Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Domino midwife-led care at the Rotunda: a first time mother's experience

From September through to March when my baby was born I was registered with the Domino scheme at the Rotunda.  Prior to that I was living in the UK so I was getting my antenatal care solely through the NHS. I was really keen to have my birth experience as midwife-led as possible. I am uncomfortable with the medicalisation of childbirth and pregnancy and know midwives to be more than competent when it comes to the excellent work they do helping women to give birth. 

I wanted that experience for myself especially as, faced with the prospect of giving birth in Ireland, I was very worried about the implications of religious influences on healthcare (and the rhetoric about the 8th Amendment, quite frankly, had me scared senseless, something which was unfounded, I came to realise). As it turned out, the Domino scheme was just right for me. The midwives were at all times professional and caring, and the early release from the hospital was exactly what I wanted. Their postnatal care was an absolute godsend. That being said, there were some issues I had with the scheme, mostly from an organisational point of view, and I will discuss these too.

What is the Domino scheme?

Domino is midwife-led antenatal and postnatal care 'in the community'. For low-risk women there is the option of attending a health centre in the local area to have checkups with midwives. This means you can avoid going into the busy and often frenetic Rotunda outpatients for your checkups, which are frequent. If you need any specific checks, you can just go into the Rotunda and a Domino midwife will do what needs to be done. I had to go in for an extra ultrasound to check baby wasn't in breach (she wasn't, she just had a big bum that felt like a head!) and she just told me at 11 am that morning to meet her there at 2 pm, and I was in and out within ten minutes.

Postnatally, a community midwife will visit you for up to a week. I can only speak for my own experience, but the midwives checked mysutures (stitches for tears, most women will tear a little), checked my mental and physical wellbeing (a bit ironic really, the time you need the most sleep and rest is the time of your life you will not get it), weigh your baby (crucial in the early days), and offer breastfeeding support (latch latch latch, ladies).

The Domino midwives also have a mobile number you can ring 8am-8pm and while they don't always answer it (high demand) I was able to reach them a number of times for specific information.

Getting on the Domino scheme

I called the Rotunda in advance to ask about the scheme. The website didn't mention Killester, the area I was living in Dublin 5, but I was really relieved to hear that I would be covered. In fact, we moved just before the birth, to Donabate, Co. Dublin, and again the midwives were happy for me to continue my Domino care. Luckily, they have a clinic in Swords which is nearby. At my booking appointment I inquired about the Domino scheme and was referred to the Darndale clinic from that point on. 

The practicalities of the Domino visits

I attended the Darndale clinic because I was told it was heavily undersubscribed (territorial stigma, eat your heart out).  I found the process to be wonderful. Since I am a PhD student it was no problem to have my appointments in the morning, so the Darndale clinic suited me better than, say, Coolock which were all in the evening.

I would cycle over for the appointment around 10am (I received a reminder text the night before) and combine some exercise and fresh air with the visit. The queuing system was somewhat disorganised, you took a number but there wasn't really any connection between these numbers and the midwives, it was just for us women to organise ourselves. It felt quite typically Irish, to be honest, and added to the feeling of confusion on my first visit, when I sat for over an hour waiting.

The appointments usually last between 10 and 20 minutes. Your urine is tested (when you're pregnant you pee in containers constantly), blood pressure checked, maybe a blood sample taken if you have low red blood cell count. Then you stomach is palpated and the midwife listens to baby's heart. There's always the opportunity to ask questions, and the midwives seemed to really cater their care to how they perceived my preferences to be. For example, I asked a lot about natural birth options, whether a Doula could be brought in (no, basically) etc. so I was recommended hypnobirthing a number of times.

You take your own medical file and keep it at home, which made me feel more involved overall.

The good and the bad

The maternity services in Ireland, like the health sector in general, are not the most efficient. That being said, during my antenatal, birth and postnatal care, I received a highly professional and caring service from all midwives and doctors. My only sources of stress stemmed from the administration of the care (breastfeeding support aside, but I will address that in another post). Unfortunately, how the system is structured really does affect how you will receive your care, so the two cannot be separated.

The 'goods' were plentiful. I received amazing care for highly qualified individuals, and got the opportunity to educate myself through antenatal classes and researching for and writing a birth plan. The appointments were convenient and short, and the clinic was quiet and not stress-inducing (the Rotunda, on the other hand, was very stress-inducing for me).

The bad - Postnatally, the midwives visit your home for up to a week. However, they don't give you a definite time-frame, it could be any time of the day. This uncertainty, coupled with a new baby, no sleep, recovery pain and a messy house, does nothing for your mental wellbeing. I was woken from brief naps several times by the buzz of the doorbell. A little forewarning of, for example, a three hour window in which they might call would have made all the difference. 

