Pregnancy reated questions

Having just had our first 2 months ago, most of the advice here is sound, don't really stock up on anything as of yet, also not sure why everyone is advising size 3 nappies which is for 4 to 9kgs, you should look at 2 which is from 2 to 5, also Dischem have a range of nappies called Panda which having tried every nappie brand out there is quite good and it's decently priced too.
Also have you decided if it's going to be natural or c-sec, breast or bottle fed? At 6 months you've really not got a lot of time left, especially if the little one decides they are coming early and it can happen.
 
Lupus said:
also not sure why everyone is advising size 3 nappies which is for 4 to 9kgs, you should look at 2 which is from 2 to 5,
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I think it all depends on how big the baby is when he / she is born. Ours was born @ 3.8KG and we hardly used the first pack of newborn diapers, and almost skipped past the size 2 diapers.
A friend's baby was only about 1.8KG, born 4 months later so they used the new born and size 2 diapers a lot longer. The nice thing though is that you can return, and swapout the sealer diapers
 
Yup ours was 2.4 when he was born, was on the newborn ones up until 2 days ago, he only just reached 5kg.
 
Also on nappies, some children get a rash from certain makes, our two daughters could not use Pampers, we had to go with Huggies Gold. Keep this in mind and save all those slips. Most shops will exchange without too much fuss.

Be prepared to spend a lot on nappies, depending on the child they can have a runny tummy 5 times or more a day in the beginning (first couple of months). That large pack of nappies melt away almost overnight. When they pass a more solid stool (not the watery yellow muck :sick: ) it gets better, but then they wee a lot more. :p

If your wife is going to breastfeed she will need to prep her nipples for this. She can talk to a pharmacist for over the counter ointment or advice. The sucking of the baby can cause the nipples to tear and it is incredibly painful for the wife.
 
Lupus said:
Having just had our first 2 months ago, most of the advice here is sound, don't really stock up on anything as of yet, also not sure why everyone is advising size 3 nappies which is for 4 to 9kgs, you should look at 2 which is from 2 to 5, also Dischem have a range of nappies called Panda which having tried every nappie brand out there is quite good and it's decently priced too.
Also have you decided if it's going to be natural or c-sec, breast or bottle fed? At 6 months you've really not got a lot of time left, especially if the little one decides they are coming early and it can happen.
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size 3 is the nappy that you will use the most - almost 5 months = around 15 packets
size 5 is the one thats going to bankrupt you, because you use that until your baby stops wearing nappies., my son is 2 years old now & I am on my 45th packet of size 5 nappies :) (yep, I stocked up ALOT while I was preggies)
 
ice_cubes said:
size 3 is the nappy that you will use the most - almost 5 months = around 15 packets
size 5 is the one thats going to bankrupt you, because you use that until your baby stops wearing nappies., my son is 2 years old now & I am on my 45th packet of size 5 nappies :) (yep, I stocked up ALOT while I was preggies)
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.... and then you get to size 6 ;)
 
Two useful books - Baby Love by Robin Barker and Baby Sense by Lucretia Splinters.

We used fitted cloth nappies. They can be used from infant to toilet training.
 
Regarding medical aid. IMO It is important to get on medical aid now because you would like the child to be covered if premature delivery happens. In private hospital a neo-natel care costs about R100K per day. So you want medical aid to cover it. We are on Medihelp key care. Costs about R 2500 for two people and the baby. The baby cant be on medical aid until it is born and a certificate is issued. You disclose that your wife is pregnant when signing up. The medical aid will not pay for the birth but will cover the baby.
 
Oh and try to avoid Discovery. They have a great sales pitch but they have a bad reputation when it comes to paying doctors and clients. Try Selfmed or Medihelp.
 
EMU said:
Regarding medical aid. IMO It is important to get on medical aid now because you would like the child to be covered if premature delivery happens. In private hospital a neo-natel care costs about R100K per day. So you want medical aid to cover it. We are on Medihelp key care. Costs about R 2500 for two people and the baby. The baby cant be on medical aid until it is born and a certificate is issued. You disclose that your wife is pregnant when signing up. The medical aid will not pay for the birth but will cover the baby.
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+1

You never know what medical emergencies you might encounter once the baby is born & whether or not your baby will be a preemie or need special care. Also, try to get an option that pays for immunisation as well - if its not too expensive.

Eitherwise, you can still get your baby imminisations from Clicks (costs around R75) or any mediclinic hospital ( costs around R60)
 
DJ Yoda said:
Hi there,
Uh, here we go, my wife is 6 months pregnant, so, all the questions.

1. to start with - we haven't decided on the hospital yet. Any advice?
Details: we are in Cape Town, our budget is quite limited - around R15k, none of us is on Medical Aid

2. prenatal/antenatal classes - are they worth it?
What would be the good price range? providers that you recommend?

3. Very imortant question - I want my baby to be on medical aid, at least hospital plan, or (if there is any) some sort of special plan for babies. Whats the best way to go about it? Any recommended brokers/companies? What sort of premiums I'd pay?

