My pregnancy story : Anemia in Pregnancy

 This is a story about my pregnancy journey.

I did film some videos talking about my pregnancy journey but I feel like writing about it will be more meaningful, for me and hopefully for Iryss to read about it in the future. Though there’s also a detailed journal with polaroids that I wrote for Iryss.  

A bit of history, Pan and I got married on October 17 last year and I got my period on October 28. Little did I know, that’s the last time I got my period lol.

When we found out about the pregnancy

It’s November 30, and I realized I didn’t get my period in November yet. But I always got my period late anyways. However, I started feeling nauseous, bloated, and had backache. I started cravings for certain food. 

I told Pan, maybe we should buy a pregnancy test kit and did the test, just in case. We went to Guardian and bought 5 different types of pregnancy test kits just cause I didn’t know which one’s accurate.

We reached home at 1030pm, I rushed to the toilet to take the test. After a few minutes of nervously waiting, it’s POSITIVE!

But what if it’s a false positive?

And oh yeah, we’re supposed to take the test in the morning lol. So I retook the test the morning after and it’s (still) positive! Alhamdulillah.

What I felt after finding out about my pregnancy 

Honestly, I was over the moon! I’ve always wanted a baby and to be a young mom. But I didn’t expect it to be this early hahaha! But we’re very thankful for this blessing. 

Pregnancy checkup and complications 

Most pregnant women in Malaysia will do their antenatal checkups at Klinik Kesihatan, later on, they will either choose to deliver their baby at a government hospital or at a private hospital.

As for me, I did my first antenatal checkup at Klinik Dr. Nurzawati and did our first scan there, when I was 8 weeks pregnant. I could just continue my antenatal checkup there as it is my company's panel clinic, but I decided to continue my checkup at Klinik Kesihatan Shah Alam Seksyen 19 as a government clinic would do a more thorough checkup although the waiting time can be a bit long. 

I found out that I’m anemic and I needed to take extra supplements to ensure my baby and I receive sufficient iron. And due to my condition, I had to do my checkup biweekly. It’s a bit tiring but I took it as my time off from work. At that time, I experienced quite a challenging work environment and with the morning sickness that’s quite bad, I was glad I got that time off.

Due to the challenging work environment, I started to feel very stressed out that I resorted to seeing psychiatrists - two psychiatrists to be exact. Honestly, I was glad I seek for professional help because a stressful mind with anemia would lead to more complications in the future.

I’ve made up my mind to give birth at a private hospital due to the rising of covid cases and because it’s covered by my company. My OBGYN was initially Dr. Imelda Balchin at KPJ Damansara till, towards the end, I decided to give birth in Melaka, as it’ll be easier for pantang and stuff. My OBGYN is Dr Azlina at Mahkota Medical Centre.

Thank God for my company’s policy, a pregnant woman is not allowed to be in the office and even my OBGYNs had issued me letters for me to work from home due to my pregnancy risk.

It's my first pregnancy and it is very challenging. Pan and I were anxious and worried over the littlest things and because of that we’ve met more than 15 unique doctors throughout my pregnancy. 

My anemic condition that only improved the last week before I gave birth had caused me to take blood tests every biweekly and I had to also check if I had thalassemia or not. Alhamdulillah, my anemia was only caused by iron deficiency.

During my third trimester, I once lived in a wheelchair for two weeks due to pelvic girdle pain (PGP),  a pain that is felt around the pelvic joints, lower back, hips, and thighs. I had difficulty in movement, I couldn't walk, part my legs when getting in and out of my car, cannot turn in bed, sleeping is a pain too. I resorted to prenatal massage and alhamdulillah it got better. 

Anemia, work stress, PGP had caused me to take weeks of leaves and MCs. They also pushed me to speak up for my right to higher management due to the injustice afflicted upon me.

With all the complications and challenges I had to go through, I’m glad I have a strong support system behind me. My husband, my family, my besties, and my small team at work.

My pregnancy essentials 

1. Maltofer Fol & Calcium

A pregnant woman should eat prenatal vitamins like iron and folic acid. Often, clinics will give Obimin. But I never knew these vitamins can give you side effects. In my case, Obimin made me more nauseous. 

Due to my anemic condition, I couldn't skip any iron supplement and God bless Dr. Hannah, my friend for telling me about the existence of Maltofer. Specifically Maltofer Fol. Because my hemoglobin reading was low (it reached Hb 8), all doctors I met recommended taking two tablets of Maltofer daily.  I have no qualm eating that because it tastes like chocolate. Yeap, it's a chewable supplement :)

Apparently, there’s a way to effectively eat your vitamins. You shouldn’t take vitamins with milk, especially an iron supplement. You should take iron supplements only 3 hours after drinking milk. And oh, for anemia, caffeine is a big NO. That includes tea, hot chocolate, and milo. Yeah, I was milo sober for my whole pregnancy. 

Surbex Calcium-D3

Calcium. Dr. Imelda also recommended me a calcium supplement, with vitamin D3 and I’ve been taking that till now. Calcium is very important for the baby’s growth but most importantly for the mother’s bone and teeth. 

2. Goat Milk - Wildan Mama Premium 

Wildan Mama Premium: Original RM79

Funny I couldn’t take any cow milk during pregnancy. I would get diarrhea. Only goat milk works for me, my uncle introduced me to Wildan Mama Premium, it claims to help to improve the Hb. It has dates,habbatus sauda, and all the good stuff in it. I love that milk, it gives me energy especially during my first trimester. There are two flavors for this type of milk, Vanilla, and Original. Vanilla is too sweet for me. So, I opted for the original flavor, and thank God it has NO goaty smell or aftertaste at all, fuuhh.

