So, one and a half hours before I am due to go and have a baby I finally get around to writing a few words about my recent life for you all to read, in case you are interested. I’m feeling a little bit nervous in the last few hours of my pregnancy, a common feeling which has unfortunately been with me for a couple of weeks and a common enough feeling amongst women awaiting the arrival of a child. Being a medical practitioner and a paediatric one at that does give me a somewhat perverse perspective on things and those who go into spontaneous labour are rather more preoccupied in the last few hours to get nervous but, nevertheless, I don’t think I’m feeling anything new.
Part of me is a little sad too – a funny kind of bereavement in knowing that your intimate companion of the last 9 months is about to leave you, or at least your body. Definitely quite a profound experience: being pregnant: There did not seem to be a cell of my body that was not pregnant and every corner of it seemed to change: even my nails were not spared (of the fingers at least – those on my toes have been beyond reach for too long for me to know how they’re faring) Joining in on that prehistoric and seemingly miraculous chain of birth and death on this planet has also had me feeling a wonderful sense of connectedness with the world around me and all those who went before me. And I am not the first to notice the look of joy people get in their eyes when they see a pregnant woman and step aside or offer some help, advice or encouragement (those that have had children, that is: those who haven’t, like me a few months ago, barge on past, clearly too busy to notice or care) I found it pretty disconcerting at first, having my private life so clearly on display, especially when patients started asking me all about it when I was trying to formulate a management plan for their particular eye complaint. But I came to love their sharing of this time with me – and even their stories and advice. I reckon it’s pretty nice when you’re taking your child to the doctor and they’re pregnant – it probably gives you a sense that they may be on a sympathetic track (even if they know better than anyone what pregnancy can do to one’s brain)
So, I’ve had a great pregnancy, with no complications and no significant discomforts, once I became accustomed to the idea that breathing easily was for woos’s and numb hands and a stomach that looks like the entrance to the Louvre was all part of the weekly evolving joy. The reason we’re having Caeserean (for, unfortunately, I am feeling that uniquely contemporary sense of guilt which comes from today’s obsession with “natural childbirth” (something which I’m afraid has not ever been, not even now, a strong presence in my own brain – my take on it being that the day you are born is the most dangerous one of your life (after the day you die) – and a year in Africa did little to make me wish for less medical intervention) but also with accepting almost no level of risk) is because we’re 6 days late and induction is looking unlikely to be successful. So I reckon it’s safer, at least for Baby, to just go straight to a nice, controlled, situation instead. And perhaps I am just a bit “too posh to push”.
So what else has been happening? I’ve been working – at the Children’s Hospital down the road, and in private practice around the corner from there. The mix of the two is nice, though I have to say I do prefer the regular paychecks, complete with tax, superannuation and the like all sorted for me, that come from the hospital. Perhaps I am a little institutionalised – probably not surprisingly after 13 years in the public service.
And there’s been some time for play too. March was particularly crazy, since Adelaide decides to do all its festivals in one month of the year, leaving us in April with little to get excited about apart from some rain and possibly the end of Australia’s latest hundred year drought. Oh, and we’ve also had the arrival of a family member to get excited about too.
I can’t think of much else of interest, at least to me, to write about. I’ll add a few pictures of the expanding Jo, though I’m afraid my husband has been quite uninspired by the walrus he shares a bed with these days to take many shots. I think we have about two, so I’ll include them both here.
Signing off for now, hopefully with some good news to come within the hours!!!!!!
babysittting my niece at 21 weeks
Ghanaian maternity gear, 25 weeks
getting the baby's room ready
3 days overdue
postcard from Adelaide
Part of me is a little sad too – a funny kind of bereavement in knowing that your intimate companion of the last 9 months is about to leave you, or at least your body. Definitely quite a profound experience: being pregnant: There did not seem to be a cell of my body that was not pregnant and every corner of it seemed to change: even my nails were not spared (of the fingers at least – those on my toes have been beyond reach for too long for me to know how they’re faring) Joining in on that prehistoric and seemingly miraculous chain of birth and death on this planet has also had me feeling a wonderful sense of connectedness with the world around me and all those who went before me. And I am not the first to notice the look of joy people get in their eyes when they see a pregnant woman and step aside or offer some help, advice or encouragement (those that have had children, that is: those who haven’t, like me a few months ago, barge on past, clearly too busy to notice or care) I found it pretty disconcerting at first, having my private life so clearly on display, especially when patients started asking me all about it when I was trying to formulate a management plan for their particular eye complaint. But I came to love their sharing of this time with me – and even their stories and advice. I reckon it’s pretty nice when you’re taking your child to the doctor and they’re pregnant – it probably gives you a sense that they may be on a sympathetic track (even if they know better than anyone what pregnancy can do to one’s brain)
So, I’ve had a great pregnancy, with no complications and no significant discomforts, once I became accustomed to the idea that breathing easily was for woos’s and numb hands and a stomach that looks like the entrance to the Louvre was all part of the weekly evolving joy. The reason we’re having Caeserean (for, unfortunately, I am feeling that uniquely contemporary sense of guilt which comes from today’s obsession with “natural childbirth” (something which I’m afraid has not ever been, not even now, a strong presence in my own brain – my take on it being that the day you are born is the most dangerous one of your life (after the day you die) – and a year in Africa did little to make me wish for less medical intervention) but also with accepting almost no level of risk) is because we’re 6 days late and induction is looking unlikely to be successful. So I reckon it’s safer, at least for Baby, to just go straight to a nice, controlled, situation instead. And perhaps I am just a bit “too posh to push”.
So what else has been happening? I’ve been working – at the Children’s Hospital down the road, and in private practice around the corner from there. The mix of the two is nice, though I have to say I do prefer the regular paychecks, complete with tax, superannuation and the like all sorted for me, that come from the hospital. Perhaps I am a little institutionalised – probably not surprisingly after 13 years in the public service.
And there’s been some time for play too. March was particularly crazy, since Adelaide decides to do all its festivals in one month of the year, leaving us in April with little to get excited about apart from some rain and possibly the end of Australia’s latest hundred year drought. Oh, and we’ve also had the arrival of a family member to get excited about too.
I can’t think of much else of interest, at least to me, to write about. I’ll add a few pictures of the expanding Jo, though I’m afraid my husband has been quite uninspired by the walrus he shares a bed with these days to take many shots. I think we have about two, so I’ll include them both here.
Signing off for now, hopefully with some good news to come within the hours!!!!!!
babysittting my niece at 21 weeks
Ghanaian maternity gear, 25 weeks
getting the baby's room ready
3 days overdue
postcard from Adelaide
posted by jobhawkins at 12:27 pm
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