PEW: Pregnant Expat Women

Remebering this moment

2009-04-23T03:43:00.000-07:00

Being pregnant is a special time in your life. Melissa van Herksen tells us how we can save our memories from slipping away (sleep deprivation will do it!)

Some of her suggestions:

1. Have a photo session with a professional photographer. Contacts in town include:

Picture Perfect Concepts – www.pictureperfect.blogspot.com
Magma – www.magmaphotography.com (if you call her tell her Melissa sent you)
VK Photography – Vanessa Kruger, PEW member

2. Put your pictures on the web to share with family members that are far away.

www.flickr.com (FREE, but has some limitations with storage)
www.shutterfly.com (no limits on storage and it is FREE)
there are many more out there... Snapfish, Photolog, etc..

3. Create an album of your digital pictures. Make it a goal to create an album for each year of your baby.

4. Make a blog where you can journal about your experiences as a mom and post pictures. Share it with the world!

Melissa's photo blog: www.vanherksen.shutterfly.com
Melissa's blog: www.vanherksen.com
Susana's blog: susufairlie.blogspot.com
www.blogger.com – program that lets you create your own free blog
www.shutterfly.com – lets you host a photo blog that has many functions you can add to the blog

Resources and other ideas:

www.photoscape.org – really cool program that lets you do all sorts of things, but my favorite is the collages you can make. It is the “page” option in the program.
Martha Stewart’s website has tons of fun ideas for babies...check it out (just click away in her baby sections...but the site is kind of slow....but worth it)
http://www.marthastewart.com/baby?lnc=cff854e7177ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=leftnav_kids_baby
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/baby-photo-good-things?lnc=68ba08b2887ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=taxonomylist_kids_good-things-kids

Last, but not least, this is a video of the presentation Melissa prepared. Thank you so much Melissa!

Accommodation in Nelspruit

2009-03-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

written by Caoimhe

We stayed in a self-catering, fully equipped 2 bedroom cottage on the farm where Belinda Loudon runs the Bella Rose Birthing Centre. The farm has a few self-catering units and is a beautiful place. It is a lovely environment to be in when waiting to give birth and recovering after, even if you don’t use the birthing facility, as it is peaceful and quiet and Belinda is a great source of advice and information. It is a wonderful place to go if you have other children, as the Loudon family have four young children and welcome other children into their fantastic garden, pool and play area.

The cost per night is 700 Rand for two adults (350 per adult) – children and nanny stay free. However, Belinda is flexible and provides discounts depending on the length of the stay. You are welcome to use the hot tub in the birthing room, which is very nice. Belinda also does yoga and massage with Mums-to-be, if time allows.

Contacts:

Belinda Loudon

tel +27 (0)83 445-0376

fax +27 (0)86 684-9359

email enquiries@bellarosebirthing.co.za

Caesarean Section in Nelspruit (Mediclinic)

2009-03-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

written by Caoihme

Costs

The hospital requires a deposit of 18,000 Rand, which covers the cost of your accommodation in the hospital and the theatre costs, except for the surgeon’s, anaesthetist’s and paediatrician’s fees. The fees each of these charged included a follow-up visit. E.g. the doctor / surgeon’s fee included the 6-week check up for me. The paediatrician charge included the 6 week check-up for the baby. Also, each of the three doctors came to see us in the hospital room after the operation, to check all was well.

We had to pay the deposit on the morning that I was being admitted to hospital. They accept credit cards. If your costs don’t run to the full 18,000 Rand, they will give you back the balance in a cheque that you have to cash at a particular bank in town. You might consider getting them to make the cheque out to your partner, as it is going to be easier for them to get to the bank, usually. Check in advance if they will do this for you.

We also had to pay the doctor/surgeon in advance. We paid the paediatrician and anaesthetist after the operation. The paediatrician (Dr Botha) is based in the Mediclinic. I think the hospital reception took the fee for the anaesthetist for us.

