September 2013- We've managed to hold them in!

[fl0b0t]

Hi all! Providing the ladies who are currently in hospital don't give birth before the last 20 posts in our old thread, we've made it to a new one with babies all still staying put for now!

Here's the stats thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/a1694946-September-2013-STATS-THREAD

Welcome newbies! If anyone wants to join the FB group (better for sharing documents and pictures), please message myself or jennimoo with your real life name and email address and we can add you to the group!

:-)

Thanks Kitten [beams with pride] 😃 - not sure how I posted the same pic twice, was supposed to be another one. I'll have another play later.

Someone asked about what to take to hospital for feeding- I planned to breast feed but have had problems and can confirm they my hospital have provided ready made bottles of Cow and Gate (they offered us two brands but cant remember what the other was).

Unfortunately we are still in hospital. Megan's jaundice greatly improved but she has lost too much of her birth weight and need to get this back on track. (One of my problems with BF).

Frog, I spent ages reading them all too. I went with cow and gate as it seemed to contain everything that Aptimil did but was slightly cheaper. Aptimil has been the milk of choice amongst my siblings, friends and previous employers (I'm a nanny) but I decided the only difference was clever advertising. Oh and they're made by the same company. Not sure how helpful that is.

Derpress - DD and I both looked at your photo and both agree they are super-cute :)

I have a feeling I read cow and gate and aptamil are made by the same company and identical, apart from price!

Charl, sounds like its the right thing to do and you'll be in the right place. Not long until you have your baby in your arms - so exciting!!! The more they remind me about monitoring kicks and the increase in still birth, the more I want this baby out. He's big, strong and healthy right now so I just want to get on with it. Makes me laugh to think when I joined mumsnet I wanted a natural, drug free, home waterbirth

Derpess's photo is gorgeous!!!!!! :) :) :)

Derpess, what a gorgeous picture! Which is which? Did one weigh more than the other by a noticeable amount?

Don't worry about the bf just yet, nobody has much milk for at least four or five days, try again whenever you can if you still want to do it.

Mini-rake is having a good old kicking rest this evening. I may do some furious wiggling on the exercise ball this evening, to celebrate being 39 weeks tomorrow...

ready very well said I completely agree!! These are trained, medical professionals we're talking about here. It's surprised me how many NCT goers have reported back similar things.

My hospital said they provide everything for formula feeding.

Although I agree that we have to trust HCPs to a certain extent I do think that there are plenty of times when getting consent is not as explicit / well explained as it could be.

When I was examined today the MW was amazing, asked permission for everything, even have me a hug and reassured me when I burst into tears. I want her to deliver my baby! However when she wanted to do an external exam she said "is it ok if I do a speculum?" I was willing and able to ask exactly what that meant (using a speculum to have a look up there, nothing more...) but it would have been easy for me just to agree without knowing what I was agreeing to! Same with the sweep she offered. I know what that means but how many people would feel confident to ask?
Anyway, I'm rambling as exhausted. Just about got my brain back to Friday mornings state before I started to think I was actually having a baby, like, ever... :(

I didn't do nct my classes were some nhs and then one with a midwifery lecturer and even they said "make sure you know what's going on and get your birth partner to question anything you're not sure about and the implications of any intervention you're offered" They acknowledged that mws get busy and sometimes forget to explain all options or seem to want to "hurry" things along.

I've had a really good NCT teacher who went through the end-to-end process of an induction with every next step that would be taken if it hadn't kicked off full labour so far, plus she spent ages on c-sections and things to take to hospital etc. she's very careful to be totally factual about it, quoting % ppl that 'drop off' (ie need no further intervention) at each point + showed us a video of a water birth without pushing us to be anti-intervention at all.

