(2006/10) OCTOBER 2006 MTB

Mummies to be

the thread is going much too fast..I have good news..Not too sure can anyone remembered that I need to fork out $300.00 to turn the baby around as the baby is in a breech position.

I actually called up the clinic again and claimed that this shd be part of the package and in the end, my gynap decided to waive it.

I am having my 36 weeks check up next week and have been faithful in doing my excercises daily for 10mins, I hope the baby will turn around naturally on its own by next week.

Pls kep yr fingers crossed for my little one.

I didnt know rashberry tea will help in smooth tea, I think I will get one also fr TAKA.
 


wendy,
**sayang sayang** take gd care yah. dun think so much liao.

vivian,
waiting for your updates.

rzz,
congrats. hope to hear gd news from you. me also having my 36wks checkup on mon. cant wait man
happy.gif


storm,
can start drinking liao. i started drinking at 28wks. but heard some mummies say max 3 within 3rd tri. so i oredi reached my 3. i stopped liao.
 
wtan,
dun be sad. lah.relax and only think of your baby and that will put a smile on your face.

I have PM you the contact of SCBB, please check.
It is good to help our baby. anyway cord will be throw away.
if store for own use, most likely cannot use for our child if genetic problems and I rather spent the money on baby health insurance. my own view is that private are more like doing business than telling the truth to the mothers.
 
Wendy,
You'll never be able to make everybody happy one lah. Just do your best and dun let your mood be affected. Baby also wants a happy mummy!

Weikuan,
what is this organisation SCBB? Sometime ago, someone was saying have to pay the charity to come and collect cord blood and fill in a whole stack of forms??
 
Stem Cells in the Bank -- for What, It's Not Yet Known
he courier arrived just after midnight with a bag of blood collected from a fresh umbilical cord.

Inside the laboratory at Family Cord Blood Services in Santa Monica, a worker siphoned off red cells, leaving a dilute mixture of stem cells a personal supply for Olivia Michelle Boyd, born 15 hours earlier in Honolulu.

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Her parents, Stephanie and Anthony Boyd, had agreed to pay the company $1,265 to harvest the material and $115 a year to preserve it in a stainless steel tank filled with liquid nitrogen.

Olivia was perfectly healthy. The stem cells were, the sales pitches suggested, biological insurance against disease.

"I'm unsure about the future," Stephanie Boyd said. "I know doing this is the best step."

In the still-experimental field of stem cells, the banking of umbilical cord blood has emerged as its biggest industry, driven by marketing claims that the blood could one day have the potential to cure ailments such as Parkinson's disease, paralysis and diabetes.

But there is little evidence that the promise of cord blood will ever be realized. The blood does indeed contain stem cells, but they are far different from the much-touted embryonic stem cells, which come from newly formed embryos and have the ability to become any tissue type.

That crucial distinction has been largely ignored in the marketing by more than two dozen companies around the world, most of them founded within the last five years. They have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in harvesting and annual storage fees.

"I think the most exciting thing is that we don't know," said Dr. Charles Sims, a pathologist and co-founder of Family Cord Blood Services. "We can't say there won't be discoveries made."

The current uses of the stored stem cells are limited, and the private banks have little to show for their work so far.

The three largest cord blood businesses in the United States have collected more than 230,000 samples, generating at least $300 million in revenue from anxious parents. Just a few dozen cord blood samples have been used, primarily for children with leukemia who could have been treated with equally effective alternatives.

At Family Cord Blood Services, just one sample has been used out of the more than 9,000 collected over the last eight years. The child died.

"This is purely a commercial business," said Dr. Eliane Gluckman, a French hematologist who performed the world's first successful cord blood transplant in 1988. It is "just for profit and not for benefit."

The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, which advises the European Union, concluded last year that "the legitimacy of commercial cord blood banks should be questioned as they sell a service, which has [currently] no real use regarding therapeutic options."

Italy enacted a ban on private banking in 2003 and other European countries have prohibited any company from profiting from cord blood.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also opposes private cord blood storage.

But despite the chorus of objections, the demand for private banking is growing.

Each burst of news articles on the promise of stem cells drives more parents to bank cord blood, if only to ensure that their children aren't deprived of a chance at a cure.

It is "a therapeutic option that not everybody is going to have," said Dr. Robert Hariri, president of LifebankUSA, a Cedar Knolls, N.J., company with more than 20,000 customers.

Boyd, now a mother of two, said: "It's one-twentieth the price of a car, and it will last a lot longer."
 
ALZHEIMER'S CATCHES A MOTHER'S EYE

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Boyd, 23, was a few months pregnant when the fliers for baby products and services started arriving. One day a brochure from a San Bruno, Calif., company called Cord Blood Registry appeared in her mailbox.

It explained how cord blood could be used to treat dozens of blood and immune system disorders and one day might be the cure for a range of other diseases.

