Stuffy noses

Believe it or not, my 2.5-year-old son cannot blow his nose! Whenever he has a stuffy nose he inhales instead of blowing out, making things even worse. And often, when he is down with a cold,  I’m woken up at night by a very loud “I cannot breathe!”

It’s for this reason that I’m very grateful to the inventor of a very smart piece of equipment: the Narhinel nasal aspirator.  It’s a tube which has a mouthpiece at one end (for mummy) and a disposable mucus reservoir with an anatomic tip to put in the nose (with a filter that prevents mucus from going up the tube) at the other. My son does not love it, but it does the job brilliantly!

And we can all go back to sleep!

-Michela in Milan

Only in France

The French “joie de vivre” is well documented, and French women are also known for taking good care of their bodies.  But I have to say that when I first heard about state subsidized “re-education” of a certain part of the female anatomy after giving birth, I could not believe it.

But believe me girls, it’s true……

Here is an article in the New York Times I read describing the phenomenon of making mothers “as good as new.”

– Emilie in Paris

Haptonomy

As I am pregnant in France, I am learning very quickly about a new system.
There seems to be a lot more birth options in France than in the UK covered by social security. We have gone down the route of a private midwife. This was mostly because we wanted to get to know the person who was going to deliver the baby but still have the baby in the safe environment of a hospital, in case anything goes wrong.
The midwife is affiliated to a clinic and works together with a team of doctors. So if everything goes smoothly we will see no one else during the birth, but if anything goes wrong we are still in a hospital with all the staff necessary.

The midwife, with whom we decided to go with, specialises in something called Haptonomy, which is completely new to me.

Mommy makeover? Not my cup of tea.

During the summer, while I was halfway through pregnancy #2, I was already thinking about the months and months it would take me to regain my already less than perfect figure after the birth.

It’s then that I started joking with my husband that what I wanted this time as a gift, instead of a diamond ring (because this was going to be the request), was a mommy makeover!

More country differences: caring for the umbilical stump.

My #1 was born in London, and on discharge from the hospital I was told to bathe the baby regularly and that the stump would fall off pretty soon. That’s it, simple and practical. Then the midwife who came to our home a couple of times checked on it.

#2 was born last week in Milan, and stumps receive much more attention here in Italy. First of all, you should bathe your baby in very shallow water until the stump has fallen off so that it’s not submerged in water (I know other places even suggest sponge baths). On top of that, you should change the medication at least three times a day. It consists of a square sterile gauze, folded in two into a triangle and then rolled like a foulard which should be wrapped around the stump until it looks like a cute tiny white rosebud.

OK, not a big deal you think… but try to do this origami-style operation while the little offspring screams and kicks!

This morning I decided to revert  to the English way. After all, everything went smoothly the first time and #2 is a girl so there’s even less risk of contamination from forgetting to “put the trigger down”!

 -Michela in Milan

Different country, different medical treatments…

I spent the morning at the hospital where I’ll give birth in about 4 weeks. I went because I had to do the pre-partum plus pre-surgery routine. This involved many blood tests, swabs and an ecg!

When I tell them that I have previously given birth by caesarian without doing any of this stuff, they don’t believe me. After I add that I gave birth in England, they seem relieved, as if it assured them that the Italian system is somehow better.

The fact that I gave birth in one of the best private hospitals in the UK (the Portland Hospital) should remove any suspicion that the hospital was trying to save money.  (My insurance and I were paying everything they deemed necessary). So why such a big difference?

Another curious difference between UK practice and Italian (or French or Belgian … ) is the need for internal examination. Here, every medical appointment involves one, but in London, I gave birth without having any at all!

-Michela in Milan