In class 1 she said she'd had both hospital & home births so I though she'd be exactly like your thoughts Geese & Ready but not at all... I really think its just luck on the type of teacher you get - which i know makes it an expensive risk, but I'm glad we did it. Last class this week :)

Oh, I forgot, she did say that they really don't have to do all the internals they ask for, but my independent MW has said that too - she said in her opinion it's the lazy option if they've been with you for a while or a quick way to assess you if they've been out of the room and therefore less able to observe changes in your behaviours/position etc

So I guess that's a bit anti NHS, but it suits me to have fewer ppl peering up there ;)

I'm not doing nct classes. My MWs doing it for us this Friday.

Good to know that hospital should provide formula, although hopefully won't need it.

Derpess, they are gorgeous

I would just check if your hospital will provide formula - on the hospital tour they said even if you are planning on bf to bring in a small cartoon of formula just in case as they can't provide it - I suspect they would in an emergency but they even mentioned about sending the OH to the sainsburys down the road if it were needed! They do provide a sterliser for bottles etc though.

I went to NCT and am the last to give birth in the group - those who had given birth by last week (when we met up) said the advice they had been given at nct was invaluable when it came to giving birth. I think it is luck of the draw whether you go to NCT or the hospital antenatal classes.

Jenni's right - generally HCPs are the wisest and best people to listen to, but you can question each step if it feels like things are out of your control at all.
When my waters were broken with DD, they wanted to put me on the synto drip straight away. It was my sister who insisted that they wait half an hour to see if breaking waters would generate any contractions rather than proceed straight to the next induction/intervention step... little things like that are what I think the NCT trainers are teaching you to question.

Der they are absolutely beautiful. Really really totally gorgeous.

DH has taken his first sick day off work today since I think I've met him, which goes to show quite how ill he is... Fully blown fever etc. I have my fingers and toes crossed I don't catch it from him. Poor soul.

derpress you don't need us to tell you how gorgeous that picture is! ♡
Amazingly cute!

The Feeding Midwife told us that all the formulas are exactly the same as they have to meet European Union standards so just go on price. She said ditto about bottles and the ones that claim to be more like a nipple are nonsense. Again go on price but ideally she recommended a doidy cup (www.nctshop.co.uk/prodinfo.asp?number=2003&gclid=CMbwtvWzirkCFXHMtAodL2UA7g)
for expressed/formula milk even from the very beginning.

Oh and Derpress they are some seriously cute babies! Utterly gorgeous. Well done you!

Ha ha seem to have started a debate here! To clarify, I'm not anti NCT...we've enjoyed the classes & met some lovely friends. I just got a bit narked by the constant implication that the docs/mw's are not going to act in ur best interests & would have preferred if they just stuck to facts/statistics & let us make up our own minds.

But then our tutor has suggested things like checking whether a mw has had the UNICEF bf training before letting them advise you on bf'ing....which frankly I thought was ridiculous!

Derpess that pic of ur twins is adorable!

The Feeding Midwife said the UNICEF training was really important and excellent. We don't have NCT here so all this is coming from NHS.

I don't quite know when you would find out if the midwife in the labour ward is UNICEF trained though. Or indeed what you would do about it mid-labour. I imagine between contractions you would have to order her out of the room and demand a replacement. Probably they'd be totally fine about that.

I had my first NCT class today. Although I'm the latest on this thread, I'm the earliest in my class... I felt so knowledgable! So thanks!

My DP is a doctor so I had to give him a proper talking to before we went. I didn't want him playing his medic card and getting us ostracised by the group! In fact, he behaved very well and only rolled his eyes a few times, so it's a win I think.

And derpress, that's an adorable photo. Made me go all fuzzy and gooey and stuff.

derpess I want twins too they are sooooooo gorgeous!!! Congratulations, I can see why you are so proud. Fingers crossed jaundice and weight gain are fixed quickly and you can all go home xx

The truth is though, lots of MWs are not that clued up on BF. Hard to believe, but unfortunately true.

If you run into problems you may need to access someone with specialist training.

You only have to look at the breast and bottle feeding board on here to see some if the random 'advice' given by some MW, HV and GPs. Not all HCP are created equal when it comes to BF advice