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Q: Baby Hulk here. Why are old world Chinese allowed to translate in medical facilities?
So my wife finally gave birth after 38 hours of labor (birthing a Hulk isn't easy). Her English is good enough to not require a translator for the most part, but I asked for one just in case we got something mixed up.
We had an older lady who has been in America for almost 20 years. She injected her pucking opinion in everything the doctor said. She gave my wife medical advice and disagreed with almost every suggestion and scared my wife.
" You're Chinese, you can't drink cold water or you'll get sick."
" You're Chinese, you can't have an epidural."
" You're Chinese, you can't have a c-section" ( WTF?)
" You're Chinese, your husband is a giant foreigner , and the baby is too big as a result. You need a c-section."
" You're Chinese, you must stay in bed for about forty days."
"Personally, I don't think you should do X because of Y reason."
" The doctors don't understand our Chinese bodies."
" Traditional Chinese medicine this, traditional Chinese medicine that."
etc. Tons of mindless advice.
It wasn't until she left, and brought in another translator (a friend of mine) that I found out all this shit. My wife also told me she couldn't do certain things because of what that old hag told her. She also mixed everything up, and her English was worse than my wife's.
While I'm happy to meet my daughter, I'm furious at all the shit that translator put my wife though. Rant over... gonna go hold my beautiful daughter...
10 years 41 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
Gratz! And that happens quite a bit - at least she wasn't speaking latin. Some of the older ones don't know English but do know latin. Useful.
First my congratulations, Hulk, on your daughter's birth. Then I fully know what you went thru. In the nine months of pregnancy, I went thru 6 doctors, all took my daughter's mother as a patient, and in less than 30 days called me to tell me that they were removing from the case from the case because the b**ch refused to follow instructions or do as told. She was following traditional Chinese medicine ideas, and ignoring what the doctors there said. At birth by C (she had complications), I had to implore a friend of mine to do the operation, or the baby would die. This is one reaon I will not, ever, get married again.
Hulk:
Yep. I demanded a c-section and it was about to get ugly if they denied our request. I talked to my wife about it, and she agreed with me... once that old hag was gone, we had an emergency c-section.
Hulk:
I sent you pictures. Spotty wifi here at the hospital, so I'm pretty much unable to post often
" You're Chinese, you can't have a c-section" http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-05/11/content_9836532.htm
Whenever someone comes with anything about differences between Chinese bodies and Western bodies, I will not stop telling them how ignorant they are until they leave the general area I am in. These people are evil, they are uneducated, they are dangerous to be around, they should learn to shut up.
Hulk:
I went and told the doctors never to let her back in. I said she's not allowed there ever again, and even the replacement translator, who happened to be related to her, agreed with me. I went on a huge rant against TCM and the doctors agreed. We got down to business really fast.
Sincere Congratulations to you and your Family SIR HULK !!
Beautiful daughter, focus on the beautiful daughter. A million congratulations!
Don't let the memory of any old idiot ruin these days for you.
Ps: what should we call her? Hulkette? Hulkina? Hulkine?
Congratulations daddy!
2 notes:
1) my daughter was born in China at the Kanghua Hospital in Dongguan. We've been advise to go for a C-section (placenta liquid not enough the reason). I actually had the opposite problem, thinking that they might suggest a C-section even if not really needed because it implies spending more money into the hospital. Anyway, who dares to take the risk?
2) who's the people giving thumbs down to the congrat posts?!?!?!
Hulk:
I actually thought everyone would go straight for the c-section. I am against it except when required. Since I'm not a medical professional, I don't give advice to American doctors... but I tried to get the c-section several hours before anyone finally agreed with me... my wife agreed from the beginning. The translator screwed a lot of stuff up.
Question to Daddy Hulk.
Did you wife get to go through proper training/preparation for giving birth. This would impact the fact that she was quick to agree to a c-section, if there is an old hag yelling garbage to her. One of the things about giving birth, is that it is really really really a huge effort for the woman, but if someone is saying "Psssst. We can make this happen with zero effort from you" then probably most would jump on that idea, but maybe less so if they knew the benefits of natural birth over c-section.
Right after all the honking this is my main pet peeve with China. These people love natural medicine, they love massages, they are very proactive in being healthy. But when it comes to childbirth it's. "Cut me open so I can start feeding my child some tainted formula" I don't get it, apart from the fact that hospitals makes more money on c-sections. You would still think some TCM nutters would warn against not going all natural.
Hulk:
We read a lot about it. Didn't have much training, though. Problem is, she was pushing for hours, and every time she pushed, the baby would go back in, nullifying all of her efforts. She is very strong, but it took forever to dilate, and she had been in labor for over 36 hours before they finally agreed. The baby was stuck, and specialists didn't want to risk anything. Vacuum was considered too dangerous, and mama was too tired. Keep in mind my wife has a broken collarbone and can't take pain meds.. She still wanted to keep pushing, but I told her not to. Broken collarbone, 38 hours... She deserved the c-section... it wasn't a waste.
