What to do with the placenta?

Had my first visit from the midwife last week and she gave me some information about birth centres/giving birth in NZ. Included is a 'birth plan' worksheet which goes through all the various parts of pregnancy/labour/birth/post birth and all the various things that I can choose from. One of these includes what I want to do with the placenta, after the birth including - seeing it, or keeping it.

Now I know that in some cultures it is normal to keep the placenta (including Maori culture). But what I wasn't aware of is the options for what people actually do with it. Just by coincidence I ended up in a conversation with a couple of women the other day - one who has planted the placenta from each child under individual fruit trees; the other made them into capsules (through a process of steaming it, cutting it into thin slices, drying in the oven, then crushing into a powder and putting into capsules) to take just like a vitamin. Apparently it has a whole lot of hormones in it which are good for you (especially when you are going through menopause). They also told me about some mothers who just cook it up and eat it like a piece of meat.

My experience/involvement with my placentas in the past is: with Ben, they showed it to me to show that it was intact - it was kind of cool to see, looked like a dark red pancake. With Joanna, I don't recall seeing it or anything. I haven't decided what I'll do this time round, it's not really a big issue to me. I am interested to know what other experiences/choices people have had with their placentas. So what have you done with yours?

I have a midwife...

After asking a few people for recommendations for midwives (ok I asked my 3 friends - all who have had babies in Hamilton in the last couple of years - plus the list the Dr gave me); a strange phone call; waiting a week; and another phone call...I now have a midwife. And best of all, she does home visits for all her visits - which means I don't have to worry about working out what to do with the kids when I've got appointments! I'm seeing her for the 1st time on Thursday afternoon.

Current pregnancy craving...

...KFC. Particularly the original recipe chicken and chips. Had it for lunch on Monday, then had it for morning tea today! Apart from it being extremely unhealthy, it is pretty expensive. So I have to limit my visits to when the kids aren't with me.

Antenatal care in NZ

Thought I'd post about the nature on Antenatal care in NZ (well what I know so far) as it is a bit different to QLD/AUS.
Every NZer is entitled to free care while they are pregnant - including a single midwife to see you throughout you whole pregnancy.
You get to choose a midwife to see throughout your pregnancy and who is also required to attend the birth. You don't have to go to the Dr for anything - the midwife is allowed to order tests, scans etc.
You also have a choice of where you give birth, either at home, a birth centre, or the hospital (all free of charge). The birth centres here are just kind of like 'private hospital' style places, with single rooms, nice food etc. - they do have the whole baths and everything to do the more natural birth, but they aren't no drug places (except you can't get an epidural there - if you decide you want one you have to get transferred to the hospital).
That's all I can think of for now.

Soft cheese and pregancy - danger or not?

Since moving to NZ we have been taking advantage of the good variety of quality brie and blue cheeses they make here. Hence now that I am pregnant, I'm having withdrawal symptoms from it and want to eat some (especially when Peter is eating it right in front of me). So this has led to some more research into the subject of what is the problem with eating soft cheese while pregnant.

Here are some summary points that we have discovered/observed from our research:

• In Australia, the reason they tell you not to eat soft cheese while pregnant is because it may contain lysteria (mostly a problem with cheese made with unpasteurised milk)
  
• lysteria is a bacteria which is present in a number of foods we eat everyday, but consuming it doesn't have any adverse effects on the average human adult
• lysteria may cause miscarriage in pregnant women, although how high of a risk it poses is not really known
• In countries where the consumption of soft cheese is an everyday part of the culture, they don't seem to worry about pregnant women eating it (including France where a number of their soft cheeses are made with unpasteurised milk).
• In countries where the consumption of soft cheese is not an everyday part of the culture, then they seem to be overly cautious and advise pregnant women not to eat it (pasteurised or not).

So this means for me both Australia and NZ advise not to eat it. Whereas my pregnant sister in Denmark has not been advised to change her cheese eating habits at all.

Catering for a pregnant woman...

Mel: I feel like a toasted cheese sandwich.
Me: OK.
Mel: But I don't feel like the really really mild Edam cheese - the flavour's too strong.
Me: OK. What sort of cheese do you want then?
Mel: Ummm... some really strong blue cheese would be good.
Me: mmm... right.

Strange pregnancy dreams...

As a lot of you would know pregnancy hormones cause you to have some very strange and vivid dreams. Well last night I dreamed that Peter was flying a small plane (a 2 seater job with me in the passenger seat) to the airport to catch an international flight. Except he had forgotten to book a space to park the small plane, so we went to the airport caravan park to see if they had a space where we could park it! Then on our international flight we were travelling in 1st class which was at the back of the plane, not the front like normal.