Preparation for Hospital Delivery | Packing Maternity Bag

A child care facility that is trusted by 85,000+ mothers, Cloudnine is an award winning hospital that provides all the support you require during pregnancy. From conception to the birth of your baby, we make sure to prepare you in a manner that reduces the jitters and complexities from the process of child birth.

We have gone the extra-mile to help mothers prepare for this stimulating time. This helps them know exactly what to expect when they get there. Our preparation for delivery includes counselling, prenatal care, post-delivery care, and gynaecologist services, among others. Consult us to better understand each stage of pregnancy, sharpen your skills and make the process even more exciting.

Packing Essentials

As the time of delivery gets closer, you are both excited and apprehensive at the same time. Being prepared will go a long way in ensuring you have the experience of a lifetime. When to Report To the Hospital

• Onset of labour pains

• Vaginal discharge(watery/blood)

• Markedly reduced foetal movement

Packing Guide

For Mom

For Baby

• 3 front open loose nighties/loose track pants and shirts

• Sanitary pads

• Disposable panties

• Feeding bras

• Socks & slippers

• Clothing

• Your regular medication (if any) such as inhalers, diabetic medication, etc.

• Camera/ video camera

• 3 front open loose nighties/loose track pants and shirts

• Sanitary pads

• Disposable panties

• Feeding bras

• Socks & slippers

• Clothing

• Your regular medication (if any) such as inhalers, diabetic medication, etc.

• Camera/ video camera

Note: The clothes that you buy for your baby should be “newborn” size and not for 0-3 month olds.

Are you ready for the finale?

Relaxation Exercises During Pregnancy

Relax, It’s Good for You and Your Baby

You might have read self-help books about pregnancy. You are cautious about what you eat, wear and even think. However, while caring for your budding baby’s wellbeing, are you taking equal care of yourself? Are you ignoring that niggling pain in your neck or back because you are also a working professional with little time to focus on yourself?

What if we told you that with just a few minutes to spare, you can be healthy and ache-free without making too much effort? Sounds too good to be true? Actually, it isn’t.

Besides following a healthy diet, working women can stay healthy during pregnancy by staying as active as is possible. Often, pregnant women complain of pain in their neck, shoulders, abdomen, knees as well as swelling of their feet. Walking about frequently instead of sitting for a longer time is a good way to avoid this muscle soreness.

Maintaining the right posture is not just advisable, but is actually important, throughout pregnancy. Poor posture can lead to joint and muscle pain. If your job requires you to be seated for long hours, make it a habit to sit with your back straight against your chair’s back and keeping both feet planted firmly on the floor. If you are always on your toes at work, sit for a few minutes every half hour and do calf stretching or ankle rotation exercises before getting on the move again.

Relaxation Exercises for Working Pregnant Women

Take micro-breaks for a couple of minutes every half hour, so that your muscles do not bunch up. Think up of tasks like walking up to a colleague to enquire about her dinner plans or helping another with their work. Keep a timer on your desk and every half hour move your eyes away from your laptop to look in the distance. Use this time to rotate your shoulders and move your neck from side to side. This will relax your eye, neck and shoulder muscles.

If you feel tense or tired after a long day’s work, try deep breathing and meditation. Taking deep breaths increases oxygen supply throughout the body, which relaxes the mind, while meditation helps drain the body’s stress. Cover your left nostril and inhale deeply from the right and then cover the right nostril and exhale from the left – doing this several times throughout the day. You can also inhale deeply through your nose and then exhale through your mouth.

As you progress in your pregnancy, it is a good idea to enroll in prenatal classes at your chosen hospital. Your healthcare providers will suggest apt exercises especially for your physical condition. Nonetheless, do not ignore the above-mentioned easy-to-perform exercises and incorporate them as part of your daily regimen. After all, your body and your baby can’t thank you enough for keeping yourself healthy.

Breathing Techniques During Labour

Breathing Right

Have you noticed that as you progress into pregnancy, you are often out of breath? This is because your body is working overtime to provide enough oxygen for your baby and you. The next time you feel tired, try taking deep and measured breaths, and you will feel relaxed within moments.

Similarly, breathing correctly can help you tremendously during labor, by maximizing the amount of oxygen available to your baby and you. This in turn helps you handle contractions better and push the baby out with more ease.

Do you find this hard to believe? Then let’s understand how breathing right can help you deliver a healthy baby, without too much stress on either of you.