4. Any important steps I should be taking now, at this very moment, well, apart from saving as much as possibe money? :)

Any/All advices, links, references wil be greatly appreciated.
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1. Where are you based, in Cape town, you also dont want to be to far from the hospital, as baby can come anytime of day, and they come at their pace. I can suggest a wonderful hospital, Mowbray Maternity hospital. They are not expensive, and are midwife let. With gynea on call incase things need intervention. Pray that you dont need a c-section, that can fork out of the pocket up to R30k. With first babies you just dont know hey!

2. They are worth it, esp doing a extra class on breastfeeding. Find a good lactation consultant, preferably through La Leche League. http://www.llli.org/southafrica.html It will really really help her to train herself a bit, and NO it does not come naturally in many cases.

3. We are on Discovery Coastal Core. Very very happy, with anything hospital. You need to find the best medical aid. BUT...you must just make sure, according to my knowledge, they wont cover baby for the birth or anything. Probably only once baby is born.

4. There is a wonderful forum you can go on called www.calorababy.co.za. There you can ask questions, etc etc etc. As you are not on medical aid, I would suggest your wife get her hospital bag ready(as if you are on MA you will get a bag from them with everything you need). If you are interested, I can pm you lists. The most important thing your wife can do now is relax, rest, and find a good lactation consultant.

Another thing that is important and will help your wife a lot is decide on one persons advise, eg your mother, or aunt or whatever. She will be driven crazy with tons and tons of advise coming from everything, ridiculous things like get the baby on solid food at age 2 week etc. Decide what approach you want to take like Attachment parenting, or more strict. Parenting is really a road of trial and error. You learn as you go along. I have 2 boys of 3 and a half and nearly 2, and I tell you, they teach me something new every day! It is a wonderful journey.

Pm me for anything else. I am more than happy to help!

*ps - this is Cerebus's wife
 
It was recommended to us that if we were going to have the baby in hospital with a gynaecologist that we also arrange a midwife or doula. The doctor will almost certainly leave your wife alone for long periods. The midwife or doula will stay with her the whole time, support her and let her know what is going on. The other option is to have a midwife as primary and hire a birthing room, keeping the gynaecologist as a backup if problems arise.

Regarding scans, don't have any more than absolutely medically necessary. They are low risk, but there is no point having any that are not absolutely required, and that includes these 4D scans.

cerebus said:
Another thing that is important and will help your wife a lot is decide on one persons advise, eg your mother, or aunt or whatever. She will be driven crazy with tons and tons of advise coming from everything, ridiculous things like get the baby on solid food at age 2 week etc.
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We just took what we agreed with and politely ignored anything we considered nonsense.
 
noxibox said:
It was recommended to us that if we were going to have the baby in hospital with a gynaecologist that we also arrange a midwife or doula. The doctor will almost certainly leave your wife alone for long periods. The midwife or doula will stay with her the whole time, support her and let her know what is going on. The other option is to have a midwife as primary and hire a birthing room, keeping the gynaecologist as a backup if problems arise.
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Is a midwife actually even necessary in a hospital? I didn't see the need for one and was with my wife the whole time. All the nurses kept her upto date on what's happening the whole time, and the gynecologist did the delivery, with the pediatrician by his side the whole time. My baby was born prem @ 38weeks, and went straight to ICU with low blood sugar. She was released 5 days later and we could see her as often, and as much as we wanted to.

noxibox said:
Regarding scans, don't have any more than absolutely medically necessary. They are low risk, but there is no point having any that are not absolutely required, and that includes these 4D scans.
.
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Ours cost R300 per scan (medical aid paid) but we felt it necessary to have extra scans closer to birth since my baby was big'ish and my wife developed "birth diabetics" in the last few weeks. She was taken in with high blood pressure & high blood sugar the Thursday afternoon, after doing a "routine scan", and had a Cesarean the next morning.

A friend of ours recently (I think she's 17weeks pregnant now?) discovered on her scan that her baby boy could have downs-syndrome. She actually considered abortion, but many friends talked her out. Another scan, 2 weeks later revealed he is healthy and fine and there's no downs-syndrome.


So the scans all depend on your wife, and baby's health.


OH, and get some of those pregnancy health kits & Dischem. It's a purple box and contains all the vitamins she and the baby needs right now. I honestly don't know if it was absolutely necessary but felt it didn't cause any harm to take the pills and rather be safe then sorry.
 
ice_cubes said:
+1

You never know what medical emergencies you might encounter once the baby is born & whether or not your baby will be a preemie or need special care. Also, try to get an option that pays for immunisation as well - if its not too expensive.

Eitherwise, you can still get your baby imminisations from Clicks (costs around R75) or any mediclinic hospital ( costs around R60)
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The prices on the immunisations is entirely dependant on the clicks and the stock of vaccines they get, we've been to various Clicks, pharmacists, hospitals etc, not one has ever cost R75, in fact the cheapest so far was R680.
 
Lupus said:
The prices on the immunisations is entirely dependant on the clicks and the stock of vaccines they get, we've been to various Clicks, pharmacists, hospitals etc, not one has ever cost R75, in fact the cheapest so far was R680.
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You can also get them done at the government clinic for free :) The ones in Evenvale, and Bedforview are pretty decent.

But, some some of the shots can only be gotten from private clinics.
 
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