One word stopped her: Alzheimer's. The degenerative brain disease runs in her family. There is no cure now, but maybe cord blood could help her child decades in the future, she thought.

"I can't imagine what they are going to do with stem cells 20 years from now," Boyd said.

She searched the Web and found a dozen companies that banked umbilical cord blood.

Her mother was skeptical until Boyd explained that stem cells were the future of medicine.

While her husband, an Army sergeant, was in Iraq, Boyd settled on Family Cord Blood Services. The company impressed her with a personalized letter and an informational DVD. It offered a free year of storage for military families.

"It just felt right," Boyd said later. "I went with my heart."

A week after she signed up, a collection kit arrived. It included a blood bag, labels, clamps, a shipping box and instructions for the doctor.

On May 16, a minute after Olivia was born, a doctor inserted a needle into the umbilical cord and let the blood drain into the bag. The sample was flown to Los Angeles and soon the name Boyd was entered into a logbook, below customers from New Haven, Conn., Jonesboro, Ark., Lima, Peru, and Mexico City.

Pregnant women everywhere are deluged with advertising for cord blood banking.

"What if I could help her survive a stroke?" reads one magazine advertisement for Cryo-Cell International Inc., based in Oldsmar, Fla.

Beneath the picture of a brown-eyed baby, the ad continues: "Imagine taking a step now, before she's born, that could turn the miracle of her life into a future medical miracle."

When the first cord blood company started in the early 1990s, nobody was thinking about using the cells to treat conditions such as Alzheimer's, diabetes or stroke. The businesses hoped to capitalize on the difficulty of finding suitable bone marrow donors.

Both bone marrow and cord blood contain a type of stem cell known as a hematopoietic cell that is responsible for generating all types of blood cells, including those responsible for the immune system.

Most commonly, hematopoietic cells are used in leukemia patients to rebuild bone marrow that is destroyed by chemotherapy. Other diseases they are used for include various forms of anemia, in which the marrow produces insufficient numbers of red blood cells.

Business was slow at first because such diseases are rare; it was difficult to persuade people to store blood.

Then came the stem cell craze.
 
Stem Cells in the Bank -- for What, It's Not Yet Known
t started when scientists isolated powerful cells from newly formed human embryos in 1998. The research spurred a moral and ethical debate over whether the potential for cures could justify the destruction of embryos. That prompted the Bush administration in 2001 to ban federal funding for certain types of research and California voters to pass a $3-billion stem cell initiative last year.

The focus was embryonic stem cells, which have the proven ability to transform into any type of tissue and only a vague resemblance to stem cells in cord blood.

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That didn't seem to matter to people who bank.

"For the general public, they just hear the words 'stem cells,' " said Kaj Rydman, president of Family Cord Blood Services. "A large portion do it on blind faith."

Entrepreneurs are not waiting to find out if stem cells fulfill their promise.

Sales representatives visit doctors and stock their waiting rooms with brochures. The companies have begun to form alliances with obstetricians, paying them about $150 for the minutes it takes to collect each sample.

"Unless it's captured in the first five minutes of life, it's gone forever," says a magazine ad for CorCell Inc. of Philadelphia.

Salespeople are waiting by the phone.

"Congratulations," said Joanie Mason at Family Cord Blood Services. "Is this your first baby?"

The pregnant woman calling from Texas was undecided about banking. It was a month before her due date plenty of time to mull it over.

*

NOT ALL STEM CELLS ARE THE SAME

Tens of thousands of parents-to-be have been calling the cord blood toll-free hotlines.

Consider figures provided by the three largest companies, which estimate their market share to be around 80%.

Cord Blood Registry: more than 90,000 customers.

ViaCord Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.: more than 60,000.

Cryo-Cell International: nearly 80,000.

Officials at the companies say business is at an all-time high.

The three companies each charge from $1,110 to $1,800 to collect and process the cord blood, plus $115 to $125 per year to store it.

Nobody knows whether a child will become sick or which scientific theories might result in cures.
 
For Clayton Frech and his wife, a movie actress, banking cord blood for their new son was as essential as buying an infant car seat.

"It's a pretty common and accepted practice in the circles we run in," said Frech, who runs a party-supply business in Los Angeles.

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"People don't know exactly what we'll need this for," he said. "It seems better to play it safe and conservative and have some of these cells in storage."

The theory is that cord blood stem cells might be used one day to make nerve, liver and heart cells to treat a wide variety of degenerative diseases. Unblemished cells stored at birth would provide a storehouse of cures genetically matched to the donor.

But not all stem cells are the same.

Scientists have identified two basic types. Those found in embryos embryonic stem cells have the proven ability to transform into any cell. They are the source from which the body develops from a clump of undifferentiated cells into the complex collection of tissues that constitute a human being.