Learning to Breathe Correctly

During your prenatal consultations, most doctors discuss breathing techniques that you can follow during labor. These include cleansing breath, slow breath, blow breath and patterned breathing.

These breathing styles enrich your muscles with more oxygen helping them function more effectively, leading to lesser pain during labor. Since your mind will focus on breathing, you will be distracted from the discomfort of the moment. Similarly, with adequate oxygen supply, your baby’s heart rate will be better helping in smooth birthing.

Once the labor pains begin, sometimes, mothers-to-be panic and take shallow breaths, which leave them breathless. Others tend to push baby harder initially but soon feel drained out.

This is why reputed hospitals organize prenatal classes for their patients where they educate expecting mothers on the correct breathing techniques during labor. They also teach the patients on how to push slowly while breathing correctly, so that the labor time is shorter and relatively easy.

Give a Push

When the cervix is dilated to 10 cm, your doctor will ask you to start pushing. At this time, inhale deeply and hold your breath for a moment, before you exhale deeply while bringing your chin to the chest.

Whilst pushing, hold your breath and use the same muscles you use during a bowel movement. Attempt to hold your breath while pushing to the count of 10. Then release your breath and quickly repeat the entire process. Ideally, you should attempt to get three pushes with each contraction.

As easy as this may seem, getting the hang of breathing techniques requires some practice and the right guidance. The mother-to-be also requires concentration during a contraction, and incorrect breathing could increase heighten her fear or pain. The brain’s response to panic and pain can cause a reduction in blood flow to the uterus.

If ever there was a good reason on checking with your doctor about prenatal classes that focus on breathing techniques, this is it! Constantly practicing various breathing methods will make it a reflexive reaction when you are in labor. So keep practicing it at every chance you get and get ready to tide through the birthing process without getting bogged down by too much pain.

Am I In Labour?

How Will I Know When I Am In Labour?

It is said that labour pains are reportedly so unique that an expectant mother will know within minutes when she is ready for delivering her baby. Yet, some women have such a high threshold of pain that they often deal with the discomfort until they are well into active labour. This is one reason why your doctor will educate you on identifying when you are in labour and need to head to the hospital.

In your third trimester, as you near your delivery date, rush to the doctor if you experience any, or all, of the following:

• Pain in the lower back or thigh

• Painful cramps in the lower abdomen

• Spotting or discharge of blood

• Discharge of the amniotic fluid either as a steady leakage or in a gush

• Contractions at regular intervals with increasing frequency. During active labour, the time gap between each contraction reduces and the pain intensifies.

During the visit, your doctor will physically examine you and see if your cervix has dilated sufficiently to signify active labour. Sometimes, women might experience false labour symptoms, which is very common. Do not feel embarrassed if your doctor identifies your symptoms to be those of false labour; it is a common enough phenomenon. When it comes to birthing, it is better to err on the side of caution.

After examining the patient, if the doctor feels that the labour is still hours or days away, you will be sent home. Your doctor might ask you to visit the hospital every couple of days for a checkup and to determine if you are on the onset of labour.

Calling the Doctor

Whenever you have the slightest hint that you might be in labour, do not hesitate to give your doctor a call. They are trained professionals and are used to answering women who might not be sure whether or not they are in labour.

However, when should you call your doctor? In case you experience any of the following, immediately pick up the phone and discuss it with your doctor:

• You feel a persistent moistness and suspect that it is the leakage of amniotic fluid

• Your baby has not made at least 10 movements in 24 hours

• You have constant pain in the abdomen and lower back

• You start bleeding heavily

In case your doctor feels you are in labour, you need to rush to the hospital immediately.

It helps if you plan for the delivery protocol with your family in advance and keep a bag of essentials ready. It will avoid any confusion while you need to be taken to the hospital. Ensure you have a close family member or friend with you throughout delivery, as their presence can help. And once you are in labour, just relax and let your body and your doctor take over.

Pain Relief During Your Delivery

The image of women thrashing on a bed, clutching the bed sheet and screaming in agony before dropping off in relief after giving birth to the hero is one that most Bollywood movie lovers have watched with a pang in their heart. It had led to the belief that birthing has to be the most traumatic suffering a human being can ever endure.

Well, reel life differs from real life. Yes, labour pain can be intense, but many women have gone through it and have lived to raise huge families. Luckily for the 21st century women, they have science on their side. And science has come up with many pain relief methods to ease labour pangs.

Pain Relievers During Pregnancy

Many women prefer normal deliveries without any medical assistance, but an increasing number of expectant mothers prefer to take some kind of pain medication to deal with labour. It is best to discuss these options well in advance with your doctor before your delivery, so you have a clear picture about the kind of medications that will be used and its effects.

