Labor – Beijing Kids

Quarantined One Day After Giving Birth To Baby – New Mom Tells It All

Vivienne Tseng-Rush — Fri, 20 May 2022 03:00:51 +0000

The day after she gave birth, Gemmicah Argonza got the call.

“Did you go to the 7-11 in the basement China World on April 28?” The voice on the line said, “A positive COVID case was found there.”

Her mind raced: Was she there on the 28th? Would she have to go to central quarantine? What about her husband? What would happen to her daughter? Would they take her too?

It’s the call no one wants to get, much less if they’ve literally just had a baby.

In a way, they were prepared for the worst.

A Philippine native, Argonza ran the only Filipino restaurant in the city, Mesa Madre, located in Jianwai Soho. Her husband, Clifford Weiner, was General Manager of Hotel Jen. Both of them were smack in the middle of the Central Business District – an area that would soon be swept up in the citywide COVID lockdown.

Before lockdown: Argonza enjoying Mesa Madre’s Halo-Halo, a Filipino desert

From mid-April, both Argonza and Weiner watched with trepidation as the cases in Beijing grew at a worrying pace, and communities in Panjiayuan, Shuangjing, and Jinsong – just a mile south of them – were closed off one after another.

“We had seen what happened in Shanghai, and we worried it would happen here,” Argonza recalls. News of quarantine shelter conditions, parents being separated from children, and lack of access to supplies were everywhere.

As she was due on April 28, they stocked up on a month’s worth of supplies. “I kept saying, ‘C’mon baby, come out already,’” Argonza recounts. “The last thing I wanted was to give birth in the middle of a lockdown.”

Argonza’s stock of baby supplies

The couple also decided to pack up and move into Hotel Jen. “Communities get locked down in the middle of the night without any warning, but as Hotel Jen’s General Manager, Cliff knew he would have some notice if the hotel was going to lockdown,” Argonza says. “So there could be a chance for us to make a decision to go to the hospital if that happened.”

Fortunately for the couple, it never came to that. On May 5, seven days after she was due, the contractions started. Argonza and Weiner rushed to the hospital, and, in the early hours of May 6, Allegra Weiner was born.

The day after giving birth, Argonza was discharged from the hospital. Things had gone smoothly, and Argonza felt good.

But as soon as the couple arrived home, the call from the CDC came.

“In the first phone call, it was almost as if they weren’t sure if I was at the 7-11,” she recalls. Six phone conversations later, the CDC finally confirmed that there was a payment linked to her at 2:45pm on April 28. The positive case was estimated to have visited the same 7-11 between 1-2pm that day. The timeframe was too close. This made Argonza a close contact – she and Weiner had to quarantine.

“I tried explaining that I’d taken COVID tests every day since the 28th, and that they were all negative” she says. “But it didn’t matter.”

At some point in the back and forth calls, Weiner told the CDC that Argonza had just given birth. “It seemed they didn’t expect this,” she recalls. A few hours later, a bit of good news came: they would only be required to do home quarantine.

Did her recent childbirth affect her quarantine requirements? “I don’t know, honestly,” Argonza says. “I was just really relieved to hear that.”

A CDC team came to install the alarm on their door, and set up a WeChat group that included the couple, a colleague who served as translator, and multiple people from what Argonza assumed was the CDC’s team. They were given instructions for deliveries, trash disposal, and doing both the CDC administered COVID tests as well as the COVID home-testing kits.

One of the challenges the couple faced was getting Allegra to her first two check-ups, which were within the first two weeks after birth.

Because Argonza’s health code was yellow, she had to navigate getting permission from both the hospital and their CDC handlers to make it happen.

“BJU knew what to do,” she says. “They would receive me not in pediatrics but in their fever clinic, and the doctor would be sent based on their internal protocols,” With the CDC, on the other hand, they had to negotiate the terms for traveling. “They finally agreed to have me take Allegra alone in a car, with a driver dressed in full PPE.”

“While it’s frustrating to be locked down, at least my husband is able to spend more time with our daughter,” Argonza muses. “It’s a good that’s come out of this whole situation, and I’m happy for it.”

