Pregnancy and housemanship

Photo by evybaby

Assalamualaikum wbt

(This is a retrospective blogpost, date and time of publishing are adjusted to reflect the story time)

Since I started my compulsory housemanship in Hospital Ipoh, I have not been posting anything in my blog. Have I stopped writing that time?

No, I am not.
In fact I diverted to pregnancy diary that my husband bought me😍
I continued writing my reflections, excitement or sadness in the diary while literally talking to my baby in my womb.

Subhanallah, it was never easy being a house officer + pregnant mother.
I underwent one and a half postings ( O & G and surgery ) before I delivered my baby.
It was very tiring, but I never regretted it. Alhamdulillah I had went through it biiznillah, with the overwhelming supports from my husband, families and friends.

Below are few tips that I can share with you if you are considering about being pregnant during housemanship. By the way I am not literally encouraging you to get pregnant during this period, this is just in case 😃

1. Mutual decision
Discuss in depth with your husband about the challenges being pregnant while undergoing the 2 years HOship. If your partner is not in medical field, explain properly regarding the workload, extended hours, skipped meals, standing for long hours etc so that he could support you accordingly.

2. Choose your posting if possible
This is actually very subjective because the workload in each departments are different between hospitals and number of patients. If you are pregnant, you are not suitable to assist in operation theatre especially those involves with the xray radiation ie orthopaedic OT and certain surgical procedures in surgical postings. Other than the radiation issue, they need 'strong' assistant who can help them with the maneuvre during the procedure or simply to run to blood bank asap for the patient on table! So definitely if you are pregnant, you'll do more ward work ie clerking and less exposure in OT.

3. It's okay to tell others about your pregnancy
Yes, it is okay to let them know. They will understand you better and will make few adjustments on the schedule and shifts to suit your needs. It may not apply to all departments/ hospital, but letting them know it far more safe for you and baby.
By the way, some people can tell whether you are pregnant or not. My medical officer knew I was pregnant by seeing my enlarged veins on my hand while writing😂

4. Never forget to eat!
This is the super most important part. Please, eat your meal. Get some snacks in between. Yes you wouldn't have time to eat obviously but try make time. Like seriously need to make time. My husband will text me every meal time to make sure I take my lunch and dinner especially during oncall or he will drop by at the hospital with some food if I don't get the chance to buy food on my own(due to trying to finish the job until the cafe is closed).
I have many kind of snacks inside my bag (and white coat too sometimes) just to fill in my tummy very quickly if time not permits for proper meal. Your baby growth is very important so don't starve yourself.


5. Proper footwear
Invest some money to buy comfortable shoes as you need to walk many kilometres although just within the hospital area. As you tummy gets bigger, you can't walk so fast (don't ever think of running!) so good flat shoes will help your pace better.
Ouh, I am a big fan of Skechers during my housemanship time 😊


6. Plan your pregnancy check up or appointments
Your working schedule as a house officer will need you to work outside office hours and over weekends. So if you are planning to do the check up with the local health clinic that operated during office hours, you may have to plan to get the appointment done during your off day or postcall. Sometimes the timing of appointments in local health clinic may not be favourable to you, then you may need to consider to go to private clinic that offers more flexible time.
We had our monthly appointments in the private clinic because my husband was only available during weekend and sometimes we can come at night too for the check up and baby scan.


7. Plan you maternity leave
As government servant, you can start taking your maternity leave from 38 weeks onwards. As long as there is no sign and symptoms of labour, you can continue working if you want but having rest at home would be better I think.
 I was planning to start my maternity leave near my due date (40 weeks) but I delivered at 38 weeks 3 days. The day I felt like about to deliver I texted the leader in our ward and took an emergency leave since I haven't apply for the maternity leave yet. He had to rearrange the schedule due to the short notice.


Well, that's some bits of it.
There are a lot more actually because I have many friends who can share their experience too.

There are incidents of miscarriages, antepartum haemorrhage, premature delivery, fainting, excessive fatigue etc while working and pregnant at the same time.
Know your body very well and stay healthy.
Get proper rest.

And take care💚