The Adventures of a Xhosa Princess

I thought I’d feel a gush of emotions when our daughter was born, but I honestly felt none of that, mainly because our baby came into the world in every way I had hoped for it not to happen. All I thought about was the horrible experience I had going through Gynae visits alone, being in the hospital alone and being induced and laboring alone because of the covid pandemic and all the restrictions. I had also hoped, prayed, and prepared for a vaginal birth, but here I was in an ice-cold theatre room, shivering like a vibrator while being stitched up. I couldn’t do skin-to-skin, I couldn’t latch her onto my breast, I couldn’t even touch her cause my hands were placed like Jesus on the cross in Calvary.   I don’t know if I mentioned that my husband cannot stand the sight of blood. He sees a drop of blood and he’s ready to faint, so the surgeon suggested that after our daughter is born and I had seen and touched her for a few minutes, my husband would take her out to the recovery su...

I can’t describe the emotions I went through as I walked into the main hospital door alone with all my suitcases, a feeding pillow, and a cooler bag filled with frozen colostrum – these are feelings and emotions I do not wish on any woman. I took the hospital lift to the 7 th floor and rang the bell for the birthing suite. Thankfully, I was met with the sweetest midwife and OB/Gynae who was very patient and clearly very passionate about his career, but that didn’t change the fact that my husband was outside the hospital and waiting for an update instead of being by my side.   Haike, if you thought that was eventful. After a 20-minute-long scan, the OB/Gynae asks me if I was ever informed about cysts in my uterus because he just found two large cysts, one of which was below our daughter’s head and could potentially block her from coming down or burst during delivery. I’m also in the early stages of pre-eclampsia and cholestasis (cholestasis is the reason my skin was dry and i...

This is a safe place for all procrastinators, and I’m a mom so be nice! Why didn’t anyone warn me about the heaven and hell that is the third trimester? I’m just thankful that we were locked up and unable to socialize cause hyper pigmentation and water retention had me by the b*lls. I looked like those mamas from emakhaya. At this point, nothing has changed. I’m still getting a UTI infection every week caused by anything and everything under the skies, and I’m seeing the prenatal specialist, midwife and Gynae almost every week. I haven’t gained a single gram of weight since the beginning of the pregnancy and my energy levels were up there with the gods. Covid is still around, and because everyone was out and about living their best Ausländer life in Spain, Holland, and Greece over the summer/spring holidays – the numbers are increasing and Germany is back in lockdown, but my husband and I are unbothered cause isolation is our life now. We’ve also decided to move from our apartm...