Kraamzorg

I know I have talked some about the Kraamzorg that came to the house after Ellie's birth but I wanted to go more indepth about my experience, partly because I want to remember it all and partly because many others have asked about it.

If you read Ellie's birth story, then you know that we were sent home from the hospital 4 hours after she was born. This is very typical in Dutch society (if you don't have a home birth). Depending on the time of day your baby is born and as long as you and baby are healthy, then you go home.  It is their thinking that you would be more comfortable in your own bed, surrounded by your own things than hanging out in a hospital for 24-48 hours if there's no reason to. To ease the shock of coming home with a newborn, they typically provide you with a "kraamzorg", which is like a step down from a midwife and nurse but a step-up from a CNA. These women are trained in breastfeeding, infant development, postpartum care, etc. They typically go to school for 2 years (I think that's what our Kraam said..). You call the agency the day your child is born (after already having had an intake at about 32 weeks) and they send out a women either that day or the following morning, depending on your preference. Ours came out that day for a few hours, to help us settle in because when you bring home a baby for the first time you have no idea what to do with them! At least I didn't, maybe there are super moms out there who just "got it" but not me.

She came over and met us, met Ellie, met my parents and then got to work weighing Ellie-which she would then do every morning when she got there to make sure she was gaining the appropriate weight. She took her temperature, explained to us how to regulate her temperature if she got too hot or cold, watched me attempt to feed her and offered pointers there, etc. Pretty much did all the things I imagine that they would've done in the hospital. She recorded everything she did in a little book given to us by the government. We were to keep track of her wet diapers, feeding times, temps, etc while the kraamzorg was gone. She came back every morning around 9am, checked how she did overnight, asked us about questions that might have come up while she was gone and stayed until 4pm. She would always check my stitches, take my temp, and feel my stomach to make sure my uterus was shrinking back down. The second night we were home, Ellie screamed most of the night. She screamed herself hoarse. We were beside ourselves because we knew it wasn't typical newborn crying. The following morning when the Kraamzorg got here, my parents told her what had happened all night(we were still asleep, having taken Ellie out to my parents when the sun came up). By the time we got a few hours of sleep, she had already called the midwife and figured out that Ellie was hungry. My milk had not come in yet and Ellie was famished. So we supplemented with a little formula and it was like a whole new baby. But the nice thing was, she took care of that. She took care of calling the lactation consultant that day and tracking down a pump for us to rent, to try and stimulate my milk to come in. Later in the week when I still wasn't producing any milk, she made an appointment for the lactation consultant to come to the house to meet with us and try to figure out the problem. She also helped clean up a bit, do dishes, cleaned the bathroom every day and changed and washed our sheets every other day. It was nice having someone there to ask questions, to sit with Ellie if we needed to rest (although that didn't happen much thanks to my parents being there!), etc. By the end of the week, we were doing pretty well so it was more of sitting around visiting but I still appreciated having her there, especially those first few days.
Another thing they do here is have everyone come to you that first week. So a midwife from the practice I went to, came to the house every other day to check on me. She would consult with the kraamzorg to see how things were going and then also check my stitches, my uterus, my temp, etc. She would explain things that I had questions about regarding my recovery. It was nice not having to go to their office. Also that first week, a women from the "health department" came over to test Ellie's hearing as well as do her heel prick to test for genetic diseases. And finally towards the end of the week, another woman came from the Consultatie Bureau (which is basically like a well-child clinic but they only do preventive things) to do our intake and set up our 1 and 2 month appointments for Ellie. It was really nice to have people come to us because that first week you are just struggling to keep your head above water...and that was even with having awesome help from our parents.

Overall, I really enjoyed the whole experience here. Obviously I have nothing to compare it too but I felt it was more natural without being too crazy. In theory, I liked coming home soon and being in my own house but in practicality, I didn't rest. I was up taking care of her, checking on her, wandering around, etc. I think that could've contributed to the problems I had with my milk supply never increasing beyond 1.5oz, despite constant pumping, medication, etc. So if we have another baby here, I think I might fight to stay in the hospital at least one night or at the very least, tell me husband to force me to take it easy and stay in bed. But I was pleased with our experience here and definitely would have no qualms about having another baby here.

 Feel free to comment if you have any more questions about the process/system over here!