The accommodation in the maternity ward is in 1 or 2-bed rooms, with a bathroom en-suite, albeit shared between 2 rooms. I don’t think there’s any difference in price between the 1 and 2-bed rooms. You are allocated a room on your own or sharing based on how busy the ward is. They will give you a room on your own if possible. Its very comfortable, in general. My only negative experience was that they kept trying to give me pethidine injections for the pain, which made me nauseous, dizzy and weak and therefore made it hard to breastfeed. They also give another painkiller in suppository form, which was totally adequate for me. I refused the pethidine as soon as I realised its effects on me.

This is what we paid in Rand for an elective C-section and two nights accommodation. We had no costs that were unforeseen, e.g. we didn’t have any ICU costs etc.

Expense item Rand

Theatre and 2 nights accommodation: 16,000

Doctor / surgeon: 5,100

Paediatrician: 1000

Anaesthetist: 2600

Total 24,700

Our doctors were:

Dr. Barry – GP / surgeon - Tel. 0027 13 745 7672

Dr. Botha – paediatrician - Tel. 0027 13 745 7179

Dr. Malan – anaesthetist

They all took excellent care of us.

Militza's chocolate cake

2009-02-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Our last meeting we met at Militza's house and she shared with us a delicious chocolate cake. This is her recipe. Thank you Militza!

Ingredients:

450ml flour

350ml castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

150ml cocoa powder

400ml milk

350ml oil

3 extra large eggs seperated

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

Set oven to 180 and grease cake tin

Sift all dry ingredients into bowl. Beat egg whites till stiff. Mix egg yolks, oil and vanilla in a bowl.

Add yolks and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together well. Add the milk and fold in the egg whites.

Bake for 50 min

Icing:

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

150g margarine

1/4 cup hot water

mix together and ice cake.

Karolina's apple cake

2009-01-24T03:16:00.000-08:00

On our last meeting held at Karolina's, she welcomed us with a delicious apple pie. We all loved it so much that she agreed to share the recipe. Thanks Karolina for the recipe and thanks Hannah for typing it and sending it.

Karolina's Apple Cake:

For a form of 25 cm/6 people:

-1 egg

- 1,5 dl (150 g) flour

- 1,5 dl (150g) sugar

- 2 apples

- 1 table spoon cinnamon

- 2 table spoons sugar

- 50g nuts

Melt the butter, mix in flour, sugar and egg. Stir for a few minutes until smooth. Pour the dough into a form (25cm).

Peal the apples and cut into small slices. Cover the dough with the apples. Pour cinnamon, sugar and nuts over it. Put in the oven at 175°C for 20-25 mins.

9 questions to ask your doctor

2008-12-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

Taken from http://www.motherfriendly.org/pdf/Having_a_Baby-English.pdf

1. Who can be with me during labor and birth?

2. What happens during a normal labor and birth in your setting?
How often do they speed up labor with drugs? (<10%)
What is their C-section rate? (<10%)
How often do they perform an episiotomy? (<20%)

3. How do you allow for differences in culture and beliefs?

4. Can I walk and move around during labor? What position do you suggest for birth?

5. What things do you normally do to a woman in labor?
Break the waters?
IV for fluids?
Eating / drinking?
Shaving?
Enema?

6. How do you help mothers stay as comfortable as they can be? Besides drugs, how do you help mothers relieve the pain of labor?

7. What if my baby is born early or has special problems?

8. Do you circumsice babies?

9. How do you help mothers who want to breastfeed?

Contact Info Form

2008-12-05T01:43:00.001-08:00

Fill this form out if you are interested in letting other PEW members contact you:

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First meeting, a success!

2008-11-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's meeting was great! We had 3 ladies show up that were 19, 24 and 30 weeks pregnant. Discussion topics included getting to know each other and birth plans. Thank you for coming on such a short notice. Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 1 Nov @ 4:30pm. Hope to see you!

PEW Inauguration!

2008-11-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

Our first meeting will take place Monday 17 November 2008 in Susana's house at 4pm. Hope to see you there!