Pregnancy pains and german doctors

My friend from Nigeria gave birth today (3.9kg)! I got to know her from Berlitz - my previous german school and we have been out of contact for 2 months, since I was super busy in my new school- IFA. We didn´t see each other anymore even though we leave in the same area. On Tuesday I had the sudden urge to visit her, half expecting that she would have given birth already. That was when I found out that she was in hospital waiting to give birth. So I visited her on Tuesday after school and had my first-ever first-hand experience of a woman in labour.

I was SERIOUSLY freaked out at the whole giving birth thing. Her hubby left me with her for 1 full hour, during which I was alone with her and I never felt so "painful" in my entire life. Could only pray for her each time her contractions came. My friend was 2 weeks beyond the expectancy date and the doctors refused to give her the injection - to stimulate the contractions. Instead, she was only given some oral pills to stimulate gradual contractions that were (AFTER 2 full days) not strong enough.

Atlast, she suffered for 48 hours to realize that the pills were not strong enough- the last was that her contractions were once every 5 mins but she needed every 3 mins. So she had to keep waiting. On Some more NO epidural! Like what the heck?

Eventually, they performed a caesarian cause she was too weak after like 50 over hours of contractions and something about the baby´s head not being the right position. I´m like so shocked at the german health care system. I kept asking her husband to clarify with the doctor, but being a non-german himself, he has no idea about the rights of a patient, or what the german hospital is normally like.

Boy, when its my turn, Stephan and I are so gonna clarify stuff with the doctors first. Thing that pissed me off was also that the doctors didn´t really explain why they don´t allow some forms of injections or painkillers. And the doctor didn´t even talk directly with my friend, it was always through some nurse who acted as the middle man. My friend suggested that maybe its because since pregnancy births are covered by the health insurance in germany, so they try to minimize costs but not allowing exceptional painkillers injections like epidural or smth... I have no idea.

On the positive side, I´m finally done with my intermediate german! Just took my exams this week from Monday to Wednesday. It didn´t turn out as bad as I thought because the pre-exams were so tough and demoralising. So yeah! So happy, finally can heave a sigh of relief after endless studying.... hee heee, not really, considering that Renita and Beks only left on Saturday morning and my first paper was on Monday itself.

Oh and another blessing, I took this European Union german exam about a month back and I got my results back today. I kinna expected to do well, cos I felt that exam wasn´t too difficult, but I so wasn´t expecting my grades! I got 98.5 %! That´s like 100% in all the components from listening compre, essay, orals eg... only a 85% for grammar but the rest was 100%. I was so overwhelmed and grateful and thankful to God. Like honestly, I haven´t had a 98.5 since the time I was like 10 years old?!? I know, its just a certificate and my present german level is higher than the certificate level, but still! Sometimes paper qualifications can make me feel learning is worth it! Heehee.

Oh and last but not least - the part 2 of Beks and Renita´s visit here. They were back on Friday morning and we went to this Designer outlet to SHOP! So nice! Got a pair of LEVI´s jeans for 20€! And Esprit bikini and stuff. =) Had our last dinner together at a Turkish restaurant and great chat and wonderful time. Had such an eventful time at the airport, a bit too long to explain but in short British Airways seems to have some serious wrong policies.