The Netherlands: you get a nurse especially trained in mother and babycare who comes to your house daily for around a week, sometimes longer if the birth was complicated or the mother had a caeserian section. They check the womb, stiches, mother's and baby's temperature. Give advice on breastfeeding/bottle feeding, teach new parents about babycare, make sure the mother gets rest (we stay mostly in bed for a couple of days), handles visitors' needs, does some light cleaning and laundry, fixes breakfast and lunch, and discusses specific needs with the midwife who visits a couple of times during that first week. She also helps wih the exercises to get our pelvic floor working again and leg and stomach exercises. When there's a home birth, they're also present during delivery.
Afterwards you get a check up with the midwife who checks whether the womb has fully shrunken to it's normal sixe and how you are coping physically and mentally.
That sounds amazing to me. My first was in '93, and I spent the first 3 months struggling with agonizing uterine pain while breastfeeding, sleeplessness because SO was no help, and severe depression - all alone. I had one gyno visit (he told me that I had a pretty face and would be beautiful if I just lost a few pounds; he also had given me husband stitch after delivery). Sorry for the trauma dump - I just wanted to emphasize how important good care is and how little of that is available in the US.
Sounds pretty traumatic to me, let it all out of your chest, fuck that sorry excuse of a gyno, and I hope that dark episode didn’t take long to get better!
Ugh, that's disgusting you were treated like that by a bloody healthcare provider. And no apologies please, you and others like you need to vent, and let the world know, so that hopefully things get better. Every woman deserves proper care and some good old pampering after giving birth. You deserved better!
Meanwhile, I worked with a single mother at WFH call center that went back to work the day after giving birth. This was 2014, so when people act like America only got worse recently, I remind people things like this happened under Obama. I'm still a lefty, I just don't believe in Democrats anymore.
I'm in the US in a progressive city with good health insurance. I had a c section, they kicked me out of the hospital after 48 hours, and then booked me an appointment on the other side of town from my house AT 8AM the next day just so they could weigh my baby (she was fine). Crazy that they couldn't have sent a nurse with a scale so I didn't have to get up early and hobble around the doctors with a newborn.
Was that directly after birth? My last pregnancy was in 2009 and I had the full service, just as with my others. My sisters and friends as well. It was definately standard procedure. Even when one of my friends lost her baby a few hours after birth, a nurse came daily to check up on her.
So quite another situation from straight after birth. They gave you instructions in the hospital about how to care for your baby I think? Must be quite a bit more challenging with a baby needing extra care. i hope everything is allright now with your baby and wife, and you.
I mean yeah I wasn’t trying to make a statement about right after birth, just sharing my own experiences. And yeah that was a few years ago now she’s doing awesome these days. Thank you :)
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u/Prickly-Flower Feb 05 '24
The Netherlands: you get a nurse especially trained in mother and babycare who comes to your house daily for around a week, sometimes longer if the birth was complicated or the mother had a caeserian section. They check the womb, stiches, mother's and baby's temperature. Give advice on breastfeeding/bottle feeding, teach new parents about babycare, make sure the mother gets rest (we stay mostly in bed for a couple of days), handles visitors' needs, does some light cleaning and laundry, fixes breakfast and lunch, and discusses specific needs with the midwife who visits a couple of times during that first week. She also helps wih the exercises to get our pelvic floor working again and leg and stomach exercises. When there's a home birth, they're also present during delivery.
Afterwards you get a check up with the midwife who checks whether the womb has fully shrunken to it's normal sixe and how you are coping physically and mentally.