Hi Everyone! I would like to share this interesting incident with you all. My husband had to fly to Dubai two weeks back. His flight was on Monday morning and it was a friday evening when he started to prepare for the necessary documents for his departure. Then came the most horrified truth. My husband’s  passport was expiring in the next two months. The same evening he found out that to travel to another country, one’s passport had to be valid for at least six months.  We were then terribly affected by the horror stories which we had heard from our expatriate friends on how difficult it is to settle passport related issues in their respective countries.

It was already late friday evening. Even though by now my husband knew the need for a six month validity period, he called many of his friends, I guess he wanted to hear something assuring but everyone he called, told him that he would need a 6 month validity prior when departing for any country.As the next day was a saturday and a half-day work for most government offices, this made matters even more worrying. My husband couldn’t sleep the whole night as it was very important for him to leave the country on  Monday. He left the house at 0630hrs on saturday morning to join the queue. He was among the first few and managed to see the office-in-charge at 0900hrs. He explained his situation and to his surprise he was heading home at 1200 noon with a new passport in his hands.

This whole incident made us think that how systematic and organised our country is. We are so lucky that even though it is the weekend, there are people working out there to help us settle our problems. Our friends were very surprised that in half a day my husband had managed to get a new passport and we felt proud to be Singaporeans…..))

Hello Everyone, Wishing each and everyone of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010. Now… For some of you if you are little confused with my title I am actually referring to WATER BIRTH.

Water birth means having to give birth in water. Hydrotherapy (Hydro-water, therapy-treatment) has been considered a very efficient way of pain relief during labor. Being a new midwife, I was always very excited about water birth and had also seen some videos about water birth on You Tube. What I am going to discuss with you is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I actually had the opportunity to assist in the conduct of a water birth recently. The woman in labor was very well aware  and informed about water birth. She was accompanied by her Doula ( A birthing companion other than the woman’s husband).

Upon going into active labor, the woman decided to enter the water tub for pain relief. There was light music played for her and the lights of the room were kept dim as a form of distraction. She was not bound to her bed to monitor her baby’s well being through a Cardio Toco Graph(CTG) machine. This had been feasible due to the wireless CTG machine available in the hospital. The baby was monitored with the help of a wireless CTG when she was walking around as well when she was in water.

Here comes the most exciting moment. My patient was fully dilated and the consultant was called upon for delivery.  The water was a little hazy because of the amniotic fluid and blood discharges. I used a torch light to assess the progress of labor. The patient was very cooperative. We guided her through while the consultant put his hands in the water to grab the baby. With the final push, the baby was delivered in the water and guess what?? the baby didn’t drown or struggle in the water as I was worried about that. Rather, I found the baby very comfortable in the water. The baby was brought out of the water onto the mother’s chest and was wrapped with a warm towel. Then came the big cry and everybody in the delivery suite came to know that the baby had been delivered.

The mother then decided to deliver her placenta on bed. She was assisted out of water and was wrapped in warm towels as well. The baby was assessed by a neonatologist who was standing by for the delivery. All went well and everybody was very proud about the yet another successful water birth.

For me it was more than that.. Firstly it was my very first water birth that I assisted; Secondly, it cleared all my misconceptions ( Baby will drown etc..) about water birth.

My purpose of sharing this story with you is to bring forward the awareness that there are other options such as water birth which are available here in Singapore and beginning to be adopted more often these days.

A big hello to everyone and a huge belated Happy Nurses Day, Selamat Hari Raya and Happy Deepavali.I am trying to think what makes me take so long to right on my wall. Was it my long overseas holiday, my adjustment to my new midwife role or my over reaction of being a mother of a primary one boy…))?? Whatever it was I can’t wait to update you on my latest endeavors.

Sad to inform you but, I have realised of recent I have been constantly putting on weight.  I have put on 6 kg in the past six years .. 1 kg in each year. It might not sound so bad but if you plot the trend on a graph, its scary… Now comes to what is the solution ???

