Now that we are in Amsterdam, will it be coffee shops and red light district visits for ET?  No!  Just the wonderful weather is doing all good, especially for ET.   Not baking in the desert. 

The 27^th was the visit to the Midwife.  Unlike in the UK or most of Asia,  it is the midwife who does all the caring. Be it pre or post natal.  For me – I must admit – it is a bit unnerving.   Not that the midwives are in anyway less qualified to do the job. Still, being condition to only have doctors at call  -in this case a fully qualified Gynecologist-Obstetrician- and knowing that a lesser qualified person will be in charge does cause some worry. But then, the consoling factor, is that they are like the hands-on people. In the middle of the battle field, so to say.  And I am obviously wrong to think them to be lesser qualified.  They are not. They too go to a proper university for 4 years just to be a midwife.   In that sense, they might be more qualified to do the job.  The only thing they cannot do, is prescribe medication.  And if it the delivery gets complicated or is expected to be complicated they do have a Gyn-Obs on the project.

The midwife centre is around the corner from where we live.  And here we are, at their office or clinic.  We hardly have to wait, there is this pleasant girl.   Podgy and happy.  All smiles, and has the expression of a full blow bubble gum with a smile.  You know. Lovely person.  My biggest concern always was, if she would speak English.  That is put to rest. As she is extremely fluent in English. Perfect.  We sit there, and she explains that she needs to fill in a lot of information. Thank goodness, I was having all records.  Most of the information she wants we already have on our file.  The only issue is that, she has to convert units.  

Most reports in Oman, come in the FPS system. In the Netherlands it is the SI system. I think the world must stick to the SI system.  After all it is so easy, even a bacteria can understand it.  I mean, 10mm makes 1cm. And, 10cm makes 1dm. 10dm make 1 Metre. So on and so forth.  Simple as a wink. And then we have the FPS system, which is utterly complicated.  12inches make a Foot. 3 Feet make a Yard. 16 Ounces make a pound, 14 pounds make a Stone.  What on earth is that? Can get ones tits and testicles all twisted behind the ears. (Still, I will teach ET all the systems.  Just for convenience, we would not want ET ever to go looking for a calculator for conversion, do we?)


She is faced with a crisis, on the conversion front.  Thank goodness for Google. I am actually amazed. I am not sure if she did the conversion right, but she put the number in and did a conversion on Google. Google knows all. Why a midwife? or for that matter even a doctor?  We can ask Google everything. Even to bring ET to this world. Google can solve all problems of the world!


She then wants to do a physical examination.  And the she calls me over, explains where ET's head is. Lovely, for the first time, I did feel the head.  Now that is something highly commendable here.  In Oman, every time we went to the doctors, it was at most 15 minutes with a check list.  We spent over an hour here.  In that sense it is more comforting and real.  One feels taken care of. Which obviously give confidence to Ingrid, which is so important.  The down side, is they seem a bit clueless when it comes to some other things.  We had stocked ourselves with supplements on the advice of the doctor in Oman.  Pronatal, Folic Acid and Calcium. The thing is, she very flippantly tell us that we can stop all that. But then continues to say, that we can go to any shop and buy a multi-vitamin supplement for pregnancy.  Hello!  Pro-Natal!!! Is that not what it is?

She also did a calculation on the amount of vitamin D dosage on all the supplements and said,  ‘The mother needs 500 mcg of Vitamin D a day’. Hmm!  I do not think so.  This I say after doing some serious checking.  Still everything is well, and I do not see any reason to question all this.  As long as mother and ET are well, all is well.   

We were also told to test the blood group of Ingrid. She is O Negative.  Here again, it was tested initially. They never mentioned it in the report or maybe I just missed a report. But the midwife assumed that it was not tested, and wanted it done again. No problem with that.  I am B negative, so we do not have to worry about antibodies now and for future ET making projects!  Good Night ET!