As mentioned above, the queuing system and general atmosphere behind the midwife's door was often chaotic. I don't like to be rushed, especially when I'm concerned about aspects of my care, or just really really confused, as I often was (hey, there's a lot to learn first time round). Depending on the midwife I met, we could either go through all my questions in detail until I was satisfied, or I could end up feeling, frankly, fobbed off. I persevered and eventually I got all the information I needed, but I do understand why many women end up being unprepared for their births and why misinformation abounds and intervention rates are so high.

Final thoughts

That the Domino scheme exists and operates so successfully is a huge credit to the maternity system. I would love to see a shift towards this type of care as standard. It would unburden the Rotunda hospital to an extent, and make life easier for women. If you value midwife-led care and the convenience of attending appointments nearer your home, and if leaving the hospital shortly after giving birth (I left 20 hours after delivery) is something you want, the scheme is really useful. Having a midwife visit your home is so handy, especially in the early days of breastfeeding. 

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Waiting waiting

Still patiently awaiting the arrival of Bab. It feels like every time I speak to a midwife, or any other human really, they ask me about 'pain' and feeling scared or worried. Since the beginning of human life, women have been birthing babies, without epidurals, pitocin or episiotimies. I'm really glad we have wonderful advances in medicine that mean there are only 10 maternal deaths per 100,000  in our part of the world (source), but I don't for a second believe that the regularity with which interventions are undertaken for routine and low-risk births are helpful for anyone. Nor that the fear, uncertainty and lack of education around what happens during pregnancy, labour and the post-natal period is helpful at all, in the slightest, for any of us. It's incredibly dis-empowering. I'm sure the birth will be fine, in fact I'm looking forward to it a lot. A test of mental and physical strength, with a great present at the end, what could be better?

We've received so many flowers, cards and gifts to welcome us into our new home and for our impending arrival, it's really sweet and a little overwhelming, but in a good way. So many changes this year, it's so lovely to see how much people care. 





Until our arrival...arrives, you'll find me in the kitchen sitting on my exercise ball, editing my PhD, cooking, hoovering, reading Nordic crime fiction, and generally being super chill. 

Monday 3 October 2016

A wee update

It's been a while since I've written here. The truth is, I've been busy. Very busy. We're in the midst of planning for one major life-altering event, and several smaller life-altering events.

First, I am expecting a baba. This first-time, mind blowing event took over my entire being for about four and a half months, and it's only in the last week or so that I've begun to feel like an independent entity again. Aside from the emotional preparation and shift in thinking that had to take place, physically it took a huge toll on me. Round the clock nausea in the first 12 weeks were later replaced by gastro-intestinal issues I don't need to go into here. I was so tired for the first few months I was worried I'd never manage to do anything PhD related again. But I'm slowly and determinedly getting back to my old self, or as much of that old self as I can get back. Accepting changes, adapting and embracing all the new, wonderful things happening to me has been an incredible process. 

Secondly, I'm moving back to Ireland. Well, I'm in Ireland right now, but I'm renting out my room  in Durham soon and moving back officially at the end of October. Doubling up on hospital appointments and ante-natal care, and flying back and forth for me and Leo is no longer practical. I want us to enjoy this experience together, in one place, our home, so that means I'll be working from my desk in UCD from now on. It also means finding a new home for the three of us, good things in the works in that respect. 

We're getting into the throes of autumn now, and I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures (I sweat a LOT in Summer) and abundance of produce. Long walks in Durham led to blackberry eating, and apples and plums have been made into crumbles and stewed with yoghurt. 

Now that I have an appetite again, I am vigorously spending as much time cooking, savouring those hours spent in the kitchen. And of course, eating a varied and healthy died is much better for me and the baba than spaghetti hoops and tinned rice pudding (don't judge me til you've been there, folks). In Durham I've been enjoying a lot of smoothies, and porridge is making a comeback. I'm also embracing pizza making, with Leo teaching me the ways of yeast, which I've never used before.




I'm cycling as much as humanly possible, my preferred mode of transport and exercise. Leo got me this gorgeous bike which is sturdy and fast, and I am looking forward to the many thousands of kilometers I will travel on it. I intend to cycle for as long in the pregnancy as is physically possible (heavily pregnant Danish cyclists are my inspiration here) and will start back with baby in tow as soon as is safe.



 Life is very good, have a good autumn!

Monday 6 June 2016

On the Go

I move around a lot. A few days a week, in Durham, where I have my 'own' place (and I love it), with all my bedding, most of my clothes, my own herbs and spices in the cupboard, and a stock pile of apple cider vinegar (not joking).