Exercise? - I tried, but had to drag myself to gym each time. Each time I ran it seemed like so long but when i looked at the timer it did not seem so.

Then I spent some money in buying new swim wear thinking it will inspire me to swim. But… what I ended up doing was to just look at the pool from the top floor of my apartment each day and imagined that I had actually swam 3 laps..)

And now comes the million dollar question– Why I am not loosing weight despite trying so much??

So much??    What???

After two consecutive  morning shifts I was sitting at the couch of my living room where I had a clear view of  the busy Bukit Timah road and saw this chinese  lady who probably is in her mid sixties with her walking stick and in her running attire jogging at the track. I felt bad sitting at the couch, then felt the adrenalin rush to join her in running.

It took me two weeks of constant watch over my inspiring lady to finally gear up in my running attire to join her in  jogging. I have ran twice or thrice a week since then. I am not sure if I will loose some weight but I would like to share this with everyone that I am filled with new energy everyday. I am more patient and less naggy.. according to my husband. I am organizing my work better and see ing the results as well… see… I am writting to you all as well.

All is well that ends well… My sincere thanks to my “Wonder Woman“ who has  inspired me to run. Some of those who are struggling with your baby steps to start excersing don’t be disheartened . Sometimes by just sitting at home you can feel inspired to take that step. Who knows you might be inspired by my post…)

Take care till I come back with more updates.

Hi everyone, hope you all are doing fine. I would like to share with you my experience on SNA membership drive in my hospital. But before that you must know what is this SNA?? Well, SNA is a short form of Singapore Nurses Association. Like any other profession we nurses have our own association.It took birth in Singapore in 1957 and today we are proud to have our own SNA House, a beautiful building situated at Maude Road. In order to bring awareness about SNA , we organise talks to newly joined nurses in my Hospital and I am priveleged to be part of these talks. From my experience there are many who are still not aware of this association. Being a nurse I personally feel that we should support our association by becoming its member. By becoming SNA member one can  recieve many priveleges that can be seen in details on SNA website at www.sna.org.sg    .

SNA provides us a  platform  to strengthen the voice of nursing profession.  SNA encurage and create opportunities for continuing education for nurses.Above  all we are supporting our profession by being a member of our association and this will raise nursing profile not among us but also to the general public. So being a Nurse let us support our association. 

Hi there, its been long time since we last spoke. I have completed my advanced diploma course and now am back to work. I was very apprehensive initially to start work as it was not easy to blend with what I had learnt in school with my clinical practise. But, with the great staff at the delivery suite at NUH, they have been able to make my journey very memorable this far. My special thanks and heartfelt gratitude goes out to all my superiors who are always there to help us in the areas of our work as well as in our personal lives.  .  My perceptors and other staff at the delivery suite have also been very accomodating.  My sincere advice also goes out to those who may not be too sure about their studies and are worried about the commitments that they could be facing, that they should just give it a go as there are a lot of good people around us who are always there to provide the support that one may need. Have a great weekend!

Sorry for not updating you with my target of hitting 20 deliveries as my site was giving me some hiccups ..)

As I said in my earlier post NEVER GIVE UP  and DO YOUR BEST. I did it . with my patience and perseverance I managed to hit my target of  twenty normal deliveries in the following week. I must say it was not easy and I had to stay back after my work to hit my target. But as its been said ” Hard work pays off”. For me it did. After hitting my target my belief in staying positive and to never give up became even more stronger. Finally, I gave myself  a ‘pat’ on  my back and I moved on. So Don’t give up , Be positive and Give yourself a pat at your back. Try this and you may feel a difference.