Wildan Chocolate: RM45

I continue drinking Wildan goat milk till now because I am breastfeeding Iryss. But for now, I drink the normal Wildan milk, chocolate flavored. Not the mama premium. It’s also cheaper haha! 

Other than that, I was also being forced to eat kerang like three times a week, to improve my Hb level. To the point, I don't wanna eat anymore kerang now.

3. Pregnancy pillow(s)

During my get-together with my girls last Christmas, I told my secret Santa that I needed a pregnancy pillow. Thank God for Aida, she granted my wish, and oh boy I never slept without my pregnancy pillow until the day I was warded, just because I forgot to take it to the hospital with me :(

It is so comfortable and especially because pregnant women are not advised to sleep on their back. Yeah, shocking! There are so many don’ts on the list. The pillow may take half of the bed but yes, I needed my space hahaha!

Another type of pillow that my body thanked me for is the wedge pillow. I used it in the car. Lifesaver, for my back.

4. Pregnancy book and mobile apps

One book that I read on a weekly basis is What to Expect When You're Expecting. The book explains everything about pregnancy, from pregnancy symptoms, lifestyle, week-by-week developmental information. Don’t be intimidated by the 600+ page book—you don’t need to read every single page.

There is also a 'What to Expect' app, that provides me with summarized, important information that I need to know. There's also an insightful daily article for me to read, it makes me look forward to opening the app daily. Another app that I love is 'Pregnancy+'. It's neater than the previous app, and it also has a pregnancy countdown, which is so useful. Like I literally counting days to meet my unborn child.

5. Pregnancy Ball & Maternity Belt

Best purchases during my pregnancy. Birthing balls are essentially the same as exercise balls. They’re both made from a durable material that makes them extremely difficult to puncture. But exercise balls used at the gym tend to be smaller than birthing balls.

I used a birthing ball to exercise, to sit and it's a great help when I had PGP.  

The maternity belt has saved me from having severe backache, especially during my second trimester. As I approached the third trimester, backache wasn't really an issue, but note to self, to buy a bigger size maternity belt, so it could fit till the end of pregnancy lol.

6. A 3L water bottle

Water. water. water. Hydration is key. Because I always felt thirsty, and I didn't have the energy to keep refilling my water bottle, so Pan bought me a 3L water bottle from Mr. DIY and that bottle had become my staple pregnancy item.

7. A helpful, wonderful husband

I cannot thank Pan enough for all his sacrifice and help throughout my pregnancy. He's been such a great husband, helping me with chores, driving me around, accompanying me to every single clinic/hospital visitation, fulfilling each of my cravings, buying all the things I needed and wanted, massaging me, pushing me when I had to be on the wheelchair, helping me get into showers when I was immobile.  He's been such a wonderful husband, I don't know if I deserve it but maybe I do, because I'd risked my life for our child :P You're welcome hahaha!

But in all seriousness, to all single women out there, we really need helpful husbands for times like these. May he be helpful and wonderful and loving and caring till forever, aminnn!

Keeping my pregnancy a secret

Pan is a very secretive person. I respect that about him and we have decided since early on to keep our pregnancy a secret from social media. Did we have any explanation for it? Maybe we didn't. Maybe we did. We didn't really know. We wanted to share the good news with the world, but we also knew that not everyone will be happy with it. Regardless, we're glad it's kept as a secret. A little surprise goes a long way ;)

 A small part of me wants to do a lot of preggy ootd on Instagram but due to MCO, I hardly dressed up anyway and this pregnancy made me a lazy person. I hated dressing up, I hated morning showers and I hated perfume.

So I guess, keeping my pregnancy a secret wasn’t really a hard thing to do. Only family, close friends, and colleagues know about my pregnancy. For every photo I posted on the gram, it’d either be half-body or just a selfie. I also wore a big, loose kaftan for Eid just to hide my belly.

We also had a gender reveal iftar for my close family at Holiday Inn, Melaka. Just for the record, I’ve been staying at my parents’ in Melaka since before Ramadhan as Pan had to be in the office in Pengerang and my OBGYNs had warned me not to stay at home alone because I could pass out anytime due to low of hemoglobin. Thank God for working from home policy, I could stay at my parents till I delivered.

Oh yeah on the gender, only my close family knew. We decided to not reveal the gender till the baby’s born. But you know by now, it’s a girl named Iryss.

When will we reveal her face?

I'm respecting Pan's decision not to reveal her face on socmed / blog / vlog yet. We only share her pictures with family and close friends upon request. Cannot deny, it's very tempting to post stuff about her on igstory though. But it's not the right time yet.

My pregnancy journey has been nothing but a beautiful one. Despite being in lockdown, I think it's such a great blessing because I got to be working from home, I didn't have to drive to work, my husband's also working from home, so we wouldn't have to be in a long-distance relationship. I don't know what will the future hold with the status quo in Malaysia but I wanna spend my time, appreciating the present, our little family, and I am hoping to have a work-life balance once my maternity leave is over. And yeah, to drive again after 9 months of not driving at all. 

I know some of my friends who are pregnant now or trying to conceive, I hope my story doesn't scare you. No two pregnancies are the same and being a mother is the best role and sometimes the only role I want to be in life. It's such a blessing to become one, I thank Allah for this great gift. I pray for you to also experience motherhood and may Allah ease everything for us :)