The other type, adult stem cells, are more specialized. They replace cells that are frequently destroyed, such as blood, hair and nasal cells.

Stem cells from umbilical cords are a type of adult stem cell.

As far as scientists know, the hematopoietic cells found in bone marrow and cord blood have just one power: the ability to transform into blood and immune cells.

Some scientists are researching the possibility that these cells can make other types of tissue.

The argument, however, has not been widely accepted, because the theory behind it remains unconvincing. Mature cells are the product of a series of biochemical reactions that turn certain genes on and off, triggering changes that are thought to be irreversible.

There is no evidence that they can return to their undifferentiated forms to head down a different path of development, said Dr. Curt Civin, a stem cell transplanter at Johns Hopkins University who has studied hematopoietic cells since the early 1980s.

Some adult stem cell researchers have another theory: Cord blood may contain a more primitive type of cell. Scientists can only speculate about such a cell. The idea that it exists comes from a few studies suggesting that something in bone marrow can transform into a variety of cell types.

One key experiment was reported in 2002 in the journal Nature. Dr. Catherine Verfaillie and a team of scientists at the University of Minnesota found that rare cells in bone marrow could be cultured in a laboratory and coaxed to produce bone, fat, muscle, liver, intestinal and neuron-like cells.

The same type of marrow cells, when injected into mice, in some cases appeared to become other kinds of cells though not nerve cells, the key to curing many of the worst ailments.

The work was instantly controversial. Critics argue that if such transformations occur, they happen too rarely to be of therapeutic value.

In any case, evidence that such cells exist in cord blood is extremely weak. Verfaillie said her team has examined blood from more than 90 umbilical cords and failed to find them.

It is likely to be years, if not decades, before scientists understand the complex chain of reactions that guide the transformation of cells.

Cord blood cures for diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes are still a distant fantasy, Civin said: "We're nowhere near there yet. It is nowhere near certain that we will ever get there."

Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, director of the pediatric stem cell transplant program at Duke University, whose work is often cited by cord blood banks, said "there is zero evidence" to support the advertising claims of such cures from cord blood.
 
Other therapies, Kurtzberg said, are just as likely to be developed by the time a child born today would contract many of the diseases advertised by the private banks.

"We don't even know if cord blood will last that long," she said.

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*

'A LIFE PRESERVER THAT DIDN'T FLOAT'

The companies advertise that even without considering future scientific breakthroughs, there are many reasons to privately bank stem cells now.

Many companies list dozens of blood, bone and immune diseases most of them genetic disorders or forms of leukemia.

But the chances of patients using their own banked stem cells for those purposes are slim.

The problem is that transplanting the cells can reintroduce the same genetic defect that caused the disease in the first place. Using a child's own cord blood to treat leukemia is also a problem, since it could include cancer cells or would simply regenerate the same immune system that already had failed to destroy them.

Tracey and Victor Dones of Levittown, N.Y., learned this lesson the hard way.

In July 2002, Tracey gave birth to a son, Anthony, and banked his cord blood. Four months later, doctors at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., diagnosed him with osteopetrosis, a genetic defect that triggers a runaway increase in bone density.

He would die without a stem cell transplant, they told his parents.

Tracey Dones quickly responded that an exact genetic match was waiting in a freezer tank in Florida.

"How perfect can this be?" she recalled thinking.

The doctors, though, explained that the stored blood was useless.

The cells were "a life preserver that didn't float," Victor Dones likes to say.

What finally saved Anthony was a parallel system of cord blood storage known as public banking.

These banks are typically nonprofit. They don't charge parents for harvesting or storing the cells. The public banks resemble blood banks, stockpiling donated cord blood and offering it to anybody in need of a transplant. The banks cover their costs by charging about $20,000 for each sample. As part of an accepted medical procedure, the blood is usually covered by insurance.

Because cord blood can be used with a lower degree of genetic matching than bone marrow transplants, it is ideal for transplants from unrelated donors.

In May, Congress voted 431-1 to spend $79 million to make searching easier by linking public cord blood banks in a national network.

There are about a dozen public banks scattered across the United States. Worldwide, such banks have provided cells for more than 5,000 cord blood transplants.
 
Their record far outstrips that of the private banks. The three biggest private banks have provided cells for 55 transplants, according to statistics they provided. In 49 of those cases, the cells went to a sibling, most often one already sick with leukemia or another disease when the blood was stored.

Privately stored cord blood was by no means the only treatment option. The siblings could have donated bone marrow, with the same odds of success. Or the children could have sought stem cells from an unrelated donor. There are 5.5 million bone marrow donors in a national registry, and more than 100,000 samples in public cord blood banks.

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But the public banks lack one thing: cachet. Many parents believe private banks offer them the most security and control.

"It is analogous to private schools and public schools," said Stephen Grant, a vice president at Cord Blood Registry.

