But nothing else was said, you know, realising when I came home I didn't know things about blood loss, or I didn't know things about milk production, you know. I never expected that I would get milk and it was such a shock then when I did.
You know, I wish someone would have said, “You, you could get milk and if, we can take it away” which they can do with a tablet. So I were never told things like that. They said did I want my midwife, midwife to come and see me, which I said I did. She come and see me a couple of days later, but then I was sent home sort of clueless, really.
I mean, looking back over it, that's something that could have been done differently?
Yeah, when I wrote to the hospital they said that they had an information sheet for blood loss and contraception and milk production, but it was out of print at the time, so I didn't receive one.
So I wish I would have known because it took, the couple of days from me being discharged from hospital and the midwife coming were a long time when I was losing blood, thinking, “Is this blood loss normal?” and “Will I get milk?” Well, I did get milk but, “When will it stop? And will it stop naturally, or will I have to have some, will I have to take medication to take the milk away?”
Which were quite upsetting really when I thought, “Well, I've got milk and I haven't got a baby” you know. It was quite strange not knowing when it'd stop and things like that. And also sort of passing clots and things like that. “Was that normal?” And, “What, did I have an infection?” because I didn't feel well when I came home. I felt quite shaky, which I now know is normal after pethidine and, you know, pain relief and also a drug to deliver the afterbirth.
You can get quite shaky and sick, feel sick afterwards. I was just thinking, “Oh, you know, have I got an infection now?” So a midwife came to me two days later, which was a community midwife.
I'd not seen her before, because my midwife were unavailable, so a community midwife came to see me and just said, she explained about milk and said that if it, you know, if it got too bad we could give you a tablet but mostly it goes away by itself, and that, you know, blood loss would last anything from 3 to 6 weeks, and what I was, you know, experiencing was normal.
So I felt a little bit better that, you know, after she'd took my blood pressure and my temperature and things like that, so I thought, “I'm not poorly, you know, I'm just, you know, normal.” |
