Mothering Mothers 2009

As a member of the MMB, I knew of this event since the last couple of years but haven’t got the chance to join the group on their visits to UMMC. I first got to know about this year’s projects from Allthingspurple and Chanel, but since Yiu Yiu was not well, I didn’t give much thoughts to it. Anyhow, on Friday night, I sms Ros, the main organiser this year and asked if I could join them at UMMC on Saturday. She immediately called me back and asked me to be there.

The volunteers were scheduled to meet at 9.30am to help sort out the gifts and when I reached, some of the mums who were there earlier were already busying themselves.

A group photo before we divided ourselves into two groups

We divided ourselves into two groups – the first visited primarily the paediatric wards, while our group visited primarily the maternity wards. As such, we met mothers who were generally in a happy mood, with their newborns by their sides. There was a mother with twin boys, and they looked so cute. We even managed to squeeze in a prep talk or two with these new mothers on the benefits of breastfeeding. We also dropped some gifts at the labour room as we were not allowed in, as well as the Special Care Nursery (SCN) where premature babies are being cared for. The nurses let us into the corridor of the SCN, where we managed to catch a glimpse of these tiny babies, all of whom were placed in the incubator. Quite a heart wrenching sight.

We only went to one paediatric ward (or were it two?) and the patients there were not in as bad a condition as those in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) visited by the other group. The only patient that is still fresh in my mind is this skinny, jaundiced girl of perhaps 10-12 years old, who’s on the waiting list for a liver transplant. But she was still very cheerful, and was smiling away while we chatted with her dad (her mum was not around as her parents take turns to stay with her in the hospital).

We then met up with the other group to visit the geriatric and gynaecology wards. At the end of the day, there was still a number of surplus gifts, which we decided to distribute to the nurses who assisted us on that day. Few of the mums left after that, while some of us then stayed on and got to know one another better over a cup of tea at Delifrance.

All in all, it was a good experience - the grateful and happy looks on the mothers’ faces upon receiving the unexpected gifts were precious. And the opportunity to put a face to all the names I’ve so far only known virtually was great too.


Here are more write-ups on the event.
Allthingspurple
Montessori Mum
Suzette
Ros