EuroLife: Day 66

Big blog news today: we reached over 1000 hits! That's pretty cool. I'm sure we'll be picked-up any day now by some corporate sponsor--most likely the New York Times Travel section--and paid vast quantities of cash for our musings. We'll just have to be sure we ask for our paycheck in Euros.

Today I thought I would show you all my Mutterpass. Yes, here in Germany, pregnant women are given a special "mother pass!"
Now, when I first heard that I was going to be given a Mutterpass, I got pretty excited. I thought that maybe it would get me all manner of discounts and special treatment--cheap fares on the strassenbahn, for example, or discounted soft drinks .(After all, I can't drink the cheap beer!)

Alas, it was not to be. It turns out my Mutterpass is a little booklet in which they record everything relevant to my pregnancy. When I told my doctor (during our first visit) that we would be heading to the US for Christmas, she said something to the effect of "Well, you're not going anywhere until you have your Mutterpass!" She made an appointment for the following week for me to come and pick it up. Unfortunately, I had to go to the Frauenklinik before I had received it. That led to some confusion, and many disconcerted faces, at the clinic. "Boy", I thought, "Only 8 weeks pregnant and already I feel like a bad mother. What kind of a mother goes around without a Mutterpass?"

Despite my jokes, I think it's a great idea. It has my blood type, family history, the results of the blood tests that they have done, a record of the medication that I'm on, my due date, the details of each ultrasound result...in short, every piece of information that might be medically relevant to the pregnancy. I suppose the idea is that, if anything should happen, I should always have that information on hand. As I said, this makes sense to me. Of course, in the States, it may not be of much use;it is, after all, written in German. Still, I like the idea.