Dr. Robert Chow, the founder of Stemcyte Inc., which runs public and private banks in Arcadia and Taiwan, said the allure of private banking was too strong for many parents to resist.

"I understand why they do it," he said. "They will feel guilty if they don't."

*

'THE RELIGION OF CORD BLOOD'

The emotional pull is irresistible for many parents.

"It's like a religion the religion of cord blood," said Kenneth Worth, a Fullerton lawyer who has tried to fight cord blood companies but has struggled to find parents who feel wronged.

"People want to believe that it's true."

Reason alone is not enough to decide whether to bank.

Grant, of Cord Blood Registry, explained his strategy for handling roomfuls of skeptical doctors and scientists. He asks who would bank if the service were free. Most hands go up.

The message is clear: How could throwing something away be better than keeping it?

Sean Morrison, a stem cell biologist at the University of Michigan, had the chance to bank for free nine years ago. He sent his daughter's cells to a fellow researcher who was collecting samples.

"It's just like buying a lottery ticket," he said. "The chances of winning are extremely low, but that doesn't stop people from buying it."

When his second daughter was born two years later, storing the cells with his colleague was no longer an option. He knew what he had to do.

He signed up with Cord Blood Registry.

How could he justify banking for one and not the other?

The pressure to bank has grown as more parents choose to do it.

Annamarie Cummings of Crystal Lake, Ill., a Chicago suburb, said the issue had come up at neighborhood picnics. She said one mother regretted not banking. And lately there has been head-shaking talk about a child with leukemia whose parents apparently did not bank either.

Cummings said she and her husband, Bill, were ahead of the curve. They banked for their daughter in 1999 and for their twin sons two years later.

It is a lifetime commitment.

"We have decided to pay until all three of our children are 21 years of age," she said. "Then they can probably take it on from there."

From time to time, parents call Family Cord Blood Services hoping to come by and see the cells they banked, said Rydman, the company president.

There is nothing wrong. They just want to see.

Rydman tells them that they are free to look at the stainless steel tanks, but he explains that the samples are best left undisturbed.

The cells will keep for years and years and years, bathed in liquid nitrogen at 321 degrees below zero.
 
normally if the child got any disease, it is other pp cord blood that may cure the child and not own cord blood.
just to share
 
In July 2002, Tracey gave birth to a son, Anthony, and banked his cord blood. Four months later, doctors at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., diagnosed him with osteopetrosis, a genetic defect that triggers a runaway increase in bone density.

He would die without a stem cell transplant, they told his parents.

Tracey Dones quickly responded that an exact genetic match was waiting in a freezer tank in Florida.

"How perfect can this be?" she recalled thinking.

The doctors, though, explained that the stored blood was useless.

The cells were "a life preserver that didn't float," Victor Dones likes to say.

What finally saved Anthony was a parallel system of cord blood storage known as public banking.
 
wtan,

These banks are typically nonprofit. They don't charge parents for harvesting or storing the cells. The public banks resemble blood banks, stockpiling donated cord blood and offering it to anybody in need of a transplant. The banks cover their costs by charging about $20,000 for each sample. As part of an accepted medical procedure, the blood is usually covered by insurance.

Because cord blood can be used with a lower degree of genetic matching than bone marrow transplants, it is ideal for transplants from unrelated donors.


In May, Congress voted 431-1 to spend $79 million to make searching easier by linking public cord blood banks in a national network.

There are about a dozen public banks scattered across the United States. Worldwide, such banks have provided cells for more than 5,000 cord blood transplants.
 
wtan,
the cord blood must be at least a certain amt then can be used, all depends on our length of our baby's cord. some are long while some are short.
the scbb will throw away if not enough cos cannot save live like that.
but private banking little bit also store to earn money.

I PM u why private hospital make SCBB difficult for patient to donate to public and easier for private banking. very sensitive to say it here. SCBB is easier for their patient in gvt hospital. I work in the healthcare so cannot say it here
 
Vivian
i find the both of us so similar. i get so many BH, pains & kicks fr baby tt i dunno how to differentiate anymore. unless BH & baby's kick occurs simultaneously.

Same here, dun wan my bb to put on too much weight. alrdy told him dun steal too much fr me liao.
crazy.gif


i dilemma lah, hoping he can pop early so he wun b too big, yet at the same time hoping he can b as near to my EDD as possible.

lets see wat ur gynae says at ur visit tdy.
happy.gif


Rzz
at least tts a pc of gd news, though wld rather ur bb had turned so u dun need to even need gynae to turn 4 u. gd luck!
happy.gif


Wendy
Try to relax. i noe its really hard at this stage. many times i oso failed to do so at work. juz go out 4 a small walk, take a breather and talk to ur baby. try calming ur mind and dun think abt the unhappy things. all will b over v soon!
happy.gif
 
Hi hi esther..
Ok, I will try to stay cheerful from now onwards..Actually I bought the raspberry tea from one of the mum, she got an extra pack from MIM..i only read from the MIMs url the benefits of drinking raspberry tea..check this out: http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/rasptea.html

Hi hi Vivian..
Thks thks for all..indeed its very demoralizing..but I guess I must tell myself not to think so much into it..since I m already less than 3 wks to the start of my annual leavebetter just stay quiet & do my stuff..at least I know I have u all here, its heartwarming liao..thkswhen are u gg to start ur leave?i think its better to rest more if u can now..at least balance up ur moods & tell urself to stay happy..its easy to fall in the trap of stress but not that easy to get out of it..so I must quickly get out of it fast..

