Being pregnant cross culturally has had some interesting moments. Like when our building guard told me that I look worse now than I did before, pointing to the break-out's on my face. Or the time when said guard proposed that his unborn son marry our unborn daughter. Or then there was the time when my Arabic teacher's dad (a man a little younger than my dad) came across the room to me and kissed my belly and talked to the baby (this is a Muslim man who lives in a very conservative part of the city). There have been some wonderful strange things that happen as part of being pregnant here too, though. We get to have a sonogram every month. Just because. Seeing our baby as she grows every month is so sweet!
Recently though, the strangest cross cultural pregnancy thing is that I have to do urine collection. And by urine collection, I don't mean that I have to pee once in a little cup. I mean that for an entire 24 hour period I have to collect ALL of my urine!! Do you have to do that in American? I don't think so! Or I've just never heard any pregnant women talk about it, but I really think I would have heard of such a thing before now! My Doc even said that if I am going out, I need to go before I leave the house!!!
While we were in the Dr's office, I completely forgot to ask the question, "WHY?" and like a good Arab, believed that the expert was in charge and it didn't matter why. So I proceed to the hospital lab to give them the lab orders, and to get a bottle about the size of a large bleach bottle to take home, to fill with my urine!!! Do these people know how often pregnant women have to pee? Who are they kidding! And what I really want to know is how much does my urine change over a 60 minute period? Why do both pee's need to be collected, if they are only 60 minutes apart?
Ladies who have had babies, I need your feedback, is this normal??
Oh Kellie - that was SO funny! I love hearing pregnancy stories from other cultures. I have also never heard that being the case in America... all my pregnancies have been in Asia. I do have quite a few funny stories of China pregnancy. Like the 30 year old lady who really truly believed that babies come out of belly buttons. Or the lady who told me just the other day that the sex is not for sure until the baby is ready to be born, so by eating certain foods during pregnancy you can still determine the baby's gender. Or extreme temperature changes during pregnancy can make the baby afraid of the weather.
ReplyDeleteEither way it is an adventure being pregnant in other countries! I would just take them one bathroom trip worth of pee and hopefully they will after awhile accept that we foreigners just do things differently! :)
Oh and if you think you get interesting advice and comments about pregnancy, just wait until you bring your baby girl home... that's when the advice really pours in! Good times!
Hope you are feeling well!
No it is not normal, but we knew your life over there would not be normal now didn't we? They are probably just checking your iron levels and electrolytes and looking for any deficiencies that need to be addressed. Have you been taking the supplements that I sent you? I just really want to know what that strange man was saying to my granddaughter when he came over to speak to your belly! cute! He was probably saying "your mother is very beautiful"! love, your mom
ReplyDeleteYou're so cute! I think my electrolytes are fine. Yep, I take the supplements every night. I think he was just saying hi or something, i don't really remember exactly.
ReplyDeleteThat's completely normal in Emporia, but we don't get bleach bottles to collect ours in. With Annalie I got a rusty paint can. ;) That is so bizarre. That's a lot of one's fluids to tote around! Document this craziness. Your baby will have scrapbook pages no American baby can hold a candle to.
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