Antenatal Class

We had antenatal class last two Sunday, hosted by KJMC at Hotel Singgahsana. We were charged RM100 per couple.


I lost the pamphlet on the itenerary but basically it is like this

1) Pregnancy,Labour and Post Partem (Dr Fatima Najla)
2) Common problems in infants (Dr Syed Nasir)
3) Epidural for Labour (Dr Harlina)
4) Pre and Post Natal exercises (Physiotherapist)
5) Nutrition in Pregnancy (Samantha Goh from Dutch Lady)
6) Umbilical Cord Blood (Freida from Stemlife)
7) Breastfeeding & baby bathing technique (midwife)

The class start from 9AM and end at 4.10PM so there are a lot of thing been shared by them, I'm going to share few things that I feel important for mommies to know.

About mommies
1) All vaccine can't be taken during pregnancy except H1N1.
2) If you are diabetic or have HBP, all these need to be controlled before you get pregnant. Else can bring complication.
3) After 28 weeks, your 'hungry hormone' will rising up and you have to control it
4) Cut down your milk intake (let say from 3 glasses per day to 1 glass per day) as the milk contain milk fat --> errr..I forgot what effect it will cause
5) Important: Take a lot of calcium during pregnancy because no matter how tak cukup ur calcium is, baby still getting enough calcium (will take from everywhere - your bone, teeth, etc), and the losses won't be replenished. So mommy yang teruk nnt, there is a case where ur nails break easily, ur tooth tercabut. Make sure u take extra calcium so that baby wont take from ur existing calcium.
6) Take ur iron pills, this is important to make sure you wont have anemia (hemoglobin count need to be >11, mine was 10.5 on my last checkup huhuhu)
7) To avoid the varicose veins, wear stocking most of the time and high up the feet.

About babies
1) Acne (normally goes by itself in 2-4 weeks)
2) Need to identify between vomit and regurgitation
3) There is two types of pass motion for breastfed babies, normal (poop regular), extreme (no poop for over than 10 days because all the nutrients are absorbed). So in any case your baby didn't poop, but not crying either and looks healthy (no colic, gas, etc) so nothing to worry, it could be extreme pass motion cases.
4) Colic - baby will cry 3 hrs/day, 3-4 day/week. There is no cure for colic and you have to try different methods each time how to console your baby (massage, warm bath, music, etc)
5) Noisy breathing - could be there is a blockage through the nose passage (maybe it's milk), so just clean the nose
6) New born breath through nose not mouth
7) Jaundice is common and max should be 2 weeks. You can 'jemur' your baby under the sun but only from 730 AM to 930AM and make sure no direct contact with the eyes.
8) Don't worry if your kids' growth not according to normal chart (like tumbuh gigi at 6months) because different kid has different growth. Even the paed daughter's first tooth still hasn't come out and she's already 1 yo hehehe.

Umbilical cord blood
We already aware of this technology but still not convinced to sign up for it. Basically they will draw the blood from umbilical cord right after baby come out, store it and it can be used later to treat blood disease like major thalassemia and leukemia. We were thinking to subscribe it but are torn between StemLife or StemTech. StemLife is the pioneer in banking the stem cell and has treated 4 cases whilst StemTech is the sister company for TMC (where I planned to deliver at) but just established for about 2 years ago (no treated case yet).

But the bottom line is, do we need to do this stem cell or not? Hmmm..have to read further.

Epidurial for labour
One word only - it will be very beautiful if it goes smoothly - Dr Harlina yg cakap hehe (you still can feel the pain, but very little - they can control on the drug quantity). I still haven't decided on epidurial yet but most probably I will try not to take it. Mana tahu masa early contraction dah tak tahan kan, then I'll take la.

Exercise during and after pregnancy

Physiotherapist briefing before start

We have to do real workout!

The exercise thing was very fun! We get to try the steps and physiotherapist will check on us one by one, so that we get it right. The exercise is important so you won't have any problem later like kegel exercise (to prevent problems like you can't hold urine when you laugh or cough) and pelvic exercise (to strengthen ur pelvic after labour). It also will avoid backache when you are older, but you have to do it at least 2 times a day! Until now I didn't do any single move (except for kegel), uwaaa malas sangat.

So I guess that will summarize our antenatal class. Overall it was an o-k-a-y one only because most of the info I already know about it through my reading on the internet. And I'm quite dissapointed with the breastfeeding section because it was very basic and not well elaborated, like what should you do if you are working mom and want to continue breastfeed you baby.

We also got some goodie bags (plush pillow, one small tin of similec, bags, etc), tea break and buffet lunch. I will say it's worth your money even though I was hoping I get more than this, on the knowledge of course :)