It used to bother me a lot, moving around so much. The day before I'd get a 'here we go again' sinking feeling and I wouldn't be able to live in the moment and just enjoy the experience of being where I was. Not looking to the past or anticipating an imagined future has been a really hard skill to develop, but I'm sort-of getting there.

Mostly it's just learned behaviour. What we repeatedly do, we become. Every five or six days, I take a plane and arrive in my new home, either at midday or at midnight. I spend a few days there, embrace whatever's going on there, then head off again. No mess, no fuss. To be honest, it took a few years to get comfortable with moving around so much. But I got there in the end.

The things I have learned so far:

Have less things
Having way less stuff means less stuff to lug around with you, less stuff to keep organised, less stuff to clutter your line of vision and make you miserable, less stuff to maintain (servicing the 'stuff' is a big part of many peoples' lives, they just don't know it)

Learn what works for you
What will make your travel and hometime your most efficient self? Learn through trial and error, and do that. I've got the timings of my train and plane down, a backpack for laptop and shoulder bag for clothes, and two simultaneous sets of cards, keys and life-admin things carefully managed so it's all where I need it when I need it. No sweat.

Don't have a lot of different types of clothes
I know 'capsule wardrobes' are a huge thing right now, and that's cool. But the logic of having less clothes, and having clothes that go with all your other clothes, is just sound logic. I think people can become a bit of a slave to the capsule wardrobe-anticipating the changeover, documenting it etc. The idea for me is to have a setup where I can think as little as possible about the clothes I will wear but know they are all adequate. 

Learn to take comfort in the simple things
You know what's beautiful? A fresh bunch of flowers, or a houseplant that requires minimal water (heathers are indestructible), a nice smell of essential oils and a cup of tea. I painted my walls white and just walking into my bright room makes me smile. Those are the things that keep you feeling ok.

Make the most of wherever you are
When I'm in Durham, there's not a lot to do I'm interested in, but there's a great folk music community, so I go to a lot of sessions. Not only am I learning loads of new tunes, but I'm meeting great people. I went to a session in someone's house last week and it was amazing-good tunes, great snacks, and a glass of Scotch to finish! Wherever you are, embrace it. Don't think of what might be or what you're missing somewhere else.





Monday 4 April 2016

Pictures of things




My windowsill, with the Christmas plant that will not die, and Dublin, when we went for a long walk on the beach yesterday.

In between places

I'm getting into a rhythm of sorts. Monday morning, Halo taxi at 08:00, to the airport. Back in Durham by lunchtime. Unpack, do some work. Buy milk. Take a nap. Some sort of reverse culture shock because even though they're so close, they're so different. 

Living in between two places feels weird. Leo's life in Dublin is really starting to take form, and our house is so cosy there. But I really love my place in Durham too, and my life there is uncomplicated. I know what's expected of me. Given the choice I'd obviously rather be in Dublin, for now there is no alternative. So I travel back and forth, a fortnight here, a weekend there, whenever I can for as long as I can. 

I'm a very impatient person, but I'm trying my best.

 
Some things are eternally comforting. Like coming home to your own bathroom cabinet. Post on the table waiting. Doing laundry. Stocking the fridge with foods of your own choosing. The things we do to make the absences feel a little less.

Thursday 3 December 2015

Under the weather

It's been raining non stop for days. That is no exaggeration. Since I've been spending so much time traipsing around Dublin with a backpack, sitting on buses and getting rained on, it was inevitable that I would develop a cold. When Leo and I lived in London a couple of years ago, we shared a flat with an old Pakistani lady named Jamal. Among other things, she taught me a great trick: when you have a cold, a spoonful of honey with turmeric mixed into it is better than any pharmace-purchased cough medicine. 

So I took one of those, drinking lots of tea with honey, and hot water with lemon and honey. I have no doubt that I'll be cured in no time :)

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Good Stuff Bad Stuff


I am compiling a list of the positive and negative from the last three days, and in the spirit of channeling my inner Pollyanna (what I will have to name my girl-child now that the name Lyra has been stolen by a buddy of mine already) I am going to gloss over the negative and try to make the most of the positive. Through gritted teeth. It's been a really bad day.

Bad Stuff:

  • I left my mobile on my Aer Lingus flight and haven't gotten it back. I'm presuming it's lost in a between the seat dealie or someone stole it and I don't expect to get it back.
  • I spent 1.5 hours on a bus from Terenure to Dublin Airport yesterday in order to be told by a snarky airline rep that it wasn't their problem. Eh, yeah, duh, I know that, but you should exercise good customer service anyway and apologise cos it's a shit thing to lose your phone.
  •  I'm meant to be in Poland right now but decided to fore-go the trip in place of lots of driving lessons.
  • I had the worst driving lesson of my career today. I almost went through a red light on a busy road. In the words of The Pixies, where was my mind?