Hi hi jo..
I see how it goes aft my gynaes visit on 15-Sept..then mayb I will try to find out more abt the pros & cons to induce the boy out..but of course..its better to let the baby come out naturally on the day he likes it..thks for all..i will try to bo-chap as much..thks..

Hi hi Rzz..
Its gd that ur gynae has decided to waive it..actually u can talk to ur baby, I m sure baby will be gd & listen to u..alot of mtbs here tried talking to the baby & it works by the next visit..cheers~

Hi hi selina..
Thks..thks..ya, I thot things will get better but seems like its not that easy as I think..anyway, I will tell myself to stay happy at all times..thks..at least having u all here is nice enough to brighten up my day..thks..u meant can only drink u to a max of 3 coconuts ahh..me have just drank my 3rd coconut last wkend, was thinking of drinking 1 more tonight or tmrw..

Hi hi wei kuan..
Thks..ok..like wat the rest said, I must be more bo-chap from now onwards, nothing much I can do, since finance mgr dun appreciate the values & importance of it..i get ur point in the non-storage of he cord blood if due to genetics illness..i tried to read up on it as well..thks for the contacts of SCBB..wow..how did u dig out so many info on the cord blood ahh..for me, I was in touch with a mother volunteer & also I tried to read up some info but not those that u have posted..

Hi hi Janice..
Thks..ya, cannot make them understand then dun force things liao..not all pple think like my point also..one of my colleague was telling me, let her try out her way lor..when it doesnt work out well..then we will know whos method is better lor..actually I m also trying my best to avoid having any conversation with her..actually not only me lah..in fact, the whole offc here..at least I know I have the supports and encouragement of my co-colleagues as well as u all here..i m more than contented..

hi hi crystallized..
thks for all..ya, i will tell myself not to care that much liao..anyway, i have done wat i think i have done..ok..will heed ur advice to go out for a small breather whenever i feel tensed up from now onwards..thks..oh ya, i phoned up MOM to clarify some doubts on the childcare leave..it seems like we are entitled to it even during our maternity leave..as long as we are gg to claim it for up to 7 relevant periods or up to 14days within 7yrs..even if we give birth in the midst of the calendar yr (1-1-06 to 31-12-06), we are to be entitled to the 2 days lor..
 
Hi vivian
I cannot visit your blog? Anything wrong with the site, i can visit selina's but not yours.

I am con currently creating a blog for my son, any mummy here also created one care to share so that i can include into my site. many thanks!
 
Hi, all.
I haven't been posting but have been reading the forum all along. Regarding cordblood banking, I contacted SCBB sometime ago (emailed them) and they arranged for a nurse to meet up with me during one of my gynae visits. The lady explained to me about SCBB and public banking and I was surprised how easy the arrangements were. I just need to sign some forms and she just asked some questions about my medical history and told me to give the forms to the hospital during my admittance (i'm giving birth at TMC). And, she said that there'll be a blood test when i'm admitted. Other than that, she said to mention to my gynae that i'm banking with SCBB and the hospital will arrange everything else during the birthing process to collect the cordblood.

So, it's quite easy to bank with SCBB even if you're not going to be staying in a public hospital.
 
hi wei kuan
my hubby can't defer his biz trip and his boss knw tat i will be due 25/10 so he says will still be in time to come back
sad.gif


i also thinking of donating to cordblood bank, im delivering in kkh will ask abt this during the next visit

hi wtan
Cheer up wendy, i knw it must be hard on you having to take the stress at work and being pregnant.sayang
happy.gif


hi crystallised
how often to drink coconut juice??
when is ur EDD? i seeing my gynae next thur....tink she will be shocked to see my legs....all filled with scars as i just recovered frm "hong moh" but sometimes still itchy..

hi vivian/selina
tink both of ur EDD is early oct rite, excited??
 
bunny
me too, think my bb not absorbing the durian i took. yesterday went for my checkup. i put on more than 1.5kg over just one week but bb only put on 250g, that means the rest has turned into fats in my body.
sad.gif


crystallized/selina/jenny
when did u all started to hv BH/contraction? yest my gynae told me that my cervic already soften and after the CTG test, it really shows that I hv abit of contraction liao even thou i'm on medication. i'm only at 33 week and bb only weights abt 1.9kg, really worried that he is too eager to come out liao.
uhoh.gif
hv been talking to bb but really afraid that he "bu ting hua".

