Monday, November 14, 2016

Private clinic vs Polyclinic

Sorry if you're bored with all the baby and pregnancy posts lately. I'm coming to my 34 weeks now and to be frank, I'm a little bit freaking out about the baby arrival. I have a long checklist for things to prepare for baby arrival and my confinement and slowly ticking things off the list. But I still feel like I'm not fully ready yet.

We have our baby cot ready and her mattress will come in next week but we haven't even arrange the furniture in our room yet. Is there really a pantang where you're not allowed to move furniture around if you're expecting? My MIL told me this but I'm not subscribe to any pantang, so I'm not sure what to do.

Anyway, the most popular question that people been asking me aside from baby gender is who is my doctor? We first went to a private doctor to confirm the pregnancy and check up with him for a few times before I decided to change to my current one.

The reason being is that my previous doctor didn't give me a good vibe. Every time I went in to see him, he said the same things as if he's reading off script to every patients. Plus, he's not details enough about my check up. Normally we're done in less than 5 minutes. I'm carrying a live in me, I need that peace of mind that everything is okay and smooth, not the same scripts every time.

So we switched doctor and I'm glad we did. My new gynae gave me details explanation about everything that is going on in my pregnancy. She even took her time during scanning to show me baby progress, baby weight, show me her body parts and all. She makes me and my husband feel connected to our baby. On the plus side, she's very chill. She allowed me to eat and do whatever I want as long as it doesn't directly harm my baby and moderation is the key.

My favorite quote from her is "You're pregnant, not sick." So, I'll just do whatever makes me happy. She's the one that advised me to register myself at polyclinic.

So that's how I started to go to polyclinic too. I've heard lots of horror stories bashing polyclinic before. The most common one are how rude the nurses and how slow the service is.

I've set my appointment and came with open mind. I was shocked to see how full the clinic was at 8 am, the opening time. I guess I'm not the only kiasu one. Registration progress went well for me and all the nurses that attending to me are nice and friendly.

Maybe the facility in polyclinic is nothing if compared to private clinic but I think the nurses and staff are doing well in their job. My checkup normally took a hour and a half then I'm done for the day. Of course not everything is perfect because when I got my blood test done, the nurse had to withdraw my blood twice on both arms because she made a mistake during the first time. But she's very apologetic about it and it didn't hurt me much. So no big deal for me.

The reason that most people complained about how long it took for them for the check up is because they had no idea how the process go. I've seen many clueless expectant mothers and their company went in the wrong room, missing their numbers  and etc. The process at polyclinic can be quite confusing because each time to see the nurse you have to get a number, then move to another area for blood test and take another number to see the doctor. But once you get the hang of it, everything will be a breeze.

My only concern about polyclinic is the doctor. Each time I had different doctors attending me and so far, none of them are satisfactory. I know I'm not paying a single cent at polyclinic but I expect the medical advice to be good too. Once I went in to see a doctor and in less than 3 minutes she dismissed me without any consultation. I know the nurses had done a thorough check up but at least the doctor can elaborate more about anything because after all I'm a first time mother.

If you wish for scanning at polyclinic, you can forget about it. They do not do scanning for your baby, this is what the doctor told me when I asked for a scan to see baby development. So you will have no idea about your baby condition until you're reaching full term.

What if something alarming about the baby happens but the clinic didn't scan for you? I shudders at the thought of that. The only checkup that involving baby in polyclinic are they check for baby heart beat and your baby bump size.

And today the doctor at polyclinic Googled my problem in front me when I told her I'm starting to get numbness at my hands and legs. Her results of course is the same as what I Googled when I first experienced the numbness. But hello, you're trained medical staff, why are you Googling it like me too?

My confidence with the doctor totally flew out of the window.

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