Found this while wasting time on youtube, it resonates a lot with my believes on birth and parenting, hope the pregnant women out there appreciate it. Just makes me want to be pregnant all over again…
Margaux was born at HuaShan Hospital on December 30th 2006.
This Breaking News is the very end of her birth story that started 9 month prior to it in Shanghai, China!
When I checked with friends which hospitals had good reputations, the answer came clear and sharp…
1st position: United Family, followed closely by World Link, and finally came Huashan Hospital in Urumuqi Lu.
So, naturally, I went for UF. There I was showed a “Labour Suite” with Jacuzzi and Flat screen! Tempting I must say! Then came the price for that luxury : roughly 80’000 RMB for the package. Still, my husband and I where ready to pay the full price for my first delivery… if that option remained the best.
Then, I went to WL. As, I asked my way to the Labour Suite (I expected nothing less from Shanghai top 2 maternity), I discovered an old and tiny clinic on the second floor of an obscure Chinese hospital…. Moreover, as it is situated behind Xintiandi, I was stuck in the traffic jam and it took me an hour to get there by cab… I live in the French concession….
I immediately started having nightmares about being stuck in the same traffic jam having contractions….
As for the price : roughly same thing as the first one, but no package, so all the eventual supplements on the patient’s bill. To commercial for me! Definitely not an option!
Then HuaShan. Two of my friends had delivered their babies there and told me the best about the hospital. They recommended Dr Kristine Xu. I met her and the contact with her was decisive.
She is young and charming, professional and experienced. She speaks a perfect English, she is always available. I don’t know how she does that…
The Huashan has a package prenatal + delivery for about 40’000 RMB, all included. Just what my French insurance covers for a delivery!
The follow up of the pregnancy is not in the hospital, but in an outpatient centre, 5 minutes walking distance from the hospital. It is a brand new place, super clean, nice contemporary design, waiting lounge with plenty of foreign magazines about pregnancy, Internet corner with 5 computers. Large and bright offices for the doctors and 3 rooms with high tech ultrasounds and 3D machines. They are generous about ultrasound and I can’t count how many I had + 3D…
One time, at about 6 months of pregnancy, I got worried because I felt like I couldn’t feel the baby move. I called the outpatient centre. They scheduled me with Kristine immediately, and they monitored me for 45 minute, to show me that everything was 100% normal with the baby… and they even re-scheduled us 3 days later with another specialised doctor for a double check… free of charge.
They provide a few prenatal classes, but I heard they are a waste of time, so I recommend indeed Mairy Higgins’s classes at UF. Really helpful, as well as her postnatal visit at home.
Then comes D-day!
Margaux was due 1 week later, but I started having contractions at 5:00 pm on December 29th. At 1am on December 30th, my contractions were regular: every 5mn. At 2:00, we decided to go to the hospital.
Kristine had required a few weeks prior to the due date that I prepare a birthplan.
I had mentioned that I did not want a C section unless the baby was in serious danger, that I was not sure if I wanted or not an epidural, and no episiotomy.
On my arrival, I re-briefed the nurses and the doctor for the 10th time about my wishes and they were very patient and comprehensive. They also let me light my candles, play my music eat my cereal bars, walk all around the place, etc, etc. Now my husband and I laugh about it! They were really patient!!!
At 8:00, I was only dilated to 3cm. At that time, I felt totally depressed, because my contractions were so painfully that I had hoped I was already at 7 or 8…
My husband was great! Not for the breathing because we hadn’t practice anything at home, (I recommend to practice a little, don’t do like me!) but he was a big moral support though!
We had to wait until 11h00 when they told me that I wasn’t dilated enough for an epidural, so I would take a risk of stopping the dilatation … Actually I didn’t care at all, and the perspective of a C section wasn’t a problem to me any more, as long as I could have them stop the pain.