Hulk:
She just couldn't do it naturally. We wanted it, but it wasn't an option. We like things to be natural, but we're not nutters about it.
Anyway, not your case anymore as far as I understood of you being in the US already, but here in China, be aware of the pediatrician too. Never heard such a pile of BS on a perfectly and utterly healthy kid as, luckily, my daughter is.
Tks God I finally had her mother convinced about it when we went for a visit with a very good one back in Italy.
My guess is that, finding nothing wrong, they must come up with some BS for face, to show "they know". Probably if they just would say "it's alright, your kid is a happy and healthy one", people may think they have not enough knowledge.
The last one we've seen claimed my daughter being missing calcium, without blood check, taking mom's super rich milk (being growing like a weed and putting up 1kg/month). Prescribed calcium pills, that we didn't buy and didn't use (calcium overdosage can be dangerous). Be aware! Of course blood check done in Italy didn't show anything wrong.
Congrats Hulk. It seems you can't get rid of China! It even follows you into the hospital in America! Lay back for a while and enjoy your daughter. You have a few months of joy ahead of you.
Hulk:
Thanks, xinyuren! We're having a blast here, and I posted a bunch of pictures elsewhere. We're both really happy with our daughter. However, I think I'm destined to be forever connected to China.. .
Congrats ,Man
I will just take the advice If its good,If not,forget it.
and use common sense as we are human,Westerners or Chinese,it's No different.
It's strange the resident wumaos take their time to go through and downvote this thread, but not take the time to say "Congrats" or "I eat at McDonalds because I am a tool who cannot cook" or something
I don't know you, but congratulations. One of my students had a similar experience with her student visa interview. First she paid some Beijing firm a boat load of money to practice for the interview. They taught her to answer the questions with lengthy nonsense. I told her to just be honest but to remember that her plans were to come back to China after her course, no matter what .
She chose to go back to the agency and tell them what I told her, in the end she decided to believe her own countrymen. Americans know nothing about America when compared to the 5000 years of History in every Chinese person.
When asked why did she want to study in the US, she rambled on and on for 3 minutes with the memorized answer that the agency taught her. And even after I warned her her, she was still surprised that saying "America is a great place to raise a family" cost her the interview.
I was so disappointed in her , that when she asked me to help her (again) , I told her "you clearly are unwilling to listen to anything I have to say, so go find a another Chinese person to fill your head with more s***. " i felt so bad after saying it but I still ignored her.
Hulk:
I don't know you either, but I've been in a similar situation.
I attended a job interview at an "international high school." Foreign teachers were not allowed to give them visa coaching lessons. I told them that I understand the visa laws of my country and can help them pass the interview.
They'd rather have a "Chinese visa coach." I insisted on following the proper visa procedures to maximize the chances of them getting a visa. "We know you are the good teacher, but you not the teacher we need, but I hope we can friends." Sure.
Six months later, none of them passed their interviews. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the warm wishes and welcomes. I really appreciate it. I'm absolutely ecstatic to meet and hold our beautiful daughter. I do have some advice for prospective parents:
1) Never allow your family's TCM craziness to manifest. My wife's mother screamed at her for eating an apple. "That's dangerous!!!!"
2) NEVER ALLOW THE MOTHER TO SLEEP WITH THE BABY. NEVER ALLOW ANYONE TO SLEEP WITH THE BABY. Hold your ground, many babies die from suffocation this way. No matter what anyone tells you (doctors and nurses will always warn against it), they can't sleep together. My wife put up a lot of resistance to this idea, but she understands now that she can't sleep together. Instead, put the crib/bassinet next to the bed so the mother can see the baby.
3) Make sure all interpreters, if required, aren't allowed to inject their own opinions at all. They cannot give any medical or health advice. It could be dangerous.
Be careful! God bless.
andy74rc:
Big thumb up on point 2.
Then, as we're talking about baby sleep, for the coming future (you can do it when she'll be 6 months old) I STRONGLY recommend you to read about Dr. Estivill method. Some claim that is not scientifically proved, but believe me, it really works. Suggested by my boss who implemented it with his son, with my daughter (9 months now) in 4 days I got her sleeping through the night 9:00pm to 6:30pm.
Hulk:
We had a HUGE fight over #2. We just finally got over it last night... I went nuts and yelled at her, brought in the nurses and doctors to tell her not to do it, etc. You have to stick to your guns.
You CANNOT budge on #2. The baby's life is more important than the mother's emotions...
