I have been well for days, tum-a-tum happy and now I can officially share a secret with you all. I have kept the secret for way too long in Beth time. It’s sort of two secrets wrapped up into one. Ready?
My grandma, Signe, has been reincarnated and works in the kitchen of our largest heladeria here in Pucallpa named Ces’t Si Bon. Seriously!
I have discovered one of the most amazing, delicious, soft, perfect, delightful, rich but not too rich, heavenly Torta de Chocolate (cakes) EVER and I sneak into town and eat it every single day at least once. My grandma is the only person that has ever made a chocolate cake that makes me crazy and this one comes darn close to the goodness she created. Grandma is surely here with me. It’s so like her to set up shop in a famous sweet station and get to her boogy bakin’ ways. She was always a busy woman and I am so happy to have her here! See the picture of my Signe cake and I.
This is my last week at the hospital and I am SO relieved. I have learned a tremendous amount. In all hospitals I think, birth is so the same in some ways and yet so very different (here) as well. There is a lot of what I perceive to be abuse. I get a deep pit in my stomach, hollow and haunting, and I want to run away and take these mamas with me! I believe that in order to promote institutional birth, we need to examine how to change birth culture in hospitals all over the world to start. Women are scared and need support that they aren't often receiving. I hope that I created a little pocket of love for women and babes whenever I could. And perhaps in all the crazy newness that I suggested or exemplified, I planted a seed in the minds of my fellow Midwives and Interns. Certainly they have planted many seeds in mine and shared so much patience and kindness with me.
This week I had 2 night shifts. The first was a super slow night, but a woman came in for a C birth and I scrubbed in for a front row seat. See my photos. It was a beautifully conducted C section with my favorite Dr. Perez.
2 nights later, I spent my last and busiest night at the hospital attending 4 births and working with Alex the intern who attended the other 4. Paperwork is out of control here and though I have finally learned how to write all my notes in Spanish (history, physical, soap notes, etc) it still takes me a really long time. Ugggggh. But… I can write medical notes in Spanish!!!!! After explaining my work with INMED and my passion for empowering women in birth the Midwife working that night wanted to watch me do a vertical birth and had me convinced that the women I delivered could chose their birth positions. Unfortunately, when we discovered that each one was complete, the Midwife would tell me that there wasn’t time after all for a vertical birth. DARN IT!!!! One primip REALLY wanted to squat and the Midwife wouldn’t let her. I think there is so much fear around new positions here because they don’t see it often and have certainly never done it. They tell me that it’s done frequently in the mountains and in the jungle, but almost never in the hospital. She did let me pass a baby right to mom after birth and delay cutting the cord, which I thought was exciting after hanging babies upside down for a month. The one mom to whom I offered her baby right after birth didn´t want anything to do with it!!!! She was freaked out by the idea. DARN IT AGAIN!
Morning came and L and D was packed and nurses were bustling (ajetreo cintinuo – hustle and bustle). Nurses had moved the waiting benches outside and were shooing people out. Then came the beds complete with woman and babe – they wheeled them right on outside! I thought, “OH, very interesting, they just wheel the whole bed out when there isn’t room inside anymore.” It’s always fascinating to compare what my mind thinks is happening to what ACTUALLY happens in this Pucallpa world. Well, my intern friends grabbed my hand and led me outside with everyone else and it was then that I saw the smoke billowing from every hospital pore. And so…. What is your mind thinking?.... NOPE! Not a fire. Fumigation time!!!! It was 6am and the fumigators were doing there regular round of bug killing. That sealed the deal for me. I was OUTIE, OUT, CHAU (they spell it like this here “chau”), Goodbye, hasta luego, OUT. And I said goodbye as I held my breath and walked out of the big hospital gates. See pics of the fumigation!
Don’t worry, I returned the next day to give me BIG FINAL presentation…
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