I hv checked with her on the contraction interval. she said can wait till 5min interval then head down to the hospital, unless during 10-15min interval already cannot tahan the pain.

wendy
try not to go for induction cos not 100% successful lor, may end up c-section. me also hoping for natural contraction.

Jasmine
what happened to ur fren now?
 
Aspialle
Wanna check wif u r u still taking the glucose test everyday 7 times a day?? Or reduce already??
I hoping next visit my gynae will reduce if my result stay good.....sigh
 
wei kuan,
can also pm me the contact to SCBB? tks.

coolcoolmum,
i think my BH started as early as 20+ wks with tummy tightening but then at that time i didnt realised it was BH until vivian told me might be possible. only lately nearing my 34 or 35 wks that it became more n more frequent and more n more tight. no pain though other than the discomfort i felt yesterday. now ok liao. occasional pain at vaginal area but last a few seconds only.

me only doing my CTG on monday. see what doc says then.

u better take care and rest as much as you can ba. try not to walk too much.

aspialle,
vivian's edd is 30 sep while mine is 7 oct. excited? yes n no for me. yes that all these 9 mths is coming to a close soon n i'll b able to cuddle my boy in no time. no - i worried abt caring for him when born, bfg, and everything. so really confused here...
 
vicky tan,
need not pass the form to the admission during labour, keep for your own reference.
it will be in your case file and gynae will know abt it
 
wtan,
if possible let baby come out naturally cos what I read from Sep MTB is that some induce and cervix cannot open and go c-section at last min.
I did mention abt it to my gyane and my gyane did ttell me the risk is that may go c-section if cervix not open within a time limit.
I also very scare of both part pain.
 
hi hi vicky..
thks for sharing on the process of storing the cord blood with SCBB..now i have a better understanding..will be calling them fast..thks ahh..

hi hi aspialle..
i guess it's never easy for everyone here...just that i went to deep in the level i think i can take it..so it's not that easy for me to get out of it..so i hope that i will "bo-chap" more & get my mind off work asap..maybe if time pass faster for me to mth end, things might get better ba..thks for all..thks..

hi hi coolcoolmum..
i m prepared to go for c-sect if i cant get my cervix to open in time..at least i get to see my boy soon..i feel very bad letting him undergo stress when i m affected..it's not healthy for him & he dun have a choice at all..as much as i can, i think it's will be best to go for a natural contraction..maybe aft my coming visit to gynae..then see how things goes ba..

hi hi selina..
do update us aft u hv done the CTG this coming mon..oh ya, was u the one that gave the tips in using olive oil in the cracked nipple..can i know if there's any brand of olive oil that u have bought?

hi hi wei kuan..
ok, i will try my best to "tahan", maybe aft my coming appt on 15-sept..then i will find out more with my gynae & seek his best advice ba..thks for sharing with me abt the updates in the sept thread..appreciate it..cheers~
 
wtan,
my gyane also mention walk more, so in the end if u induced, cervix easier to open. walk more but not over tire yourself
 
hi hi jo..
wow..i think the last i attended my 1st & only one malay wedding was few yrs back, they didnt decorate much...wow..jap style..surely very nice ahh..got any photos to share?

hi hi wei kuan..
ya, i think if u want baby to be engaged, one of the mum was sharing that can squat more..then walk more can also aid in easier & smoother delivery..
 
wtan,
I try squat but very tough cos tummy so big and my foot will shiver, no strength.
I perfer on all fours for a few mins per day.
walk more must depends where I am going. sometimes stay at home all day very tired. at home, normally sit and sleep
 
hi hi wei kuan..
oh ya, thks for ur PM, just read it..the contact u forwarded is the co-ordinator from SCBB ahh..ya, i agree with u on the comm portion..keke..for me, usually get to squat when i m bathing..haha..got to squat a little to "wash" myself..if not, is aft i do big business..coz i will try to use a wet tissue to clean up to make sure there's no "residue" left..haha..sorry for being gross here ahh..i think do it at ur comfort ba..like wat u said..dun tire urself..
 
Wendy,
By right, your company should give you the 2 days childcare leave when your bb is born in Oct, they shouldn't take it as at 01 Jan 2006. If they do, you can go to MOM to report. From my understanding, according to MOM rule, maternity leave starts on the day of delivery, and is 84 days. No matter is a weekday or weekend.
My company dun compensate additional day off if Public Holiday falls on Sat, though we are working for 5 days per week.

Vivian,
As you are approaching the big day soon, your energy level will drop, that cause you to be tired and moody.

coolcoolmum,
I forgot when my BH starts leh. But have been q sometime le.
 
