As I mentioned earlier, I recently met my "backup" midwife, Katrina. Katrina is different from Elizabeth in many ways. She is older. She is not quite as stylish. Her hair is messier. She seems to be less laid back. She has a midwifery student tagging along with her everywhere she goes. The student's name is Allison. Allison was so nice that I didn't mind the fact that there were two people interrogating me rather than just one. Katrina is nice too. She seems very confident and answered my questions readily. She will probably make a good team with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is very calm and quiet; Katrina seems to have more of a "take charge" personality. So together I can see how they could handle any type of situation. This is a good thing. When I think about it logically, I'm glad to have two midwives who are very different and therefore probably more able to handle diverse sets of circumstances.
Emotionally, though, I think I just respond to Elizabeth better. Well, maybe better isn't the best word to use here; but I just feel more comfortable with Elizabeth. Of course, I have had numerous appointments with Elizabeth and only one with Katrina, so that might have something to do with it. But I also think that personality is a factor. I like and respond better (in most cases) to people who are more laid back.
Katrina isn't aggressive or anything; I am probably making her sound horrible, but she isn't at all. As I said, she was very nice. Very professional. Their conflicting personalities, however, did lead to one sort of awkward situation. At my last appointment with Elizabeth, she discussed with me the possibility of doing a test for Gestational Diabetes at my next appointment. I'd read a bit about this test and questioned Elizabeth about it; yes, there are issues with the test in that it is not always the most reliable and gives many false positives. There also isn't really much you can do about Gestational Diabetes even if you do turn out to be positive, besides eating properly and exercising, which I am doing already. In telling me all this, Elizabeth seemed to be (to me) suggesting that it wasn't really necessary and she seemed quite okay with it when I said that I would "probably" decline the test.
Katrina, on the other hand, seemed to be pro-test. When I got to the clinic I had to do the usual pee-on-a-stick routine to test for things like blood, protein and glucose in the urine. So it turned out that that morning my glucose was a little bit elevated (every other time it had been normal). This is unfortunate because I'd pretty much decided that I didn't want the test and told Katrina that. She did tell me that the elevated glucose might not mean anything because some women just "spill glucose" as she put it. She also said that glucose is more likely to be "spilled" in the morning. This was a 9:30am appointment. So while she's telling me all these reasons why this test result might not mean anything, I still got the impression that she wanted me to take the test. When I questioned the test's accuracy she told me that it's the only test they have for GD, so there's no other option. When I told her that it didn't matter if I was positive or not because I already eat well and exercise every day, she didn't seem to believe me (or at least that was the impression I got, since she didn't say anything in response to this).
In the end, she did write down in my file that I'd declined the test but told me that we should monitor the glucose level just in case. Well, just to spite that test I have resolved to eat healthier than ever. I will do the best that I can because I'm quite positive that there is nothing wrong with me and any positive test result would be a false positive!
Anyway, after all that, here are the details that I'm sure you've all been waiting for: at the appointment the baby's heartbeat was 144 bpm and it was in breech position (which means nothing at this early stage as it's still got lots of room to move around--and move around it does!). From my appointment at 20 weeks, my uterus has grown 6 inches which is a very normal growth rate of 1 inch per week. After this past appointment I will be seeing my midwives every 2 weeks instead of once per month. This is because after next week I will be in the third trimester! I can't believe it either.
And the last exciting thing: Tim and I start our childbirth classes on March 31. Whee!
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