The epidural was the best thing ever, only it lasted just 2 hours… I don’t know why… I think I moved during my sleep, and the anaesthetist hadn’t put enough tape on my back, so that I did not get any aesthetic after a while. I begged them for another one, though my anaesthetist wasn’t sure he wanted to do it all over again.
I have to say that I had my own anaesthetist staying with me all the time, as well as a lovely and dedicated nurse called Linda, to whom I apologize because I smashed her tiny hand during the breathing exercises she helped me doing for hours with an infinite patience.
Then I slept for another hour.
I woke up and the pain was back, but the dilatation was up to 8! Then came the good part of it! Suddenly, I really felt “the urge to push”. The nurse told me to start pushing and rushed to get Kristine. She was with me in no time, and in half an hour of breathing and pushing, at 4:00 sharp, Margaux, Apolline was there : 3,5 kilos, 49 cm
Beautiful baby! The paediatrician took her for 3 minutes : quick cleaning of the lungs and check up while I could see my baby all the time because everybody remained within the delivery room.
Then she handed me my daughter.
And my husband joined us for the first of a long serie of hugs and kisses.
I had possibly the best pregnancy I could have ever hoped for. I never felt sick and didn’t have any of the usual side effect apart from a bit of nausea here and there at the beginning and a bit of heart burn around the 5th month. My belly was really big and I really loved showing it off with tight fitting clothes and massaging it with oil every day.
I’m a yoga teacher and I kept my practice up throughout the whole 9 months, just toning it down to work around the bump and making sure I wasn’t getting too tired. I was even doing backbends and inversions until the 8th month. I walked as much as I could to make sure the I got enough cardio and sat squatting or tailor sitting as much as I could to open up my hips in preparation for birth.
I was really looking forward to the birth since I first got pregnant and had discussed with my doctor having as natural delivery as possible with no drugs or intervention. Unfortunately things didn’t quite work out…
My hospital of choice was International Peace Maternity in Xujiahui. I say choice but I didn’t really have much choice as I’m not covered by health insurance and that was the only cheapish good option. I was pretty happy with the care there, I speak Chinese and my doctor was very nice and competent.
I started having stronger contractions on the Sunday afternoon and started getting really excited as I was already one week overdue. I was so excited that I didn’t even take my afternoon naps but went instead for two walks around our neighbourhood with my husband Phil. That night at around 12 I woke up with strong contractions and woke up Phil to let him know that the games had started. We set up the sitting room with a sheet and shower curtain on the floor in case things got messy and then I just starting sitting around coping with contractions. Things were fine apart from this really sharp pain in my lower back, I think caused by the baby’s head pressing down and the pelvis slowly opening.
The next 30 hours 
were spent between sitting on my yoga ball, on my knees, eating ice lollies : ) and getting endless massage from Phil or spending time attached to the Tens machine which I borrowed from Mhairi, (the midwife with whom we did our preparation for birth course and who helped us loads after the birth).
I had a couple of teary breakdowns as I was getting incredibly tired. The pain in my lower back wouldn’t allow me to lie back or on my side during contractions and that meant I didn’t get any sleep apart from the few times I dozed off sitting on the ball or in other strange positions.
I was determined to have a natural drug free birth and both Phil and I were hoping that the baby would come easily while we were still at home as neither of us really liked the idea of giving birth in a hospital. However, when the 30th hour struck I was crying and exhausted. I woke Phil up while he was having a well-deserved nap, we grabbed our things and headed over to the hospital.
We got there about 12 30 and were greeted by a very nice midwife. When she first checked my cervix I was 4-5 cm dilated (only ; ((( )!!! Then another midwife, Liyuan, came in and stayed with me until about 8 in the morning. She is so so sweet and she is the only positive thing I remember from my hospital experience. She massaged my back and was extremely supportive and encouraging. The doctor on duty that night had no social skills and didn’t even really talk to me. Thankfully she just checked that we were okay and left us to it.
