There’s a big difference between having a baby in Doha and having a baby at home surrounded by extended family, apart from being a fairly daunting task anyway, there’s a stark realisation that other than your husband you really have no-other interested party around to offer support. Of course friends are more than happy to…
It’s the day that says you’re reaching the end of pregnancy, it’s the day that says you’ll be welcoming a new personality into your home soon. It’s a big day in any soon-to-be-mum’s life, yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s the day that you visit Ikea for the last time before the baby is born. There’s…
Only weeks to go before having a baby in the Middle East and along with the baby, reality starts kicking hard. Having a baby abroad is all very well and sounds like a great adventure at first but as the due date draws nearer so too does the reality that you’re thousands of miles from…
It’s a thing among expats and one of the commonly asked questions at this time of year, ‘who are you flying home with?’ There’s a certain airline snobbery that exists midst expats they just love to discuss airfares, airports, air miles and flight paths. They know the best time to book, the best seats to…
Back in the workforce four months after a four year maternity leave and just as the daily grind was beginning get mundane I discovered great news – pregnant again! As pregnancy is really the only long-term cure for work, I was delighted; and of course I was delighted to deliver a new bundle of joy…
5 days and about 10 years overdue, at two o’clock on a Monday morning my baby started to make a move to arrive into the world. Excitedly, I packed the final essentials, eye cream, magazines, iPod, completely looking forward to my mini-break in Doha Clinic. I had read in my pregnancy manuals how these days…
It was during one of the final visits to my pregnancy guru (gynaecologist) that she mentioned I should write a birth plan. Unaware that this facility was available, up to now I was under the impression that one was unable to control labour and delivery, let alone write a plan, but apparently things had moved…
Thirty seven weeks pregnant with my anxiety and the Doha temperature rising, I have taken to walking, waddling, twice a day at the advice of my Egyptian Ob/Gyn, who seems to think that it is possible to shimmy a baby out by spending as much time as possible walking in the final stages of pregnancy,…
Appreciation was always a foregone conclusion where my Mother was concerned, it accelerated on my eighth month of pregnancy when my ankles swelled to the size of watermelons and the knowledge that my uterus was soon to follow suit. The appreciation rose to unprecedented heights on the day my son was delivered, when visitors swooned…
International Women’s Day was celebrated on Wednesday last. Living in Abu Dhabi and surrounded by expat wives and women ( I differentiate purposely) it prompted me to think of the women I know and love and their qualities and achievements. Unfortunately, many of the qualities that immediately come to mind were bitching, moaning and complaining…
thereluctantemigrant 