Looking forward, the couple are most pained at how travel restrictions will prevent them from having Allegra meet their families. “I’m the eldest, so seeing my daughter would mean a lot to my parents,” Argonza says. “But we can’t do that for now.”

Asked if this might be an impetus for them to leave for good, as many expats have done, she responds, “When I’m frustrated in the moment, sometimes I do want to pack up and leave.”

“But at the same time, I love Beijing,” she says. “And my life, my business and my community are here. And I think Beijing is a good place for a child to grow up, especially in her early years. It’s a good place for our family to be.”

KEEP READING: What If I Go Into Labor During Lockdown?

Images: Courtesy of Gemmicah Argonza

Health Talk at Oasis: Labor and Delivery Preparation

Aisling.OBrien — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 02:00:00 +0000

Sign up for a health talk from Obstetrician and Gynecologist Dr. Juliette Kinn at Oasis International Hospital which takes place tomorrow, Wednesday December 16 from 2-3pm. Dr. Kinn is herself a new mom, having given birth to her son Arthur in August this year.

She spoke to beijingkids earlier this year about overcoming postnatal challenges. You can read that article here.

Tomorrow’s talk will cover topics including natural childbirth, assisted delivery, the signs and stages of labor, postpartum care, the role of the father, and more.

Participation requires registration, so email dawn.rosensteel@oasishealth.cn ASAP to book your slot.

Photo: Courtesy of motherscratcher(Flickr)

“WHAT-birthing?” Q&A with Duette Maxon, HypnoBirthing Expert

Sisi_Chen — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 07:00:00 +0000

I wasn’t sure what to think when I first heard the term “HypnoBirthing.” I had visions of weird men in turbans dangling pendants over pregnant women in the delivery room. I initially encountered the term when I saw event listings for HypnoBirthing courses on our website (see here and here). Taking place throughout this month at Beijing United Family Hospital, the courses are taught by certified doula and HypnoBirthing practicioner Duette Maxon. I reached out to her via email to find out more about her courses.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am from America – most recently Atlanta, Georgia. I currently live in Jinzhou, Liaoning with my husband, who teaches at a university there. I am a certified HypnoBirthing practitioner with the Hypnobirthing Institute and a certified doula with Childbirth International.

My two daughters were born at home about 30 years ago. At that time, I also was apprenticing as a home birth midwife and attended over 100 births at the homes of some amazing couples, all of whom had safe, unmedicated births.

My interest in HypnoBirthing occurred last year in Shanghai when I attended a luncheon with birth professionals interested in natural birth. I got a copy of the book HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method: A Natural Approach to a Safe, Easier, More Comfortable Birthing and realized this was a wonderful tool for modern women who have a desire to birth in a hospital, but want an unmedicated, gentle, and safe birth for their little ones. I went to Singapore and completed the training requirements. This is my first time giving courses in Beijing; the first class took place on April 20.

How does HypnoBirthing actually work?

Hypnotherapy would be used to cure an ailment of some sort. In HypnoBirthing, we teach self-hypnosis or self-relaxation skills to bring oneself into a deeply relaxed state. When a woman feels fear during childbirth, her body releases stress hormones that trigger the body’s fight or flight response. This causes muscles to tighten and perturbs the hormones that regulate the entire birthing process.

By training the subconscious mind to expect a safe, gentle birth, women can lessen or avoid the fight or flight response. HB also uses touch trigger techniques for endorphin release, allowing for a smoother – some even describe it as painless – birth. In the deeply relaxed state of mind, we may give suggestions; the partner may repeat affirmations and visualizations of gentle and calm birthing or the mother can play a recording with gentle music and repeated poetry of beautiful birthing imagery.

Can anyone practice HypnoBirthing?

Yes, anyone can practice the skills taught. In fact, I used them myself when I fell and broke my arm the first day of class in Beijing. These skills can be used any time you are in a stressful situation and need to bring yourself quickly into a deeply relaxed state.

How widespread is awareness about HypnoBirthing?

In America, there are several hundred certified practitioners, including a few medical doctors! But generally, when people search for birth classes, they may also choose from the Bradley Method, Birthing from Within, or HypnoBirthing.