I was finding it quite hard to cope so I started thinking about pain killers. I asked for gas, but by the time it arrived I’d decided against it and thought I would struggle through. By six in the morning my still waters hadn’t broken so the doctor decided to help them along, saying that she was going to check my cervix and that she might break my waters in the process… of course she went straight for it and the waters broke, bringing no relief at all…
At seven thirty my doctor came in and after talking with the night shift doctor decided that my progress was pretty slow, she checked again !!! and said that I was at 8 cm. By the time I was fully dilated the head was apparently too high up, who knows.. and really they said it would be hard to get this baby out even with forceps. The sound of that was really off putting and from then on I was told I had 2 hours to get the baby out and if he wasn’t born in that time we would have to perform a c section… Labour has its own time that’s what one of my pregnancy books said, clearly they hadn’t read it and I wasn’t performing well enough. ON top of being tired and in pain I was also in a rush and couldn’t keep my eyes of f the clock. At this point an epidural sounded like a good idea but no too late for that apparently, all I was left with was gas which made me really high and got a few laughs out of Phil. Our lovely midwife had left leaving a much less compassionate colleague.
By the time the doctor came back she said that we had 5 mins to agree to a c section and if we didn’t we only had another half hour left. We didn’t know what to do and decided to go with the op as we were both too exhausted to try any longer.
The c section was not pleasant, I really don’t understand how anyone could choose to have such a horrible op out of will. I felt like a piece of meat and when Theo was born it almost seemed like he didn’t come from my body. Both Phil and I cried as we looked in amazement at this chubby baby, 4.9 kg, wow they were all amazed! Of course we knew he wasn’t going to be small… the doctor wouldn’t shut up about it throughout the whole operation saying that it would have simply been impossible for him to come naturally, he was huge, simply too big. Who knows…
After Theo gave a few little cries the nurses decided he wasn’t breathing well and was taken for a check up while I was being sewed back together.
The quick check up turned into 4 hours, apparently a hospital routine…. Then it turned into 24 hours. Neither of us had held our baby boy and we were extremely angry with the hospital. They told us he was in no life threatening danger and, according to the big poster listing the WHO standards the hospital is proud of apparently updholding, mother and child should for no reason be separated within the first 24 hours from birth unless the baby’s life is in immediate risk.
So my first 24 hours as a mother were spent in bed, without being able to move, without my baby and feeling very upset that the birth I’d looked forward to for so long had become my nightmare, all my biggest fears had come true.
The next day meeting Theo was the most exciting meeting ever, so cute and chubby and lovely, what a blessing! It has taken me a while to let go of the anger I felt about somehow failing to deliver my baby naturally but Theo is here with me. Looking after him is hard work but also the greatest joy. Today he smiled at me and that beats everything, thank you Theo!
For me labour was most certainly a big lesson in surrender, acceptance and finally devotion to this shining new soul… life with never be the same and that’s a very very good thing ; )
x
Just a quick minute between nappy changes and breastfeeding marathons to write a short post to announce the birth of my son Theodore who was born on April 17th at International Peace Maternity Hospital.
He’s a lovely big boy, with a birth weight of 4.9 Kg!!
I’m working on my birth story and will have it up as soon as I can. If anyone else wishes to share their personal Shanghai birth story please get in touch with me!
Back to my mama duties…..
x
“The perineum and pelvis [….] form the lowermost portion of the abdomino-pelvic unit, support the weight of the abdominal and pelvic organs, and bear the full share of intra-abdominal pressure”
This group of muscles forms a diamond shape that joins the pubic bone to the sit bones and the tailbone.
Keeping these muscles in good tone is necessary as they bear the weight of the upper body, weakness in this area can affect posture and lead to back pain and misalignment.
During pregnancy this area of the body has to bear an even greater amount of weight, it is thus important to keep them “fit”. As the baby’s head and body emerge during delivery these muscles are also under a huge amount of pressure as they have to stretch to their maximum.
Toned healthy muscles not only are stronger but they also are able to stretch and return to their original shape.
So… in order to help avoid tearing during birth and to encourage the muscles to go back to their original shape after labour it is a good idea to do some preparation work.
