There is something to be said for the comfort that comes from seeing your own doctor, being close the hospitals you know and dealing with a health care system that is familiar when you’re pregnant.  Since I am thousands and thousands of miles from home I have none of those luxuries, I, instead, find myself seeing a doctor I like but don’t really know at all and immersed in a health care system I know absolutely nothing about.  Can you say stress inducers!

When Lorne first found out that he had been offered this rotation program to Australia it was only weeks after I found out I was pregnant.  At the time the idea of traveling so far from home in the middle of my pregnancy was scary. We talked a lot about the logistics and the timing of the whole adventure before deciding it just wasn’t an opportunity we could pass up.  The closer we got to our departure the more stressed and nervous I became.  I talked at length with my OB about what I could expect my body to do given the stress of the actual traveling and what I should and shouldn’t do while in Australia to help ensure a healthy few months pregnancy wise.  He gave me lots of tips and advice, which I was so thankful for. But, that didn’t seem to calm my fears.

Arriving here in Australia, having spent 28 hours either in an airport or on an airplane and having no apparent ill affects from the journey helped calm my fears a bit.  Finally meeting my Australian OB and his staff, and finding that I liked them all, went a long way to ease my crazed nerves.  But, it seems as if nothing can really take away this little ball of worry I carry around with me every day.

Every ache, every twinge, every odd sensation comes packaged with a  lot of extra stress.  Even though I am healthy, the baby is healthy, and my pregnancy is progressing well and without complications (knock on wood) I can’t help but worry, and stress over all the “what if’s”.  I think we pregnant women are prone to worry as it is, but when you couple that with being so far from home, immersed in a health care system I know nothing about, I am a much bigger ball of nerves than I ever was during my first pregnancy.

My hope is that the remainder of our time here in Brisbane sees this pregnancy continuing to progress well and complication free and that Baby Girl 2.0 and I both continue to be healthy so I don’t have to test the waters of the Australian health care system beyond my monthly visits to the obstetrician.  I don’t really think there is anything I can do about this ball of worry. I’m pretty sure I’m destined to carry it around with me through the rest of our trip.