Good Stuff:

  • An attempt to plan the art activities programme at the charity I work at turned into an impromptu card making session with some residents. It was amazing, they were a joy. 
  • I had to wait an hour for bus from the airport to take me home so I got McDonalds, and it was actually the most comforting thing imaginable. I never ever do that, but some days just call for fat, sugar and carbohydrate laden junk.
  • I now get to purchase a shiny new mobile, with a better operating system and hopefully a better camera. 
  • There are more driving lessons, and 9 days until my test. The night is always darkest before the morn. We shall prevail.
  • Ryanair flights to Poland are incredibly cheap, and one day soon I'll be able to go to Krakow and visit Justyna and do all the fun things we were meant to do this time. 
 

 Now, people of the internet, you'll have to excuse me as I am drinking coffee and researching mobile telephone devices. Ciao!

Monday 29 July 2013

The Beach in Beautiful Weather

My friend has decided Donabate is her favourite beach in Dublin, and while Killiney and Portmarnock still hold my favour, I of course am more than happy to go on ice-cream and sun block saturated trips there, as we did several times over the summer.

The first was a dusk trip, after work for both my friends, but not for me, because of course I haven't worked in three weeks and lounge most days. The second, a venture into the water to swim on a hot Saturday afternoon with three small children in tow.

Ireland in the sun, there's nothing like it.








The waves here aren't nearly as wild as they are on the west coast (the Atlantic is the greatest) but I still had a blast splashing about on that rare occasion when the water is not icy. I miss it already.


Friday 12 April 2013

And It's Good to be Home From Time to Time

For the Easter break I managed to book a cheap-ish flight home, so I got to go back to Ireland for more than a week, the longest I've been home by a long shot since I first moved away. Being at home stirs so many emotions. There's really nothing like walking down a quiet Grafton St., headphones in, soaking up the feeling of memories collliding with who you are now. I don't know if I could bear to live in Ireland again, the colloquial preoccupations and conservative undertones are too much for me, but it feels amazing to go back and play pretend for a few days every now and then.

While at home, I visited Bewley's no less than twice, made several Bus Eireann journeys, cycled my old faithful mountain bike I've been riding around the block since the tender age of twelve, cleaned out my bedroom, watched Intermission, and saw all of the people I love the most.



This shelf, this one shelf, contains so many sources of emotion that I can't even. I don't even actually care about or like the Furby, but that doesn't change its significance. Incidentally, Leo's aunt published Wicked the book (sitting below the book from Caroline I borrowed years ago but never read), from her own publishing house, and I am probably more in awe of this fact than most facts that exist today.

In addition, I went to The Giant's Causeway in country Antrim with my friends. We all wore matching 'feck off rain' tshirts and listened to terrible music. And got lost coming home. I had a whale of a time. The signage read 'The North', which we all found too funny, because everyone casually refers to 'The North' but I never in a thousand years thought they'd take it far enough so as to put it on the official road signs.






Everyone told me I'd be disappointed, that the Causeway is very small and unimpressive, but it was absolutely breathtaking. We climbed all over the rocks for about an hour, in what had to be the only sunny day Ireland has had in a year. I in no way exaggerate, it is amazing.

Sadly all good things come to an end, and the trip flew by. This is a picture I took of my room. I think it is fitting. If you ever have to go to Ireland for some reason, fly with Aer Lingus because they are the friendliest, kitchiest airline in existence. It is an absolute pleasure. So many 'sorry now love, would you mind just....' from the crew. Never flying Ryanair again after that experience.



Take care, be nice, remember to stay hydrated.

Monday 11 March 2013

Long Time Passing

I know, I know, the blog posts are coming few and far between these days. The truth is, it takes such a long time to put a post together, and a lot of the time I'd rather be playing my flute or reading than sitting at the computer. That being said, this is my only written record of what I'm up to over here, so I have to keep up with it.

I've just finished my Monday joinery class. We cut wood to start a project, of which I shall explain more later. I had the best weekend; my friends from home visited, and I haven't giggled (or been thrown about by the wind) so much in months. It was the coldest weekend, because of the wind chill, that I've endured since moving here, for sure. I think we need to work backwards to go forwards, so I'll start where I left off, and update you on last week before going on about this weekend.