Not only will your posture benefit from it, but your sex life will not suffer and the embarrassing problem of stress incontinence will be avoided.
I’m currently 35 weeks pregnant and I’m using a 3-way approach to prepare the pelvic floor for the big day, some more regularly than others, I guess I will probably start trying to use all 3 daily from next week.
STEP 1 – PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES
These exercises are designed to improve tone and blood circulation to the pelvic floor, they also teach how to control the muscles knowing how to completely let go of the tension as you allow the baby’s descent during labour.
You can practice the following in a squatting position (if this is comfortable), or kneeling with you knees apart and head on your hands or any other relaxing upright position.
1. CONTRACTING AND RELEASING
Close your eyes and focus your awareness on your pelvic floor.
See if you can tighten your pelvic floor muscles by drawing them up towards your uterus. Just your pelvic floor muscles should be moving, not your buttocks or abdominal muscles.
Now breathe out and let them go and feel them release slowly.
Repeat several times- inhaling when you tighten and exhaling when you let go.
Now go one step further. Tighten the pelvic floor muscles when you breathe in, hold them tight while you exhale and inhale again, then let them go slowly on an exhalation.
2. UP IN STAGES
Using your imagination, contract your pelvic floor muscles in stages, like a lift going up four floors and pausing in between each floor.
This exercise takes a lot of concentration and it’s great to achieve greater control of the pelvic floor muscles. Each time you contract or release down you are doing so by going only ¼ of your maximum contraction or relaxation.
Take a couple of deep breath. With your next inhalation contract ¼ up, exhale and hold the contraction, inhale going up to 2/4, exhale hold, inhale 3/4, exhale hold, inhale all the rest of the way up, exhale hold, inhale hold. Now start the journey down on, as you exhale releasing ¼, inhale hold, exhale to 2/4, inhale hold, exhale ¾, inhale hold, exhale all the way down, take a couple of breaths making sure you are muscles are soft again.
The downward part of this exercise mimics the way your pelvic floor will release as your baby is being born. You can practice this downward part separately to get used to the idea of the baby’s head emerging. To make this most effective you can visualize the baby’s head being born with each exhalation until the baby’s body is fully emerged and lying on the ground facing you. This is a positive image that can help during labour.
3. BUTTERFLY LIFTS
As you sit relaxed and breathe normally, contract and release the muscles in quick succession. Repeat from 10 to 100 times and then relax. These can be done any time, anywhere during the day, while waiting for the bus, while brushing your teeth…
STEP 2- PERINEUM MASSAGE
To prepare the perineum and make it more elastic it is recommended by midwives that perineum massage should be practice during the last few weeks of pregnancy, starting with the 34th week. It is also useful to get used to the idea of the baby emerging for the baby canal and can help relax during labour. Some birth attendants and doctors don’t recognize the benefit of this preparation so it is also worth talking about it with your practitioner to find out what they think. Anyhow this is not a dangerous practice so it might be worth doing it just in case it helps on the day.
Very good instructions on how to perform this are found here
STEP 3- EPI-NO
A couple of months ago I was introduced to this rather odd sounding device by a friend. The EPI-NO is a pelvic floor muscle exerciser and can also be used for birth preparation. The website does a good job of explaining how it works. There have been studies which show that the use of the EPI-NO to prepare for birth not only has a good impact on the outcome of the perineum after birth, fewer cases of tearing and episiotomy, but also see the training as extremely useful for building confidence in women which become accustomed to the feelings of labour beforehand and will be able to enter the birthing room with more confidence.
I purchased one online and I’m waiting to start the training at week 37. I’ll keep you posted to let you know if it helped.
The vast majority of babies will settle into a head-down position between the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy. When this does not occur the doctor will define the baby as having a ‘breech presentation.’