Usually doctors recommend pain relief medication depending on the nature of the labour, how long it takes for the baby’s birth, as well as the physical condition of the mother. If the woman can handle the labour pains, even for a long period, without too much discomfort, the doctor might not consider offering any pain relief medication, unless the patient expressly asks for it.

However, in case, a woman is unable to endure the pain and asks for medication, here are some medications that can be offered:

Systemic Medications

These are painkillers, which will take the edge off the pain for a while and reduces pain throughout the body and not just the pelvic area. It helps in relaxing the mother and makes delivery easier. It is often given as an injectable, though it could also be intravenously administered.

Epidural

This is amongst the most common pain relief medication preferred by expectant mothers. It is administered through a thin tube that is inserted in the lower spinal area and it gives the entire lower part of the body relief from the labour pain.

It is given on regular intervals through the tube during the labour, as the effect of the medication wears off.

Spinal Block

This is slightly different from an epidural because in this case the medication is injected directly into the spinal fluid, instead of the membrane that surrounds your spinal cord and spinal fluid. Once injected, the pain is kept at bay for a few hours.

Your doctor is the best judge of the kind of medication to be given to manage labour pain. The nature of medication also varies on the stage of labour – whether it is early or active labour. During early labour, you could be given analgesic inhalers to handle the pain. However, in active labour, an epidural is a better choice.

While it helps to discuss your medical options in advance, during labour let your doctor decide what is the best option.

What to expect In a C-Section

When a baby is delivered surgically through an incision made in the mother’s uterus, the procedure is called a Cesarean section, or C-section. While most doctors prefer that the baby is delivered through regular labour, certain medical conditions necessitate the need for medical intervention in delivering the baby.

These could include some of the following instances:

• Your baby displays signs of fetal distress

• Your labour is going on for too long and both the baby and you are tired

• The baby passes stool, called meconium, in the uterus

• The umbilical cord slips through your cervix, cutting off the baby’s oxygen supply

Sometimes your doctor might advise a C-section well in advance, also called a planned C-section. Some of the reasons for this include the following conditions:

• Your baby is in breech position

• Your placenta is very low and covers the cervix

• You are carrying more than one baby

• Your baby is large and a vaginal delivery is difficult

• You have some complications like a large fibroid in the uterus

Preparing for a C-Section

Your doctor will first explain to you why a C-section is needed to deliver the baby and you have to fill up some consent and indemnity forms. While many hospitals permit the spouse to be present during the process, please check about this with your doctor and your spouse.

While preparing you for the surgery, a nurse will give you an antacid to avoid any nausea once you recover from the anesthesia. The doctor might consider giving you an enema to empty your stools and loose the intestines, and inserting a catheter into your urethra to remove any urine, but this is not a must in all cases. An intravenous (IV) drip will be injected for administration of medication during the surgery and for the post-operation recovery.

Once you are prepped for the surgery in the operation room, an anesthetist will give you general anesthesia, which will make you unconscious or local anesthesia, which numbs the lower part of your body – after assessing your condition. An antibiotic will be administered through the IV to prevent any infection during and after the surgery.

Once you are sedated, the doctor will make a small, horizontal cut in the skin above your pubic bone and work the way to the uterus. Another cut is made in the lower section of uterus, which will help the doctor pull the baby out. Next, the umbilical cord is cut and stapled and a pediatrician will take over to run the APGAR tests on the newborn.

During this time, your doctor will stitch up incisions and clean you up. Unlike earlier days, these days doctors use dissolvable stitches which are absorbed by the body and do not need to be cut and removed later. Then, you will be taken to your room where the doctor will monitor your condition for some time. Once you have gained complete consciousness you can hold and feed your baby.

For the initial couple of days the catheter and IV will remain and you will be bed bound. Once your doctor feels that your internal wounds are beginning to heal, you will be permitted to walk around. You might be in the hospital for around 5 days before the doctor gives you an all-clear signal to go home.

Before you are discharged from the hospital, your doctor will discuss various medications you need to take for your pain, some antibiotics to ward infections and medicines that will help you heal better. You will also be given a diet chart to follow and a schedule for your postnatal visits.

Once home, if you experience any problems while passing stools, urine or moving around, excessive bleeding, weakness, etc., do not hesitate to call your doctor. It always helps to keep your doctor in the know about any physical issues you face, and let he or she be the judge of when you need medical support.