Kiwi Ali

I'd love to have said this the other day ... "your wife came to see me to discuss her cholesterol results and CVD risk, I dont give a damn about yours and what statin you're on, SHUT THE F*CK UP so your wife can a word in edgewise and tell me HER story"

I like 12 hour nights because people are awake when you come on shift! I work part time in a samll rural hospital birthing unit. Yes and agree with the water, keep hydrated :-)

I live 2 hours north of Whangarei, which makes it my closest city. Personally I hate big cities and Whangarei is 'just right' in terms of size. I have worked and trained at Whg hospital, its the main hospital for northland, and is a great place to work. The delivery unit is always crying out for staff :) There is an attached postnatal/antenatal ward and a SCBU. Any complicated births get booked or transferred to Whg from the outer lying smaller, rural hospitals (like the one I work at).

In NZ, its definately out of the norm to be circumsized nowadays. Can't say when I last heard of a male infant having it done. I dont even know who does it here.

My birth mum comes over every year, and she usually brings cash and changes it here, I think she finds the exchange rate is lightly better, she usually looks at the exchange rate on the ANZ bank's website before coming. (anz.co.nz)

I work in a small rural hospital, primary care birhting unit only and a BFHI accredited ward. So there is NO nursery and pretty much all babies have skin-to-skin and are fed within the first 30mins-1hr. The first bath appears to be at the LMC discretion. One group do the bath after the skin-to-skin and neonatal check and another group dont bath at all until the next day. All babies room in 24/7 (with the occaisonal break out cuddling with staff if a baby is fussing and mum is absolutely knackered!). We also have a high breastfeeding rate with only a few choosing formula from the word go. Our birth rate is only 184 in the last year out of nearly 300 admissions, with 46 transferred to secondary care and the rest transferred back for PN care.

Cool Might catch up with you at an inservice sometime all going well. Ali

Hi Sharron, I believe SCBU is staffed seperately, and mostly by RN's. I also know that at present Whangarei are desperate for midwives! Here is the email for Lynn Wardlaw who comes to Kaitaia for maternity meetings and may be the one to talk to about vacancies .. [email protected] otherwise try this page http://www.northlanddhb.org.nz/careers/ I'm not sure about nurseries (we call them daycare) in Whangarei, but I am sure there will some good ones, you may be able to ask Lynn for help with that. I hope that helps some :-) Ali

My now 19 yr old was born by caesar for foetal distress and they cut her ear, she had three stitches, can hardly see the scar today.

Alot of women use water for pain relief, either a spa bath, shower or the birthing pool. LMC is Lead Maternity Carer, the midwife who sees them thru pregnancy, labour, birth and to six weeks post partum.

I think all my three had formula in hospital, that was in the days when hospitals just did it. Now their has to be a medical reason to supplement and consent must be signed by the parents. However, when we got home, not one of my three would take a bottle in any way shape or form, no matter what it had in it. They all weaned straight from breast to sipper cup. Our policy here is breast within an hour of birth and I've seen some midwives hurry it up if theres a bit of active bleeding happening too. (ecbolics aren't routinely given here, they are discussed and consented for and usually only given if too much blood for the midwives comfort zone, or a long drawn out labour/2nd stage)

Hi, I'm from NZ, can you tell me what WIC is?? Thx

oh yeah and no formula is ever given without informed signed consent for 'medical' reasons. If mum wants to AF then she brings her own formula and bottles.

We do things a bit differently here - we've been accredited with the BFHI (Baby Friendly Hospital Inititative). Babes are skin-to-skinned at birth, fed within first hour (not many that dont) and then 'room in' 24/7. There is no nursery! Even in our bigger hospital, post caesar, they are put to breast in recovery room. (unless of course the babe or mum aren't up to it)

I should add, a midwife working shifts on Delivery Suite in our larger hospital (the one where our non-normal births go to) would also care for an referred inductions, and probably for the emergency caesars too. They can call in the obstetrician and peadiatrician as required also. We refer to them as a secondary facility. Their cut off date for deliveriers is 32 weeks, any younger go to a larger hospital again. The secondary facility has a SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) for prem or sick neonates. If we need to send a babe out at birth, we call for the helimed and usually a nurse from SCBU and a paed will fly north to us to retrieve the babe. Same goes for a woman who may get transferred via helimed, they either send a midwife with the flight team, or the LMC will accompany the woman. If going by road in the back of an ambulance, then the LMC goes too (2 to 2 1/2 hour trip).