girl this time but more importantly that we pray that the baby comes out healthy and normal.

Our second baby's first photo

My wife had her first ultrasound on 27th of September when she was still on her 12th week. It was our first glimpse of our second child and we felt excited and happy knowing that everything seems well. Our baby was taken photos of each body part to make sure each one of them has developed well at that stage.

Prior to her ultrasound, we went to see our GP(General Practitioner) a couple of times for check ups and recommendations. That is how it works in Australia. We don't have a private health insurance as we don't see the need to have one. Different migrants may have different opinion on this. For us, one of the best benefit of Australians is the Medicare. We are entitled to a free health care. Everything might not be free like ultrasound and some screenings but the bigger part or what you will more often do like seeing your doctor and undergoing some more important tests can be done without paying anything. All we have to do is show our Medicare card and that's it.

The advantage of having private insurance in relation to maternity is you can get to see a specialist, in this case an OB-Gyne if you want to. Since Medicare is government paid, seeing an OB-Gyne and a mid wife shall be booked by the respective clinics you will need to go to. Booking date will be made known to you after about a week or two from the date the GP's recommendations has been received by them. In my wife's case, she's set to see her midwife and OB-Gyne on 31st October and 27th November, respectively.

Schedules may seem to be uncomfortable for some especially for first time mothers but just to make everyone at ease, we got our GP whom we could see anytime a problem comes up. In situations which they can't handle anymore, then they will give recommendation to see an Ob-Gyne urgently. So far and thank God, my wife never had big issues on her pregnancy, so we didn't have to get this far. Our GP, in fairness, knows what she's doing and could be relied upon on some questions regarding pregnancy. She was the one who read the results of my wife's blood test and prescribed some vitamins. She also advised my wife what she can and cannot take in too much which is good.

For the ultrasound, we paid $150.oo which we believe is really worth it as we are given a copy of it in a big x-ray film with different shots of our baby. We were told that ultrasound used to be free before but it was abused by some pregnant women who took it in as much as they would want to. This is not a problem to us, though. We believe that delivering this baby safe in a respectable hospital with no charge is already a big help. So much more, when we receive the baby bonus.!

prams & baby strollers

My wife is on her 14th week of pregnancy and we are very excited to welcome her/him. Like most parents, we are excited that we are expecting a baby. Though its our second one, we still can't help but look for baby strollers and other baby needs even this early. As a relatively new migrant here in Australia, we are keen to know what strollers or prams and other baby needs are available in the market. We're also interested to know the designs, the leading brands and the respective prices. But most of all we are looking for stuffs that would really be functional yet suits the budget. Baby bonus should be spent with prudence as baby's welfare is most important.

We also realized that the well known brands of strollers/prams in the Philippines like Chicco and Graco are not being offered here in Australia. Upon looking at the available products here in AU, we were glad that there are far more varieties of baby strollers and other baby needs available.

Stroller brands that attracted us are Quinny, Stokke, Strider and Joolz.