Fancy A Makeover

Archive for April, 2011

I decided fairly early that I wanted a base to go with my car seat as it would be easier and practical in my small 3 door Nissan Micra. I have had my car for nearly 5 years and it is economical, safe and easy to park, having a child was not going to persuade me to upgrade to a bigger car unless I really needed to. Having searched for a car seat and base the best one was of course by Maxi Cosi, also a favourite for celebrities they can cost quite a bit. Before making up my mind I visited Babies r us to have it fitted firstly to see if it was compatible and secondly to see if it was worth it.

There are a few bases available for maxi Cosi car seats and depending on which car seat you want then the appropriate base needs to be purchased. I wanted the base to fit using isofix so opted for the maxi Cosi Easyfix base, the other cheaper one fits using the seat belt only but does the same job of keeping the base secure in the car. It is very easy to put in but the only downside is it is very heavy! I know it will always be in the car but having a small car doesn’t help, we have yet to use it while it is fitted and with a child in but I fear we may need to get a more powerful car in the near future.

I would still recommend the base as once its fitted there’s no need to worry about taking it in and out, the car seat clicks in and out effortlessly which will be very handy on a rainy day or when you come home late and don’t want to disturb a sleeping child.

The Easyfix base can cost up to £150 in some places and is used for only a year so you really need to think if it’s a worthwhile purchase for you. For me personally it is and as I plan to have more children I will most definitely use the base again, also you can change the fabric of the car seat for any future children that may use it so it doesn’t look like you’ve had the same one for years.

To save money you may want to buy one second hand as you can get them as cheap as £20 in most places otherwise you can opt for another brand where they are sold cheaper but are far more bulky such as Graco.

The QE2 hospital in Welwyn Garden City offers guided tours of the delivery suite and postnatal wards every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. You need to call after 1pm to see if they are holding one that day as it can get busy, if you are unsuccessful they will ask you to try again the following day or the weekend after. I recommend visiting at least 1 month before you are due as you would have already attended antenatal classes so would know all about labour and delivery, many couples who attended the tour seemed very unprepared and asked the silliest questions.

It is recommended to visit beforehand so you know where to go and become familiar with the surroundings, I am currently 38 weeks and 6 days pregnant and for the past month I have been calling up the delivery suite to see if I can come on a tour of the delivery and postnatal ward, finally to my surprise it was held today.

The delivery suite is on the 7th floor accessed by the lifts that can be found by using the main entrance to enter the hospital, following the signs to wards and departments after a few minutes there will be signs that point you to the direction of the lifts. Being heavily pregnant that walk to the lifts seemed like forever, so it’s well worth a practice run before the big day to avoid panic and confusion.

When we got to the 7th floor there were at least 7 other couples also waiting, 10 minutes later at 3.10pm a midwife came to start to tour. We went straight to the delivery suite where you hopefully go to first to deliver the baby. There are many rooms, around 14 in total; two of the rooms have a birthing pool whereas the rest just have beds in them. The rooms are of average size with most of them having toilets in them or a bathroom.

Afterwards the postnatal ward for recovery is just next door, they are small rooms that consist of 4 beds all with curtains for privacy. There is a room if you want to breastfeed in private as visitors will come and go on the ward. There is also a day room where you can help yourself to tea and coffee, most of the midwives were friendly but there were some that were not very accommodating.

As someone who needs to be as organised as possible it was definitely worth the trip although the whole thing took less than half an hour. The only thing I would advise against is to park in the hospital car park, it would cost £2.90 for up to two hours which is a little extortionate if you are not going to be there that long.

Going for the QE2 maternity ward tour was worth it for me because it assured my partner and me where to go on the big day! The last thing you want is to turn up and not know where you are going and having a frazzled birth partner trying to help you and look for directions at the same time. I now await the arrival of my baby to follow up this review of what the maternity ward is really like.

Part of your antenatal care will include antenatal classes in preparation for the labour, delivery and life at home with the baby. When I first fell pregnant I asked my midwife about availability of these classes on the NHS as there are many stories of NHS trusts cutting back and turning women away or not even offering them in the first place. My midwife said that in Welwyn they never turn away pregnant women but their classes may be very full so they aren’t as small and intimate as NCT run classes. I did look into NCT antenatal classes but if I could get the same information for free I was willing to wait.

I have just started my antenatal classes at 36 weeks which I think is a little too late, when I went to the class held at Applecroft school I was the only one that was expecting within a month, all the other ladies were due later than me. It is run by a Midwife and Health Visitor who were both friendly, the only downside is the room is a little small and packed with the worst chairs to sit on for the next few hours.

I was a little disappointed when the midwife told everyone to refrain from buying anything just yet as she would tell you what was non-essential in the weeks to come. Being the furthest ahead I had already purchased everything so I dread what she will say is a waste of money.

I always thought that antenatal classes meant that you sit on the floor surrounded by comfortable pillows and your partner supports you while you learn breathing methods and different positions for labour. They are nothing like this, instead they tell you about the three stages of labour and what to expect. They tell about the signs that you may be going into labour and a lot of scenarios where you discuss as a group.

There were a few things I learnt such as when to call up the hospital and how long you should wait until you come in but in general you can find out all this in the book that was given to you at your booking in appointment when you first have contact with a midwife. I would advise all people who are going to do a little reading as you may feel left out and not know anything when you attend but then again the classes are there to teach you.

I thoroughly recommend your partner being there as I do think it’s important that he be a part of it, knowing all the signs for labour and what to do will come in handy when you are not able to talk because the contractions are so painful. It’s also good that the men are educated in the stages of labour and what happens after.

For the second breastfeeding workshop it was women only as they try to get a new breastfeeding mother to come in and share her experience as well as a demonstration. As the group was now smaller as women came without their partners it was more personal and it was easier to ask questions and get the answers from a new mum as opposed to the midwife and health visitor.

The new mum who came with her new baby was only 7 weeks old but he was having problems feeding so we spent most of the session talking about problems rather than breastfeeding itself. It was found that the little baby had a cold so wasn’t able to feed properly because his nasal passage was a little congested. The new mum talked about how she went into labour but due to all the drugs she tried to ease labour pain her son was born sluggish and it took a day for him to wake up properly. As a result of this he did not latch on properly and the first week was a struggle to breastfeed. She recalls each day has been different and his feeding pattern changes, but she did nearly give up as she found it very stressful and demanding.

In a way it was a good idea to bring in a new breastfeeding mum to talk about her experience but in this case her son was ill so he cried throughout the whole session. As she was a new mum she found some questions hard to answer so the midwife had to do it for her, it has still put me off breastfeeding as I found that it is very strict and the midwife refuses to believe that women should offer a bottle instead.

I was very pro-breastfeeding as I thought I could combine it with expressed milk in a bottle but the midwife discourages this and says that it should only be attempted after 3 months. I think this is far too long, my mum combined the breast with expressed bottle feeding when I was a few weeks old and I turned out fine. I understand that formula is bad and should be avoided if possible but it is unrealistic and it puts too much pressure on women to expect them to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months.

The advice given has been conflicting with many pregnancy books and websites saying that you can introduce a bottle as early as 4 weeks and not 3 months like the workshop suggests. Also I would like to mention that the midwife strongly advises against anyone other than the mother feeding the baby and again I think this is wrong as grandparents and the father should also be involved.

In all I didn’t really learn much other than the midwife and health visitors’ biased views on breastfeeding because to them if you do not breastfeed than you are doing it wrong, end of story!