First Doctor Visit

Finally made it to the hospital today for my first prenatal appointment. We've decided to have the baby at the Catholic hospital here in town, it is small, super clean and well run. There are a lot of Spanish nuns everywhere who are super helpful. They also use midwives to deliver the babies, doctors only come in if there is any complications. The simpler the better for me so it is a perfect fit.

It was an extremely long morning though, left the house at 7:30am, got there at 8am and didn't leave the hospital till 1pm! There is a group of us that was there for the first time and you go through all these "stations" one at a time. First I went to register at reception, then headed to prenatal room. Waited about an hour, they got all my info... waited another hour... went back to reception to pay for lab work, go to pharmacy to pick up vitamins, Go to lab, get blood taken, back to prenatal room. Wait for midwife to come, another hour, get checked, all is good, PTL! (I'm 14 weeks along). Back to the waiting room... wait for lab results and for all the other women to see the midwife. Listen to midwife give 40 minute lecture about pregnancy. It was actually really good, all in pidgin (very proud of myself, understood everything). Got some more insight into Cameroonians and pregnancy. Lots of superstitions in different villages, such a women shouldn't eat eggs or sugar cane when pregnant... witch doctors cutting women to make them better... very interesting. The midwife was great and really let them know what was what.

After this, got a Tetnus shot, saw lab results, and was finally out of there. Praise God Jake was with me (the only husband there, poor thing) or I would have died of boredom. Next appointment shouldn't be so long, since this was the first one it is very thorough.