Church Camp to Rayong

Last Wednesday we drove down a day early for our church camp. Rayong is a 3hr drive SE of Bangkok and located on the Gulf of Thailand. Beautiful, clean beaches!

We were set up in a nice cabin with a huge front porch. Grace is scared of the ocean so ended up swimming in her little pool that we put on the porch. I actually got in there with her a few times because it was so hot! April is the middle of hot season where it easily reaches 110F! We saw monkeys, butterflys, all kinds of bugs, geckos on our bed, and a baby elephant in the back of a pickup truck... Grace was thrilled!

The camp was fabulous. About 40 people from 7mo (Isaiah) to 84 years old! Everyone was split into 4 teams. Even families and cultures were split up. We've learned that if you have all of the Koreans/Filipinos/Africans in one group they only socialize with each other, so by splitting everyone up, it was way more competitive. The sandcastle competition was amazing! Dayton's team one the whole thing thanks to his "army" skills for commanding his "Green Vipers" team in the capture the flag water fight game. The singing and worship times were wonderful. One of the families could not afford the camp so they bartered! We ended up with great childcare. When Isaiah was napping, one of them would sit in the room and watch him sleep... for once I got to go what I wanted to do! And what did I do? Hah. Ended up helping in the 100F kitchen making coleslaw. But at least I had adult conversation. Another person from that family helped keep Grace entertained during the worship times so I could play the keyboard or participate.

I drove part of the way back. (Navigated our way there). So nice to finally have our own car! On the way back, a huge windstorm whipped up while we were on the elevated expressway. We could see a large fire with flames 5 stories high in one housing area. This vacation time is the Thai holiday called "Songkran". Lots of drinking and driving and deaths. That was one reason we left early and got back Saturday to beat the Sunday traffic jams. God protected us!

It really was a restful trip. My favorite part? All of the beds were pushed together to make one big bed. (That's how a lot of places do it here). I enjoyed waking up Saturday morning with Dayton asleep on one side with Isaiah between us and Grace on my other side. All of them sleeping soundly. A thunderstorm came through about 6am, and it was so nice to hear rain hitting the roof. (Well, and the monkeys on our porch hooting along!)

Now THIS is a Birthstory!

My midwife (now I consider her my mentor, idol, and friend) just emailed me a pretty amazing story that I just have to pass along. I'm editing portions to protect the innocent... well not innocent... just working where it happens to be illegal to catch babies as a foreigner.

Here's the story:

Two weeks ago I had a pretty amazing experience!

Three days before, I had received an email from "H", a Japanese man with a Thai wife, "B". He wrote

"Hello,

I am a Japanese living in Bangkok, and my Thai wife is expecting childbirth around Apr. 15 (now in 38th week). We have been interested in homebirth since the start of the conception and have been preparing for it. But we have not been able to find anybody giving us the professional technical assistance so far and are at a loss what to do. I am wondering if somebody has any information or local acquaintances that could help us. We take the regular check-ups at "X" Hospital, but mother and baby both being healthy, and we want to have the delivery either at 1) our Bangkok apartment (18sqm small concrete room), 2) my wife’s grandmother’s house in Petchaburi Province (big wooden house), or 3) any wooden house suitable for the image of natural birth.

Thanks in advance"

I emailed back and told him that I was a midwife, but legally not able to work in Bangkok, and that I doubted that he would find anyone who would be willing to help with a home birth (bearing in mind that I hear from them for the first time two weeks before the due date....) but that I would be happy to help them to prepare for (unassisted) home birth if that was what they wanted. Yes, they did - so I arranged to meet him at On Nut BTS on Thursday, and that I would teach them a crash prenatal course.

On Tuesday night at 11.30 pm "H" called to say that there had been "some blood, and contractions 15 - 20 minutes apart". I told him that she had a long way to go, and that it could be false labour. I also told him that I had heard that "X" Hospital, where they had been having prenatal care, had a good nurse in the labour ward. I didn't sleep much wondering about them, and felt vaguely guilty for not being more helpful - but I had never seen them, I did not know her pregnancy history - the baby could have been breech for all I knew...... (And you know that I only accept clients I consider to be 'low risk' for home birth.)

At 6.30am the phone rang again, and a very distraught "H" was saying "What do I do? What do I do? There is something coming out". Then I heard "B" scream and the phone went dead. I waited. And I got dressed and got my Goodie bag. 10 minutes later he called back, sounding pretty hassled. "H., would you like me to come?", I couldn't help myself from asking, with the response "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Their place was hard to find. A long way from the main road down lots of little sois. [sois are Thai sidestreets] My lovely husband drove me, muttering on the way about his insane (but caring) wife. After taking a wrong turn and then reversing 50 metres down a narrow lane with no place to turn, we finally stumbled upon a Thai-style very basic apartment building.

I walked up three flights of stairs with my clobber, and entered an intense situation of a very frightened young girl about to give birth, and a husband who bowed about a dozen times with relief when he saw me. "B" was tiny and tight, but about an hour later, I caught her baby girl who cried lustily as she greeted the World. Her mother did not tear, did not bleed excessively, and was the perfect patient. We all cried.