Hi ladies,

went for my 37wks checkup this morning...
BP, sugar, protein all cleared.
For the first time, my gynae suggested a cervix check. Nervious sia... esp. after hearing things here... in the end, just slight discomfort. a bit pain when she pressed. But no issue all. Verdict: Not dilated or what so ever.
That is the good news.

The bad news is Rhys weight. He is now 3.2kg, gained abt 200gm while I increase 800gm. Gynae think he might be a bit heavy. And suggested to me that I might want to think whether to induce next week. Coz if he increases more by next week to about 3.4-3.5kg, might be too big for natural delivery. She did mentioned that 38wks is a very good time to do induction, which is my next week. But she also mentioned that if now induce, the labour might be a long one coz my cervix not open yet... so conclusion, monitor for 1 more week and see how.

Sigh... now i dun know what to do... today wanted to go temple and walk walk but before going there, suddenly like handphone battery from full to flat in 2 secs... super tired. Cannot take it liao, told hb and turn back home to sleep for 2 hrs.

I was secretly wishing Rhys to come out today... when go toilet, was hoping to see blood.... when turn my body, was hoping for a contraction to happen and when I sit up from sofa or bed, was hoping it was very wet (waterbag burst).... dun know how long can I tahan this stress leh.... Sigh...

Wendy,
You are always welcome to come here and "fa xie". You helped when I did mine too... =)

Esther,
Bo leh... can go in my blog leh... you try again. http://vivibebe.multiply.com

Aspialle,
My EDD is end Sept actually. Now anytime can pop liao.
excited? ok lah.. a bit more anxious and nervious coz bb gets bigger and bigger when date gets nearer and nearer.
I think I am those type that dun like to be out of control one lor... so this coming delivery thingy, I cannot predict when will my waterbag broke lah... will it be in school lah... during my lesson lah.... will Rhys be too big to go natural lah... etc....so not within my control... so all these are driving me crazy right now.... sigh....
 
Wendy
Great to hear tt u r trying to take it easier.
happy.gif
oh! so its gd u can clear the 2 days childcare leave, rem to chk wif ur HR. dun let them swallow the leave u r entitled to.

Vicky
Thks 4 the info!
happy.gif


Aspialle
till date, i hv drank only 2 coconut drink. and i am nearing 37 wks now. my mum says need to drink abt 2 times only. no need to over do it as its v liang. anyway i dun like this coconut drink so lucky only need to drink twice.
crazy.gif


my EDD on 4 Oct... but i am in the waiting bench for Sep lah. my naughty boy impatient, will sure come out soon. he cant wait till Oct. gonna whack his backside when he comes out.
lol.gif


Coolmum
i think i started to hv BH as early as like 31 wks? or perhaps even much earlier... cant rem lah.. anyway tt time i still cant associate it wif BH. it was only when i am 35 wks when i felt both BH & baby's movements then i noe i am hvg BH. v common. i hv it almost everyday. and recently these past 1 wk, every morning i got abdominal cramps liao.

ur cervix soften? can only tell by doing cervix check rite? so far my gynae haven performed on me yet leh.

aiyoh, we r so different. here i am hoping my bb can come out nearer to EDD and there u r, taking medication to prevent baby fr coming out early. but u r rite lah. only 33 wks. muz wait for a few more wks then its safer. hope everything will b smooth 4 u.
happy.gif


wah 5 mins interval? i think i wld hv freaked out by then!
biggrin.gif
 
Vivian
i oso worried like u... aiyoh.. i wonder wat will b my baby's weight during nxt check up.

but actually 3.5kg for ur built is not really considered big baby. i noe v dilemma. when my gynae suggested she might hv to induce me if my amniotic fluid drops, i oso got worried. coz not all cases of induction will b successful.

Has Rhys engaged?

Eh u dun think so much. will go crazy one. try to take 2 easy ok. i noe not easy. sometimes my mind wanders off oso. but really try not to let it affect u.

how abt trying the "ahem" method to induce Rhys to come out, if u r serious abt it. better than let gynae induce.
 
wei kuan,
tks. will check my mail later.

vivian,
take it ez ba. dun think so much. will really go crazy one. keep yourself occupied so u wont think so much ok
happy.gif


wendy,
i haven found the olive oil. mayb u can try supermarket. i remember 1 of the brands sold in supermarket got olive oil but suddenly cannot remember the brand...

wei kuan, wendy,
i will walk even at home. after dinner, instead of sitting down right after that, i will walk around for a few minutes. sometimes while watching TV, i will also walk around the living room. i do squats too but holding on to window grill or wall. at work i squat quite a lot too cos i have to pick things up etc n since i'm always alone in the office, no one can help me with that lor...
 
hi doreen
i m still doing the test 7 times a day but reduced from twice a week to once a week
Hate to prick myself so many times a day...

hi selina
understand ur worries, same here....i duno hw long then i can return to find a job and work and wat will happens after tat too

hi vivian
ur bb quite heavy hor ....if too big doc may consider to induce it early.my frd went thru induce abt 2-3 weeks before EDD and her bb is 3.11kg

hi crystallised
my EDD is 25/10 but duno when i shld start drinking the coconut juice cos i scare bb may come out first week of Oct, its the big or small type of coconut that u buy?
 