Hi  all , I think you have been well informed about the latest happening with regards to Swine Flu by all my fellow bloggers. Let me now share with you my personal experience on this. During Orange Alert ,being a student nurse (as  I am doing Adv. Dip. in Midwifery) we were quarantined for a week at home. We were told to report to our respective hospitals after one week as the hospitals might need the additional manpower. Then came the annoucement of  Yellow alert. We went back to work  worried about what was to be the expected from us , paticularly for some of us who were not part of nursing during SARS. To my relief, on the very first day at work (being away from hospital for the past 7 months) we were told about the latest measures taken by the hospital as a precautionary measure against this flu. Some of the measures taken were; practising thorough hand hygiene, taking our temperature twice during our shift and putting on the mask if one comes in contact with the patient who has fever.

The hospital visiting policies are being changed as a form of a precautionary measure and the number of visitors have been limited. Though, it has caused some inconvinences to many of you who are visiting your loved ones,  I on the other hand have personally seen so much of patience in all of you while waiting in the queue to get into the hospital. Many of you who were not aware of the latest policies and were in a group to visit your newly born grandchild were also very supportive even when you were told to go back as only two visitors were allowed at a time. It is highly commendable that the general public is conscientious and supportive of the hospital’s policies and measures to ensure that we remain safe from the infectious flu. I am not surprised that we do not have even a single positive case of this flu.. TOUCH WOOD and i am 100% sure we won’t have any such cases in the future because of the united efforts put in by not only our goverment but also by each and every one of us. I am proud to be a Singaporean. Kudos to all of you and Thank you Very Much.

Have you ever been in a situation that you wanted something so badly and at the end you don’t get it. Jus imagine that feeling. You feel that you may have failed and you start feeling devastated. Sometimes we even feel like giving up. I was in that situation recently and let me now relate to you that experience of mine. As part of my clinical posting in my Advance Diploma course,  I have to hit the target of 20 Normal vaginal Deliveries in almost 6 weeks. One may think that its easily achievable but there are days when we can’t hit our target. I was quite depressed but I realised that actually I have done my best. I went to work early , I stayed back after work, my colleagues helped me and despite of all my efforts I was still struggling to actually get a delivery . Is this end of the road? NO… Some will say its luck and some its time. But for me I have done my best and will continue to do my best. These feelings keep me going and I am confident I will achieve my target. If you can relate to any part of my situation then always remember NEVER GIVE UP and JUST DO YOUR BEST. All the doors will open for you, not today but surely tomorrow.

Hi everyone!

Hope all of you are doing fine. My humble appologies for not writing earlier as I was extremely busy preparing for  my Advance Dip final exams. Well, all went well, I hope,  and I realised how important a little dose of stress is, in one’s  life. But, excess of anything is bad and the same goes for stress too.  That small dose of stress kept me going during the exams and I am contended with how i performed. I personally feel that if we do not have this stress in our lives ,things tend to be taken lightly and progression would be minimal. To draw an analogy, we won’t be stopping at traffic lights and will be parking at double yellow lines if we do not have to worry about the possible imposition of fines…) In Nursing, the stress of being audited for our work, keeps us motivated to follow Standard operating procedures ( SOP ) so that we are constantly kept on our toes in our work. I must agree that different people cope and react differently to stress. But if we all agree, that small amount of stress is needed for us to move on in our life ,it will prepare us better to embrace changes and we nurses will be more prepared for the upcoming challenges in our work .

Hi there! Hope you all are doing fine.Today I would like to share my personal opinion on how important it is to keep our sipirits high in our daily lives. In Nursing its almost impossible to expect monotony as everyday is a new challenge. The challenge can be at work or personal. There are days when you get the best compliments from your superiors, colleagues or patients. But some days are not so good. These are the days when we all need to give ourselves a pat at our back. I do not feel that during these days we have not worked hard or we are less efficient. Its just a cycle of life, some days are good and some not so, anyway if everything is so good we might not enjoy our lives.The pat at our back is so magical that it gives one new confidense and fills one with  energy to keep going. I have been personally doing this all this while. If you can, relate to some  part of my experience Please give it a try , It might work for you…!!