Day 14

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Today I had another full day in the Labor Room at the hospital. In the morning, I helped with the care of moms that were in the first stage of labor. I helped with BGMs, which was a very familiar process, as I have done many of these back in clinicals in the US. I was feeling much more familiar with the ward and the interventions provided by the nurses to the patients. The nursing students and nursing instructors were just as helpful today and I really appreciate their willingness to explain and teach us in English. In the afternoon, we observed two deliveries. It is so impressive to me that the nursing students deliver the babies if it is an uncomplicated delivery. For most of the students, it was only their 2^nd day ever on this unit, and they were delivering babies! After the two deliveries, one of the nursing students took us to the postpartum ward. We observed as one of the nurses taught the moms to give their new baby a bath. It was so fun to see the moms so excited and interested to learn how to bathe their baby. I also learned that in the Thai culture, it is considered a curse to call a baby beautiful. The Thai people believe that if a baby is called beautiful, the ghosts will come and take the baby away. A nursing student taught us that the acceptable thing to do is to call the baby both ugly and cute. This will keep the baby safe from being taken by the ghosts. In the evening, we had pork pan and smores with our buddies. They taught us about pork pan, where the food is fried over a small fire. For dessert, we taught our buddies about smores. It was so fun to exchange food from our cultures. After we ate, the group of us sat in a circle singing both Thai and American songs. It has been so great getting to know our buddies, and it was such a fun night!

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