KKIA Kuchai (Klinik Kesihatan Ibu dan Anak)

These are my experience and opinion of KKIA Kuchai which serves Sri Petaling and Bukit Jalil:-

The contact number for KKIA Kuchai is 03-79801178. The number listed in the website is wrong.

1) the clinic is NOT on the ground floor. You press for your number on the ground floor but you will need to go one floor up to wait for your turn.

2) be there early because it covers a wide area therefore there's a crowd by 10am. I arrived at 8:06am and got number 35.

3) for new cases, it's best to go on Wednesdays as the nurse takes blood every Wednesday. Also note that they handle new cases from 8am to 10am only.

UPDATE:-
They handle new cases on Tuesday and Wednesday but they require you to make an appointment through phone before going.

4) the best time to go is when you are 12 to 13 weeks into your pregnancy.

5) as with all government clinics, expect to wait. Then again even with good private gynae, the wait is the same.

6) do not be alarmed if the numbers being called jumped from 20 to 50. This is because in this clinic, every patient is automatically assigned a nurse. This will be the same nurse that will attend to you from Day 1 until you deliver (unless she is on leave that day).

So the numbering progresses according to that particular nurse's list of patients and the tests (blood, urine, blood pressure etc) which the patients have to take.

7) the clinic is very organized with rooms assigned for taking blood, checking heart beat, opening account and explaining the do's and don't of pregnancy (but I personally think that by filling in your highest education in the pink book, the nurse know the level of information they need to impart).

Anyhow many important information can be found from the pink book itself.

8) lastly, there are a lot of foreign nationals moms to be there.. possibly from the influx of foreign workers in Kuala Lumpur, thus adding to the crowd but all the nurses are very patient even when they have to write the same information twice (once in your pink book and then another time in the clinic's pink book which they keep as a record).

9) there is NO ultrascan machine in KKIA Kuchai :(
That is why you are requested to bring your own ultrascan printout at the time of registration.

Not many KKIA have the machine but I know KKIA Puchong has one.

So basically in this KKIA the nurse will feel for the baby with their bare hands and use the doppler to listen for the heart beat.

I commented to the nurse on this and she recommends that I write to Kementerian Kesihatan to complain, which I did.

The Kementerian was very efficient in replying through an acknowledgment email and a phone call follow by an official reply:-

Basically they are saying that since March 2013 they have requested for the machines but reiterates that for every acquisition by the government will take time and there's a process which they have to follow.

So let's see if my baby will enjoy this machine and if not, I hope other moms to be will not have to wait too long for this one important piece of equipment.

UPDATE @ 4 December 2014:
Yahoo!! KKIA Kuchai just received their spanking new ultrasound machine last week!! Yeah.. but it's not up and running yet as the doctors need to go for training first on how to use it.

Still it's great news! :D

Audio test for baby with high jaundice (BSER)

Since my baby had jaundice of 361, the doctor in HUKM prescribed an audio test, Brain Stem Evoked Responds (BSER) to be taken when he is 3 months old.

Imagine the anxiety of having to wait that long before you can breath a sigh of relief that the jaundice ordeal is completely over.

At HUKM government hospital we had to book the date when baby was one month plus and the hospital gave a set of instructions to ensure that the test can be carried out without any hitch.

Because for the test to be successful, baby must be sleeping. So it is suggested that we wake the baby earlier and not let him sleep during the journey to the hospital.

Otherwise if the baby is awake, they will give medicine in syrup form that will cause baby to sleep. If the medicine does not work, then the last option will be to fix another date where the baby will be admitted one day before the test and then in the morning, they will apply anaesthesia.

Gulp! So scary..

So I was sleepless and up early at 5am plus on the day of appointment

For the test, the attendant attached 4 wires to his head, 2 in the center and 2 behind both his ears.

Initially she will apply a type of abrasive gel with a paper to remove dead skin to ensure strong adhesion.

Then she will scoop another type of adhesive gel with the cup shape connecting point to be attached to the head.

It was not easy to mount these things plus there is also an ear piece (the blue wire) which play the sound. Left ear first and then the right ear.

Thank God, baby was very cooperative and to help him to sleep, I breastfed him during the test.

The readings are captured by the computer which comes out in a graph form. For each ear, there were 3 graphs.

The results came back good! Praise God!

But the doctor did asked if I have other babies and when I said this is my first child, he mentioned that since there is no other siblings to compare with, he would recommend self monitoring.

Meaning babies will usually talk between 12 months to 18 months.

So if baby still do not know how to make 2 syllable sounds by then, I will need to make another appointment for audio test.

But for now, I'll leave it as that cos the results showed that my baby can hear so I am ecstatic that the jaundice did not affect him physically. Woo HOo!!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

But the funny thing was, a few days AFTER the test, I almost wet the baby's ear during bath... so me being overly concerned that water may have seeped into his ear, used babies cotton buds to "dry" his ear.

I was surprised to find on the cotton bud very strong dark coloured earwax.. Motivated by this "find", I proceeded to clean the next ear with cotton bud.

Having cleaned both his ears, I felt a niggling feeling that perhaps it is not safe to clean his ears... so I googled on it.

Lo and behold... to my horror!! We are NOT supposed to use cotton buds on babies ear.. Those earwax will somehow make it's way out and you just clean the outer part of the ear http://www.babycenter.com!!

And to think that we have just done the audio test a few days earlier to confirm baby's hearing is ok and here am I causing potential damage to his hearing... GULP!!

My only saving grace was that I did not dig real deep plus I was using cotton buds for babies with large tips. Phew!

So mothers out there.. Know what you can and cannot do! Google first before you do it and not like me.. do then check.. Hehe..

So cotton buds on ears are a definite no no.. no matter how "dirty" the ear may look inside.