Vacation pictures

Sai Yok trip

Saturday morning we left for a quick vacation! Dayton used up his last personal day and we came back Monday afternoon. It took us forever to get there because we had to navigate through the Bangkok traffic and then go through the mountains to about 15km from the Thai-Burmese border. Good thing we speak Thai, because most people we spoke definitely spoke no English!

We drove to Kanchanaburi province, then to the town Sai Yok, and then to our hotel River Kwae Village. It was right on the River Kwae, and looking out our window, we could see the cliffs, the river, barges, boats, etc. Grace loved looking at the boats going by. Definitely not child-friendly though. The walkways had dropoffs and waterfalls under them because it was built right on the side of the mountain! We used their swimming pools quite a bit because no one else was using them. Most of the other hotel guests were with tours gone during the day. No other little kids, so our kids were quite entertaining, especially to the Thai staff!

On Sunday, we drove to the Hellfire Pass museum. It was the site of the Australian POW camp run by the Japanese during WWII. Amazing pictures. We didn't hike down to the pass because of little kids and short legs. If you get a chance, look it up and read about it. We then drove on down to the Sai Yok Noi national park, looked at the river and waterfalls, tried to explain that to Grace that her hat "went swimming" when it blew off and into the river, and then tried to find a place to eat lunch. We got lucky when choosing one of the many food stall/mini-restaurants. The food was great (Thai of course), they played with our kids, helped Grace dig in the dirt, helped her wash her hands, etc.. Grace got to use their squatty potty. For a first timer, she did well not peeing in her shoe! We really enjoyed the lunch, just talking with the people (all in Thai), explaining we weren't really tourists, etc. In fact, instead of the $5 per adult entrance fee to the park as foreigners, we pain only 50 cents each because we could show our Thai driver's licenses and spoke Thai.

We were worried that Grace, who'd never slept in the same room as us and had never slept in a big bed, would not sleep well or bother us. But she did really well and liked her roll-away bed with the bright pink comforter. She got no nap Sunday, so that night decided to put herself to bed at 9pm. Isaiah was easy as usual.

The worst part of the trip was Monday morning. Just as we were ready to finish packing up, Grace decided that she didn't want anymore pancake. She'd brought it with her from breakfast. I was busy packing up stuff in the bathroom, and Dayton was putting away the playpen. Isaiah (who had just eaten) was laying on his back on the bed playing with a toy. I heard a gagging sound and saw Grace stuffing pancake in his mouth!!! I fished out what I could but it was too late, he gagged on it and then threw up EVERYTHING he'd just eaten. Well, since we weren't going to use the bed anymore, the sheets were used to clean him up, and we spanked Grace and then changed Isaiah's clothes. What a mess!! Isaiah is still completely breastfed... what a shock to him!

So that was our trip. We most enjoyed the driving actually. The beautiful mountains. The huge trucks we had to navigate around... full of sugar cane, or taro (rolling off and almost hitting our car!), or pineapples. And Grace enjoyed the cows we passed every 5 minutes. They were grazing along the road and she'd try to count them. It was a much needed vacation!

Baby Catchers of the Amazon

Or a similar title. Can't remember exactly. But it was on the Nat'l Geographic channel. It followed a midwife in the Amazon jungles. A traditional midwife who has learned from doing things on her own. But I did notice that she's had some training because she was using gloves, had a scale, a birth bag. Showed her doing prenatal checkups, delivering babies, postnatal checkups, breastfeeding help. Fascinating! Also showed her as a local healer, gathering plants from the jungle, making medicines, compresses, baths, etc. for the village.

One of the births would have had major interventions in a normal/hospital setting. The cord was wrapped around the baby's body and 3x around the neck. Was not breathing for at least 2 minutes. The midwife did all kinds of things to get it to breathe well, and even used a clean cloth over the baby's face as a barrier for infant CPR. She did not cut the cord immediately so the baby still was receiving support from the mother until it was breathing on it's own. This should be normal procedure in any setting.

Watching this show just made me want to come right back to the computer and keep on studying!

Chat with my midwife

My midwife returned from her 2 month visit home in Australia. She bought a house... waaaaaah, she's moving away in July!! But she did say that if I want to have more babies at home, she'd come back and catch them. Her husband has a business here that he'll have to visit 2x a year, so they can arrange their visit schedule around a due date if they have to. I guess the bad news was kindof good news.

We also discussed the local childbirth educators. They are awful. She was a fabulous one and I would love to follow in her footsteps. She was so encouraging and positive about me wanting to be a CBE and is even willing to mentor me while she's here. Dayton had even said to me a few weeks ago that when she leaves, who is going to fill her shoes... maybe I could. BAMBI (look at my links) will need CBE's and more doulas as guest speakers and to offer services, so that's a place I can start.

We also discussed me becoming a midwife. Her opinion is that if I want to that's fine but don't ever even think about practicing here legally. The only midwives here are Thai nurse-midwives who are not allowed to catch babies. In fact, if a baby is born before the doctor arrives, they get in trouble. She has spoken with midwives who have NEVER caught a baby with years of working in hospitals. So basically, just because I'd have the education, and if I were gifted enough to learn the language to pass the exams here to be licensed, what Thai doctor would ever approve of me, let alone be a backup. Just because I was licensed does not mean that I could work in a hospital in a real midwife capacity. She was not legally licensed here but worked as a doula/CBE/labor assistant.

Her opinion is good in her experience, but I do know of nurse-midwives here who have caught plenty of babies. Outside of Bangkok, homebirths are no big deal. My Thai teacher's aunt just had a homebirth with a local midwife, so I know there are paths that I can explore. And maybe in 10 years, it will be possible. I've read so many papers published by Thai nursing associations about how they need to be more open to foreign educated practitioners. They need to follow through and start the work to make it happen. But it's a big cultural issue as much as it is a legal one.

Overall, a VERY exciting conversation. A few months ago when I first spoke with her about my plans, she was like, yeah whatever, you just had a baby, this will pass. But now she can see the passion, the education I've begun, and the need for someone like-minded to follow behind her.