Pedagogically, last week was not the best, and I was a little disheartened because of it. Our lessons were, at times, unstructured, and there was a lot of being left to our own devices, with too little wood and tools that were in need of a good sharpening. The problem is I want to spend absolutely days, if not weeks, practicing the one joint over and over, but because of the nature of the course that's just not possible. So instead it feels like we're racing through things, and it makes me a little sad/frustrated that I can't get the most out of my time.

I made a promise to myself to stop comparing my progression to others in the class, to just go at my own speed, and to try and make less mistakes. Lots of tiny mistakes lead to an overall mediocre finished product. This week has started so much better. I'm making a flute box as a project, so I got my dimensions planned today, practiced a dovetail joint (disaster, but hopefully tomorrow will be better), got some wood and learned how to use the saw and planing machines properly in a small group.

Outside the world of woodwork, last week was a bit of a mixed bag. My ballet class went very well and I'm noticing some improvements in my posture. Our budgetting is going swimmingly, and I love how little we're spending here. I finished reading Slaughterhouse-5, which is definitely the most enjoyable book I've read in a long time. Unfortunately, the job I thought I would definitely have didn't quite work out. The langauge barrier was too big of an issue, and so I have to look elsewhere for employent. I'm going to go to the local Irish bars, where it's presumed you're an English speaker.

So, onwards to this weekend I think, as my dinner is waiting for me downstairs. The girls were delayed by a couple of hours at Dublin airport, but no harm done, as I met up with a friend who goes back home from the airport every day. I also really enjoyed the buzz of the Arrivals hall. I love airports, so I was more than happy to sit nearby with a coffee and watch the kids wave Danish flags and wait for their dads to get home. I also had a Danish flag, and at the modest hour of 22.00, some two hours after their expected arrival, two of my best friends arrived at my new home.

We took a train back to my apartment, giggling and joking the whole time. I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time. We took in the usual sights, the Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Andersen on his self-named street. We also ate a lot of cake, had delicious brunch, and went to a decidedly Twin Peaks-y karaoke bar. I couldn't believe how quickly the weekend flew by, but luckily just four days ago I booked flights home for Easter, a glorious 8 day trip. I am honestly so excited to go home and see all of my friends and family.

Ok, I'm going to wrap it up here, I'm off to eat some dinner before getting down to some future life planning I have to do. I'll post some pictures soon.

Saturday 23 February 2013

A Job

I always seem to land on my feet in terms of getting jobs of one kind or another. Maybe it's because I wasn't fussy when I was younger. Work is work, and I've done cleaning jobs, I've driven a rickshaw and I worked three different jobs the Christmas of my second year of college. I have the kind of mind and personality where I like to be busy. I usually have dance classes, some sort of music related activity, school and work on the go.

So, since I moved here three weeks ago, I figured it was about time I maximised my productivity, since we actually have so little class to go to. Ballet classes-check. Copious amounts of flute playing and session searching-check (would be nice if the pubs still existed though). Job-well, now it's a check in that regard too.

I sent out two emails in my 'Great Search For Employment'. Out of those two emails, I now have one job. It's lucky that I've worked in such a myriad of jobs, because now when people read my cv they're willing to give me a go and know that, without too much worry or training, I will probably be able to do a good job straight away. And this is exactly how things worked out.

I had been emailing the manager of a venue to discuss coming in to see about a job, when, out of the blue yesterday I received an email saying that some of his staff were sick and he really needed someone to work, and would I mind coming in. Well, yeah, sure I don't mind. So I cycled over to this venue a few hours later, and just started working.

It was certainly sudden but bar work is bar work and aside from cocktails (not yet) I'm pretty experienced at every aspect of working in a bar. It would just be me and two other guys manning the bar, running food, washing glasses and doing kitchen porter duties. No pressure. I jumped right into it and the only aspect I found hard was ringing things in in the till and cashing things off. I'm used to macros, super up to date sleek software. This machine was from the stone age. I still don't know how to use it.

Obviously I don't have more than about 5 words of Danish yet, so this was a bit...daunting rather than difficult. People were willing to speak English to me, and I even had some initially reluctant middle aged men regaling me with tales of reading books about the Irish famine and how much they loved Ireland within a couple of hours. The Danes are very polite, trusting and generally accommodating, and because it's a bar, you're free to banter and be a little sassy, so not speaking the language is not so much rude (as it might be in any other customer service environment), but can actually be turned into a talking point.

That being said, I can't wait to learn some conversational Danish so I can get through exchanges simply and not stick out like a sore thumb. So, I suppose I have a job now. I don't want to work too much, because my costs are quite low right now and the rate of pay in Denmark is pretty good. But I need to pay rent, save something and generally be autonomous. And, it wasn't that hard to actually get a job at all. Things are looking up for me.