Nowadays it is rare for a doctor to agree to a vaginal delivery of a breech baby, especially if there are any other factors that put the pregnancy in the high-risk bracket. Make sure to discuss this with your doctor and be clear of what their thoughts and policies are on breech delivery. In Shanghai it seems that most breech presentations are delivered by C-Section, however I have heard that Dr. Mahady at Shanghai East Medical Center will deliver a breech baby vaginally; worth checking out.
Mothers who’s babies haven’t quite yet turned to the head-down position should not be alarmed, as it is possible for the baby to turn round even after the 36th week, even hours before labour sets in, and there are a few tricks and exercises which can be practiced daily to encourage the baby to turn.
Homoeopathy and Acupuncture are effective methods which can be tried, otherwise gentle inversions practiced daily several times a day will encourage the turning of the baby or will at least prevent the buttocks from engaging in the pelvic brim.
1. Raising the buttocks- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your buttocks raised on a stack of 2 or 3 cushions or pillows, rest here for at least 10 minutes. Repeat a few times per day.
2. Knee-chest position- Come to the ground on all fours. Lower the chest to the ground by bending your elbows and resting your head on the forearms. Keep the buttocks high. Practice this regularly throughout the day.
3. Walk for at least an hour each day as the natural pull of gravity will help the head (heaviest part of the baby) to descend.
Once the baby has turned practice squatting to allow the head to engage.
If the head is not down after 35 weeks don’t practice squatting as the baby’s buttocks might engage in the pelvic brim making it harder for he or she to turn head-down.
There are a couple of great website that offer tips on how to turn the baby, these sites are written by midwives and make a really interesting read:
www.spinningbabies.com – for tips of baby positioning in general, it also has pdf you can download for baby mapping, i.e. teaching you how to figure out what position your baby is in.
www.breechbabies.com – Lots of info on how to turn the baby right here
www.gentlebirth.org- Midwives giving their opinions on differnt topics, one of which is breech presentation, click here for that particular page
Most hospitals in town hold regular preparation for birth classes, here is a list with the most popular ones. You don’t need to be delivering at the hospital where the course is held in order to attend the course.
INTERNATIONAL PEACE MATERNITY
March 6th-April 10th
Mhairi Higging
1800 rmb
SHANGHAI UNITED
February 28th-April 4th
MK Chin
2500 rmb
Choosing a hospital is possibly the first thing most women do as soon as the home pregnancy test shows a positive result. If you have lived in Shanghai for a few years you now probably have a good idea of which hospital is the one for you, if you are new it might be a good idea to make appointments for tours in all the hospitals before you make your decision.
Remember that the most important thing is for you to feel comfortable and safe in your hospital of choice.
American-Sino OB/GYN Service Shanghai
Out patient Clinic: 3/F, n.6 Clove Apartment Building, 800 Huashan Rd., By Zhenning Rd. (6210 2299 daily 8:30am-8:30pm
Inpatiient: 14/F, Complex ~Building Huashan Hospital , 12 Wulumuqi Zhong Rd., by Changle Rd. (6249 3246 or 6248 7517 24 hours x 7days)
Peace Maternity Hospital
VIP Maternity and GYN clinic V1-V3
910 Hengshan Rd., near Huashan Rd. 6447 0399
Tours and information 6407 4887
Parkway Health, (formerly World link)
Birthing Centre: 170 Danshui Road, near Xingye Rd. (Xintiandi area) 6445 5999
Shanghai United Family Hospital and Clinics
Independently owned and operated full-service international standard hospital, Emergency Room always staffed by expat physicians. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Mon-Sat 8:30am-5:30pm; SHUPtservice @ufh.com.cn
1139 Xianxia Road (5133 1900).
Good midwife MK Chin works in the birthing centre. She was trained in the US and comes highly recommended.
SHANGHAI EAST INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
This is a new addition to the international hospitals offering maternity packages.They have a very experienced Gynecologist and Obstetrician, Dr. Ian W Mahady, who recently joined their team.
551 South Pudong Road
Shanghai 200120 China
(86 21) 5879-9999