2/20/10 - I swallowed an IUD

OH MY!

I had an IUD once not too long ago and MAN did that thing cause some SERIOUS uterine cramps.  I would be in the middle of conversation and one could see my eyes roll back in my head as I suffered the grip of my very own uterus.  For this reason, I believe that I have swallowed an IUD.  I’m seriously pretty sure.  My tummy cramps just won’t quit.  I am putting myself back on Cipro just to cut the waves.  Any ideas, smart family and friends?

Spent the week doing mostly Paps and family planning clinics at the hospital.  I think that’s where I swallowed the IUD!!!!  Just joking…They don’t have IUDs here.  Resource issue and I see one of the many future grants I will be writing.  I need to start writing the emergency birth control grant for Pucallpa too.  Abortion is illegal and we all know what that means.  Add the lack of adoption services…

Spent a little time in Sala de Parto and delivered a few more beautiful little babes.  Labor and Delivery continues to be difficult for me though.  The suffering of women and the use of older OB practices are so challenging.  Additionally, this is a yelling kind of culture.  We all have our weird little things, and yelling is one of their “things.”  They yell a lot - up the stairs to see if I am still sleeping, down the stairs, when you are standing nearby or far away, and sometimes even within whisper range.

Honking by ALL automobiles is favored here as well.  Yep just heard a few honks as I type.  You honk to tell people you are driving by, you honk when you pass one block and start another, you honk when you pass a random stranger, you just honk and then you honk some more for no apparent reason.  So I think of the yelling as a form of honking only from your mouth.  It makes the yelling a little cuter.  Mouth honking. 

Still, mouth honking in labor and birth just isn’t my style and I struggle with it.  Also, I have repaired too many unnecessary episiotomies, had too many mama’s on their backs pushing… and could go on and on about what I have experienced.  I have asked the Midwifery director if I can give a presentation about Birth in the US, similarities and differences, and plan to highlight Midwifery practice, vertical birth, water birth, mom-baby bonding immediately after birth, waiting to cut cord, and why we don’t cut epis anymore.  I have been discussing the differences in practice with the Midwives and Interns here since I arrived and everyone is excited for my presentation.  I will let you know how it goes!

Also, I don’t think I have mentioned that women at this hospital don’t have the option to have an epidural.  Resources are too slim.  For this reason, it’s an IDEAL place for vertical birth.  On a different note and just for those of you who are curious, there is only 1 NST machine and it might be the first one EVER made ;).  Monitoring babe doesn’t happen much, even with Pit practically free flowing.  We just got a shipment of hand-held dopplers and they are considered golden, almost untouchable.  We mostly use the cone and our stethoscopes still (which I have finally mastered).  Imagine, remove the Pit from within arms reach and natural beautiful birth could really happen here.  We’ve already got great music playing constantly – salsa, cumbia, latin rock… Add more baby listening, more education, some massage, a little less mouth honking, disassemble those scary birth tables and magic could happen! 

Despite the challenges, I LOVE the people with whom I work.  Here are more photos of all of my hospital friends.  Also see photo of the room and the table on which women deliver.  The woman in purple, Christina, is a Midwife who worked in the communities of the Andes and has lots of experience with vertical birth, not cutting epis, etc.  She’s helping me with my presentation.  She’s lovely.