It’s a Good World After All: Welcome Frank!

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On 10 December at about 9am, Dan rang me at work. She needed me to take her to the Family Birth Centre to see the midwife about something. It was possible waters had broken and they passed Dan onto the hospital for further tests. These were inconclusive and they wanted her to stay in hospital overnight for observation. She rang at 4.30am to say contractions had started at midnight. Her father, who had come from China to support us with his grandchild, and we made our way to King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and spent a long morning and early afternoon supporting her through early labour.

Dan’s father did fantastic work massaging her back and I did service as Dan’s squeeze, meaning providing a hand she could squeeze the heck out of, patient support and watchdog. A transfer to a birthing suite at 1.30pm presaged induction of labour with an epidural needed to manage escalating pain from fast and strong contractions. Fortunately this allowed Dan to sleep through some of the hard work her body was doing.

Little Frank’s head finally emerged with a rush after 9pm, but things had to pause so the umbilical cord could be passed over his head twice. Baby came out blue and had to be revived after I cut the cord; but he pinked up quickly and soon cried healthily. At some point I was offered the cord to cut. I placed baby on Dan’s chest to reconnect with mum and have his first feed. She chanted: “Xiao pang-pang, ni zui ke ai!” (meaning: little fatty/piggy, you are the cutest, something she had said to him many times when he was in the womb, when she wasn’t calling him little trouble-maker!).

Actually Frank Li was only 2.95kg so he was no piggy. Still, he was perfect in every way, with bright dark eyes, fine black hair and a face will well defined features.
Dan ultimately needed four more nights recovery in hospital. There being no vacant room in the wards, we were both allowed to stay for two nights in a Family Birth Centre suite which was pleasant. There Frank had his first bath, and Cliff was able to start calling family and friends about the good news.

Sadly Dan then had to endure three more nights in a room back in the main hospital, which she found very hard, as Cliff had to go home, and Dan did not get the help she needed to manage baby over-night. Nor was it easy to manage the numerous interventions from midwives, medical officers and orderlies during the day, and their sometimes conflicting advice, especially re breast feeding.

Still, it would be unfair not to say that for the most part, Dan had excellent medical care at KEMH, in Subiaco, Perth. Most of the midwives and doctors were brilliant. While a hospital birth is not what we planned, in the end we were just glad that a safe delivery was achieved for mother and baby alike.

Indeed, we have both longed to become parents, so Frank’s birth is a dream come true. The title of the blog: it’s a good world after all, expresses a little of how we feel to be so richly blessed in this way. It comes from the Henry Lawson poem After All so beautifully put to music by a capella group, The Idea of North, a favourite song of ours.

Included are a few photos of the time after Dan's father arrived at the end of November, and before the birth.

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