Crazy Royal Thainess

This is crazy-beautiful Thailand. Bangkok is glorious and ridiculous. I had a great time! But I am happy to be settling into slower and routinized life in the north, in Chaing Mai.

In the 'Kok we toured many o' wat, pictured above are shots from Wat Pho; the hugely impressive reclining Buddha, as well as the Grand Palace; home of the exquisite solid jade Buddha. Wats [temples] are decked out with gold colored glass and foil that cover absolutely as much as possible, and then everything else is rendered in colored glass pieces. It's all very shiny and pretty. Tre different from the ubiquitous offerings in Bali. Though hand woven grass offering boxes and fresh flowers and whatever goods were available were very beautiful (my favorite offering was the Mars bar and frangipani!) I came to find them a reminder of the oppression of women. Everyday women sit and make these beautiful offerings, and everyday the old ones are tossed to the gutter and new ones are laid. Perpetual, tedious work, that only women can do. Truly, I also only ever saw women steadily stacking cinder blocks on their heads for roadside construction--while men were "tinkering" with motorbike repairs.

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The last picture up there is a few fellow nursing students and I practicing first aid safety for a venomous snake bite at the snake farm in Bangkok. Thailand has loads of these guys. The videos reminded us of Patty and Susanna's pathophys class from last year--ah... the coagulation cascade. We also observed a venom extraction up close and personal. They get these poisonous dudes to bite a rubber capped jar to elicit and collect their venom and this is then injected into a horse at the nearby Red Cross Snake Farm/Horse Ranch. Horses metabolize the small amount of venom and make antibodies to it, they then "donate" their blood for the purposes of sequestering the antibody-rich plasma. It's prepared so that it can be administered as an anti-venom serum as the antidote to scary neurotoxins that slowly and miserably kill you when you get bit by one of these cuddly creatures. Pretty rad.

Also up there in those pics, is Kai! Kaiulani, my darling, thank you for your fabulous Thai hospitality, for living in Bangkok while I'm here, and for working it like you do. 

Feeling very lucky for all there is to be enjoyed here at the moment.

Back from the Beach

After a little respite on the beaches of a few islands off of Southern Thailand, Forest, Mike and I are back in Bangkok.

Photos here are of 1) a shelf of ciggies. FINALLY appropriately labeled! Can you see the cover art? 2) Mike Dow and a puppy. The Thai dogs are by far lovelier and friendlier and way more chill then the Bali dogs--though not less dirty. And 3) our bungalow in quiet Koh Pangnang in the north of the island, pretty much the whole place to ourselves... and I went snorkeling-yikes! It was pretty cool.

Now we are moments away from meeting up with Kaiulani in bustling Bangkok, and tomorrow I start school. Sure beats the day before a new year of classes starts in Seattle. Though I do miss the fall.

love, peace & curry

At Peace

The above glorious photo of a pregnant angel is from a temple in Brasilia, Brazil. My good friend Elizabeth just sent this to me. She has been living and working there all summer.

Me, I am leaving Bali in a few days and will move on to Thailand for the rest of the year, then Elizabeth will find herself in Costa Rica, also for nursing. It amazes me the things we are doing, all around the world.

I have met amazing people here, who do so much, it all touches me greatly. It's an honor to be here, to have met each and every one.

I do love Bali, and I will be back.

...Forest arrives in 2 days!!!

ciao

Politicized Birth... and yes, the Ocean.

So I've traded the lulling sounds of the ocean waves, breezes and the chiming of wooden carvings for the barking dogs of "home" at the birth center again. I spent some time in Lovina and swam in the hot spings, then to Amed where I went a smidge crispy on the beach and finally to Tirta Gangga a hillside village on Mount Agung with misty rice paddies out my front door and nighttime fireflies! I had a gorgeous time, but was looking forward to coming back.

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Birthing in Bali is just as political as anywhere else in the world I suppose.

Medical care is not available or subsidized by the government, it's all out of pocket. To the point where cars speed up and pass someone on the street who has just been hit and is now in a bad motorbike accident. People won't stop and help, no one comes to take the injured to the hospital because then they would be expected to pay for the hospital bill! 

For births, there are many small clinics around the island that offer "low-cost" maternity care, which is an option for those who cannot afford the hospital. In hospital, a cesarean birth may cost 5 million rupiah, or roughly $500. This is a ridiculously high price for the majority of the Balinese. Here's the catch: If you cannot pay your medical bill after birthing in hospital, you do not get to bring your baby home until you do settle that debt. 

The birth center here is free, and safe and good. But you know, after a few days away, I've been really thinking about the births here. And they are not so gentle sometimes. Maybe they are still better than a hospital where they can keep your baby for ransom, but there are so many things that could be made gentler here. There are a lot of postpartum bleeds--near hemorrhage--and part of it may be the aggressiveness in which the bidans anticipate and worry about the potential for a bleed and therefore are overzealous with the oxytocin injections, cord tugging, and manual extractions. I've seen things here that I have never seen at home. My first bleeds, my first atonic babies, my first fainting in labor, my first neonatal resuscitation. I don't see this in the hospital, at homebirths or at birth centers back home. It makes it really hard and scary to think about families telling the midwives to do anything they can to keep them here at the clinic when things are going badly, because they would rather bring a baby kept alive only by epinephrine to the hospital where it will be allowed to die rather than cope with the debt that befalls the whole village if they transferred for a cesar. This of course is not the case for everyone, not even close, but apparently it does happen. The family who had the one cesarean we've had here in the past 5 weeks told me that their neighbor, an ex-pat from New Zealand, paid their hospital charges. 

Maybe this post should be titled: How being a doula in Bali cannot change the political atmosphere of birthing and health care administration, or even ease the fear-based practices of the midwives who work under pressure of policy and protocol.

Little lady born September 2

...and in the middle of the night (but not quite at midnight.)

It was a quick second time mom though, and so I didn't get called to the birth.

That babe is not pictured here, this is a lassie whose parents and I bonded. Birth brings people together (at least in places where support is--well... supported), sharing this is a beautiful treasure and honor.

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I'm just posting a little note here to say that I am actually heading to the coast to see the ocean today. I'm really looking forward to it, and was worried that I wasn't ever going to sneak away from this place if I didn't just do it.