After the placenta was delivered and the tiny baby (just 2.4kg - 5lbs 5oz) was suckling, we all introduced our selves, shook hands, bowed and wai-ed. [Wai is a Thai bow]

It was such a strange experience. As it turned out, they had prepared nothing. Not even a diaper or blanket for the baby, and no pads for the new mom. They live in an 18 square metre apartment, and you really couldn't swing a cat in it, (even if you wanted to...) - just a 3/4 mattress on the floor, a chair, a desk, a toilet and shower and basin, and, of course, a TV and computer! No kitchen, no sink, no stove.

But it really was a beautiful birth. I don't know why we have to make birth so complicated and difficult.

I called back to see them in the afternoon, weighed the baby and donated a couple of blankets and little shirts. "H" was effusive with his bows, and paid me more than I wanted. I gave him half back and told him to go shopping for his baby!

I love my life.

My favorite sentence of this whole story is: "I don't know why we have to make birth so complicated and difficult." This is so true. The body was designed to birth a baby. Why does society have to mess with it and make it scary, full of fear, and technical? Birth is such an amazing, spiritual event!

Went to the "Teeth Doctor"

My dentist just had a baby 3.5 mo ago and is breastfeeding!!!! For a Thai that's a huge thing. And not just that, but she's pumping full time so he can have only breastmilk. I was shocked. When I walked in to see her, I could tell she was breastfeeding because her normal tiny frame had big breasts! LOL I mentioned that to Dayton (who'd had his teeth cleaned before me) and he hadn't noticed.

She did have a C-section because was told the baby would be too big. 3.75kg is only 8.5lb and not big! To me big is 10 or 11 pounds. And why do a C-section when an induction is less risky? Doctors make way more with C/S than inductions. Another rant.

I have 2 fillings that need replacing... glad to be getting more toxic metal out of my mouth. And one tiny cavity, thanks to those pregnancy hormones. I'll have to go back in a few weeks to get it done. Grace sat on the stool and watched us each get our teeth cleaned. For a kid who normally loves showing us her teeth, she would not even give a smile or glimpse of a tooth for the "Teeth Doctor." No worries. She's only 2 and a half. We just took turns watching Isaiah crawl around the waiting room. An easy trip.

Friends' Pregnancies - Different Directions

2 friends (A. and L.) were due with babies this coming November.

A. miscarried last week. Seems like she's doing okay considering this is the 4th time it's happened. Really wanted me to teach her childbirth class and help her do a waterbirth at the hospital. Her doctor refused to do any tests on the embryo sac that she saved. She wanted to know if it was her body or genenics that has caused this to happen over the past 6 years.

L. is very sick with morning sickness. I went over tonight for about an hour and gave her some home remedy ideas. Brought her some apple cider vinegar because 1 tsp per 8 oz of water should help. Talked a lot about what she believes and wants. And learned that she totally wants me at her birth because her husband (he admitted it) is not good with this sort of thing. And she may want me to teach her class. I told her to let me know before the summer so I can work on my curriculum during the summer. The pregnancy books here are awful, so I'm buying some online tonight to add to my collection/lending library, and she can borrow some. Oh, and did I mention... they just got married in December! And as she says, "Can you say 'broken condom'?" They are so excited, just totally surprised.

So here I am, after that previously depressing post, helping a woman through a miscarriage, AND with a potential/probably client!

Back to work

After a week of various sicknesses, I am back on track doing my CBI work.

I guess I got a little "realist" over what I'm deciding to do. I keep telling myself, that it's pointless to pursue midwifery when I just can NOT see a way to do it legally here. Why pursue it at all? Sigh. I just have this mental battle going on all day with it. It's so consuming that I don't study much else and shirk my chores at home.

So. I'm back to doing my doula and childbirth educator studies as a foundation. Taking my time doing it. Back to cleaning my house. Back to Bible reading. Remembering that every thing will fall into place how God wants it in HIS timing.

2 more friends are pregnant, due in mid-November. One may want me to teach their childbirth class. If so, I have lots of work to do. Lesson plans to write, handouts to make and collect. Supplies to buy. It's a lot of work, too, but I think if I pace myself instead of working in spurts it's doable.

Check the safety of your products

I found a great website that you can use to check the safety of your beauty/body products. I decided to check what was in the deoderant we're using. The program will tell you what in it and what chemicals are not safe. The Sauve deoderant I was using was VERY bad. The Arm & Hammer that Dayton was using was safe. If it doesn't have your exact product, you can check each individual chemical listed on the bottle.

Check it out: Skin Deep

Thank you CNN

Today I was watching CNN International and they had an excerpt about the Kareni villages on the Burmese/Thai borders. Right on TV, they were interviewing a woman as she was breastfeeding! Wow, they didn't edit it out... not that she showing a lot of skin, but you know how boobaphobic the news can be. =)

J & S had their baby

Well I ended up not attending J & S's birth. The baby was breech, so the day after her due date, she had a C-section. He was 8.5lb, not a big baby. They had thought that since he was big (and she secretly really wanted a C/S anyway) that he wouldn't turn and couldn't have been born vaginally anyway since J is American and S is Thai and the size difference wouldn't work. Well, he could've been born vaginally, but since they weren't interested in trying to turn him, she got what she wanted.

Sounds like she's trying to breastfeed and I'll check on her to see how it's going.