Hi vivian,
Ok thanks now can le, when i include yr blog into mine i can't view. Now can le. Thanks! BTW don't think so much leh, let nature take its course. Like i mentioned we all will deliver our baby safe and sound de. No worry k, now its time to relax ourself and build up our energy for the arrival of our baby cheers!

Feel free to visit my blog at www.mybabyjovan.blogspot.com
all comments welcome, any mummy who has also created and wants to share??
 
Hi ladies...

Me try not to think lah..
this morning scared myself... wake up liao felt tummy aching. On and off quite painful. First time started to time it. Thot is contraction... was half worried coz alone at home but was half happy that this might be it...

Rhys was still actively kicking and moving inside.
But feeling not right lor, went toilet and end up LS... sigh... dun know should be happy or not... haa...

Crystallized,
I have asked my gynae whether Rhys engaged liao or not, she say it is low but not engaged. Anyway my friend also never engaged and suddenly waterbag burst liao... so engaging or not also not very impt. Doc told me even engaged, if got space and bb very active, will sometimes disengaged one... so dun worry too much abt that.

Haa... as for the "ahem" method, told my hb liao but he say i siao ah... just wait and see how lah...

Now hor, I think the best thing to happen is Rhys decided to come out within this week by himself... so not too big not too small while I dun need to induce also... haa... hmm... think everyday must nag at him liao... haa....
 
crystallized
hv u come back on the chix ess brand? sorry, cant rem, memory very short. went shopping at NTUC with hb just now. saw 2 brands with red box, one is Polleney and the other one is Yang Cheng Brand. both chix ess with cordyceps and Pao Shen. i also dont like chix ess so i'm thinking whether i can just buy one of each brand to try out first?? u think those chinese medical shop will sell just one??

crystallized/selina/jenny
yes, gynae found out my cervic has soften thru virginal check. in fact she has been doing it for me every week since my bleeding case. if u relax, it should be ok. u ladies hv been experiencing BH so early ah? she told me not supposed to experience it so early. maybe my case is diff so she is more concern. with the contraction started, i'm really afraid that i might jump q to #1!
uhoh.gif


these few days, esp at night, i feel my tummy very tight. it seems more like it is trying to expand but reached a limit rather than trying to contract. any one has the same experience?

regarding baby engaged, i was asking my gynae whether my bb has engaged, she said not yet. she mentioned that if bb is engaged, she would be scanning aroung my pervic hair area. so, this might be a way to guage if ur bb has engaged.
wink.gif


i was suggesting to hb that if really need to go for induction, we should try to ML the night b4. guess what he replied? "U not afraid next day give birth the doc will know meh??" ....ha ha ha i find it so funny. he is more shy than me.
 
aspialle,
u can start drinking coconut drink aft 32 wks, in case of early delivery. buy the big coconuts, not the small thai ones. my fren said tt small one useless.

Selina
i heard squatting will help in faster labour as cervix will dilate faster. how u squat? normal squatting rite? i dun like to squat leh. very hard to get up aft tt. hahaha.
lol.gif
but u say no one to help u in ofc then no choice lor.

vivian
yah i guess not so impt whether bb engaged alrdy anot. coz jenny did mentioned aft engaging, baby might still disengaged. so i think its more impt whether our cervix can dilate. come to think of it, my gynae wasnt really concerned if baby is engaged. think it can happen anytime.

yah best if our babies decide to come out on their own. lets hope for the best.
happy.gif
 
Coolmum
i checked the chix essence tt my ILs bot. really no brand one leh. keke
lol.gif
the box is red in colour and the lower part of the box is pix of cordyceps. and only a small tiny rose pix by the side. in any case, u might not like the taste. yah, u can try out the different brands b4 buying. anyway i think later when ppl give as gift, u still gotta drink it whether like it anot. dun waste mah.
happy.gif


ah... dun think they juz sell 1 btl to u lah. kekeke... then wat do they do wif the remaining bottles?
lol.gif


oh perhaps ur case more special since u mentioned bleeding. BH is normal & common. some experienced it as early as 2nd trimester. anyway i think nothing to worry abt one lor.

my tummy feels v tight in the middle of the night, esp when i chg sides, and in the mornings when i wake up. i think its normal?
uhoh.gif


4 the ahem method to induce birth, er, i will wait till its the last resort bah. dun really wanna use this method leh...
 


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