In China, the expats I meet have already read the book by Marie Mongan and are eager to put things into practice. There is one hospital in Beijing (Beijing Antai Maternity Hospital) whose staff received partial training in 2007 from the HypnoBirthing Institute, but in practice their English is not at the level needed to teach. Other than that, I think most Chinese doctors and expecting couples are not aware of the possibilities HypnoBirthing can offer in helping to achieve a calm and relaxed state for mom and baby during labor and birthing.

What kind of misconceptions do you encounter when it comes to HypnoBirthing?

Many people have think of hypnosis on stage and people doing silly things under a hypnotic trance. This is the most common misconception about hypnosis and we talk about it on the first day. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, and it is said that everyone experiences hypnosis several times each day. For example, you get lost in a good book or conversation, or drive home and forget how you got there. These are all examples of being in a highly focused state where you are unaware of other distractions, yet able to function fully. Different states of mind can be quantified and measured, and the brain wave frequencies are called Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta.

Tell us more about your classes.

We talk about expectations and the importance of choosing a care provider that matches your expectations. Too often, couples may express a desire for an unmedicated and calm birth, but they have hired an obstetrician as their care provider without realizing perhaps that most obstetricians are trained surgeons who are not very well-versed in normal, physiological birth. We have a birth preferences list that parents review. Often, after understanding the choices they really do have, they may choose another provider or birthing location.

We spend a good deal of time learning and practicing deep relaxation skills, visualization and affirmations about gentle calm birthing, viewing real births by couples who have used HypnoBirthing, and seeing a tremendous difference between these women and what modern television and other forms of media portray birth to be. We teach the partners a special kind of light touch massage to help release endorphins, our own very powerful pain relievers. We learn a different way to "breathe the baby down" into this world without having to hold your breath and push the baby out. We talk about releasing fears, negative thoughts and beliefs about birth and/or parenting, and spend the last part of the last class going through a fear release exercise.

Do you often have to manage people’s expectations about HypnoBirthing?

Not really; most couples have some knowledge of HypnoBirthing either because they read the book or a friend recommended it. Most people are afraid of pain, and that is usually the first aspect we talk about. When moms hear about the fear-tension-pain cycle and how we can intercept it with relaxation, I see much relief and nods of understanding from both moms and dads. Simply put, when we are afraid, our muscles tense; when the muscles are tense, we feel pain differently and more intensely. The HypnoBirthing philosophy is that unbearable pain is not an essential aspect of birthing.

What’s the best way to communicate to one’s obstetrician or delivery hospital a desire to include HypnoBirthing?

This is really a major point. We recommend that couples discuss their wishes at every visit and with every practitioner they meet, since they often do not see the same doctor or nurse at every visit. It would be wonderful if doctors and OB/GYN nurses had the opportunity to take a seminar where they can observe birth that is undisturbed, joyful, calm and empowering for all involved.

Short of that, we encourage parents to be informed and remain calm, and give them some sentences to use when something that they did not want is being suggested during the birth. For example, a nurse might say: "You are not progressing fast enough, how about we augment with pitocin?" The husband could ask: "Is my wife in any danger? Is our baby in danger?" Probably the nurse will reply no. The father can then say: "We would like to wait another hour or two, and stick to our birth plan."

The couple will have tools they would have practiced over a few months, during which they can allow labor to unfold in its own time. Whether the couple chooses other options during their labor that they originally did not want, they usually don’t regret their decisions if they made an informed choice without pressure, in a relaxed state of mind. Many couples have told us that the skills they learned in class helped with all sorts of unexpected situations – and this is really the aim.

Duette Maxon’s Recommended Resources

HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method: A Natural Approach to a Safe, Easier, More Comfortable Birthing by Marie Mongan (good starting point)
The official HypnoBirthing website
“HypnoBirthing, What A Great Way to Arrive” (a dad’s perspective and one of Maxon’s favorites)
Youtube videos (search “HypnoBirthing” for couple testimonials)

To sign up or find out more about Maxon’s HypnoBirthing classes, email duettemaxon@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Duette Maxon