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New moms predicaments!!

Lady Speak
 Babies are like technical gifts with no manual

Children are a gift from God, at least this is a cliché everyone is familiar with regarding this wonderful lot. However, sometimes these gifts are delivered to their recipients way before they are given a manual on how to receive, unwrap and handle the gifts. For this reason, many mothers find themselves in a horrifying world that only they can understand.

I remember the first time I saw my baby immediately after delivery, unlike most children who announce their arrival loud and clear, mine entered the world on vibration mode. For a moment, I found myself instructing the doctor on what to do to make her let out her first cry.

Still lying on the delivery table with my hand holding the midwife's neck tight ready to strangle him because of the labour I had experienced, I raised my head and shouted at the doctor to hold my baby upside down and slap her bum. I do not know if this helps new-borns in any way but because I had seen it in enough movies, it was the only way I could participate during this session.

The doctor then turned away giving me his back and before I knew it, my daughter had let out her first cry, it felt like someone was blowing a vuvuzela in the room but to me, it was my best moment of the day.

My confusing moments did not end there, that evening as I was admiring my bundle of joy, I realised she was just staring back at me with not a single expression. I tried moving to the left then to the right but she just lay still, as if I did not exist. I squeezed her index finger to see her reaction and still, none was forthcoming.

Even though I had limped for the better part of the day claiming I was still in pain, I suddenly felt like I could represent my country in a relay race, jumped from my bed and started running towards the nurse shouting that my daughter was in trouble. The same doctor I had been strangling during delivery rushed to where I was with a digital thermometer and a stethoscope in his hands. He quickly dashed past me and straight to my bed where he started examining the baby.

I got to him just in time to hear him let out a 'mmmh' sound then looked up at me as he shrugged his shoulders and asked me what the problem was. Confidently, I told him my baby was not recognising my presence. He asked me how and again in confidence, I told him I had been moving my face right and left before her but her eyes maintained the same position.

I am sure at this point he almost threw me out the window, this I could see from the expression on this face. Here I was getting facial expressions from other quotas and none from my daughter. He pulled a chair, sat next to my bed and whispered "You are not alone in this ward, mind other users and stop creating unnecessary scenes. Your baby is fine", he then just rose and walked away smiling.

I almost asked him for the thermometer to camp with it there just in case. The fact that he rushed to my aid with it in hand gave me so much trust in the thermometer. It was actually the first thing I bought once I was discharged from the hospital and from then on, you should have seen me checking my baby's temperature hourly even in the wee hours of the night! It was also the first thing I taught my help how to use, in fact, we tried it on her forehead the very day she arrived to work for me.I will not even go into details on how I one time raised alarm shouting at the top of my voice crying out to neighbours to come to my aid after my baby burped releasing a good amount of the milk she had breastfed through her nose! I am sure there are other mothers like me out there who wish they had been given a manual on how to receive, unwrap and handle these special gifts!

 

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