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Published: September 12th 2010
From Las Ninas One of the many things I love is a baby. I think I met one of the cutest babies Friday morning! As you will read in later in this blog, my Mom had a homebirth experience where she never actually met little baby Antonio. She contacted the midwife, Juana, to see if she could meet the baby and see the family again. Juana had been visiting this family and bathing the mother and baby for seven days since Antonio had been born and Friday was the eighth and final day. This day is called “The Last Bath”. She invited Mom to meet the baby on this day and Mom invited me.
The family lived in a concrete house with a metal roof and from what I could see, it was small and dirty. They showed us to the bedroom, which had two beds, one with a mattress and one without a mattress. Juana bathed the mom first, which we did not see, while Mom talked to Antonio (the Dad). We sat there for a while, talking, sweating, and yawning (the work of Antonio Jr.).
Finally Juana and Natalia (the Mom) came back into the room
The Prayers
Lighting the candles for the prayer. The midwives here offer health education, family counseling and pastoral care. with a pot of boiled water and a pot of cold water. Juana poured the hot and cold water into a big bowl until it was just right. Then the Dad went to get a bar of soap while Juana opened a little cloth which contained rose petals and leaves. She put the petals into the water and then tore up the leaves that joined the rose petals. This rose water was supposed to calm the baby. When the Dad returned with the soap, Juana got Antonio. She undressed him and started to wash him. He screamed the whole time so I think the rose water is supposed to kick in after being washed.
When she was done washing him, they dressed him in what looked like a very comfortable knitted sweater and sweatpants. They wrapped him in a soft blanket. The Dad pulled out a few small candles and lit them. Juana, still holding Antonio, knelt in front of the candles and said a prayer, thanking God for both Antonio and Natalia in Tz’utihil and Spanish.
Once that was over, there were a lot of congratulations, and we left. I really think the Mayans are on to
San Pedro
The first morning after the rains. something because Antonio was really calm after the bath! I wonder if we were bathed in rose water as babies we would be calmer people? Maybe so. I know for sure that that was an experience most people have not had and one I will never forget.
Joy
From Kiran and the Hospitalito The translation for Hospitalito is “little hospital”. It is little indeed yet I continue to be amazed at the complexity of health issues that are seen in this little place and feel the daily impact of good rural health care.
The last 2 weeks have been much busier for me as the only Obstetrician in the area. Last weekend a low pressure system brought longer and heavier rain than usual. Our small town lost power and many of the surrounding roads were closed due to mudslides or swollen rivers. Saturday morning we did a C/S on generator power not knowing how much fuel we had left in the generator. The nurse kept telling us to “hurry” !
Meanwhile a young healthy non pregnant patient who was also under my care needed transportation to another larger hospital because of severe bleeding and anemia. We
Laundry Day
Joy and Leigh laundering the Guatemalan way. faced the potential of her bleeding to death under our care as the roads were closed/blocked in all directions. Do we operate with the power out and no blood bank? Do we keep her and watch her and hope she doesn’t bleed to death? As we pondered our options in the dark, we received word that one road was open and away to the big city she went - 6 hours away.
The Home Birth In my month here, I have helped with a number of births, both natural and C-sections. Nine days ago, I had the opportunity to spend the night observing the work of one of the local midwives. I asked for this opportunity as the vast majority of births here are attended at home by lay midwives.
Juana, is 47 and is the president of the local midwives. I left with her from the Hospitalito around 5 pm and we went to the home of a woman that was in labor with her 8th child. We sat and sat, and talked and talked, and I listened to her intense and often emotional conversation with the mother-in-law of the patient (in Tzu-tu hil ). Juana
Making Bracelets
Both Joy and Leigh learned to make Guatemalan bracelets this week. Here is Leigh with her teacher, Elvira would intermittently share with me stories about her life and work as we compared tricks of the trade. The patient remained completely silent, alternately standing and sitting. She finally drank some herbal tea laced with a shot of white liquor and around midnight fell off to sleep.
The midwife and family offered me a blanket and Juana and I snuggled to stay warm on a hard wooden slat bed. I slept some but mainly lay awake listening to the snores of the mother-in-law, thinking a lot about the comforts of home, beds, blankets, mattresses, big houses, and grassy lawns. At 6 am I walked back home to prepare for a day of school and work. The patient had rested well and her contractions began again bringing forth Baby Antonio (all 9 pounds of him) at 6pm that evening. Juana never left her side.
Life in Santiago Atitlan We have completed one full month of Spanish language school. We are growing in confidence and decreasing in fatigue as we more easily understand our teachers. The girls have learned how to make beaded bracelets this week and continue to make strides in their speaking and comprehension.
This coming
Rainy Day Activites
You gotta get creative after a few days of rain. (Chloe, Kiran and Joy) week we will cross the lake to a small pueblo called San Juan to have a 3 day home stay. We will stay with my teacher’s family. Our goal is learn more of the day-to-day lives of the people here. We will make tortillas, eat traditional food, learn a bit of weaving, hike around one of the volcanoes there and who knows what else.
At home we continue to shop in the markets and eat delicious fresh fruits and veggies. We even found peanuts and chocolate this week. We wash our clothes by hand and with the precious few hours of daily sunlight, washing clothes becomes the work of all when we awaken to a sunny morning.
My eyes continue to open in new ways to the poverty and hardships of the people here. Our 20 minute walk to town is littered with mounds of trash, sleeping stray dogs, dirty kids hanging out of the doorways and many small concrete shacks with clothes hanging to dry on the bushes outside. From these small houses, smoke often escapes from a small hole in the wall. Fires are the main source of heat to cook the corn tortillas and for
Rain, Sleet or Snow
Down here, babies even come at night and in the midst of hard rains. many families this is 80%!o(MISSING)f their daily diet (cheap and filling). Chronic respiratory diseases (due to smoke) are more common than diabetes and hypertension, as obesity (the main cause of these) is rare.
The closed roads, the fear of mudslides, tropical storms and earthquakes all makes these simple homes and this entire country very vulnerable. Leigh has dreamed about volcanoes erupting, flying cows and spiders jumping from the volcano into the lake. Mark has dreamed about us being separated on a train in Istanbul and having to jump the train with all of our luggage. Joy has dreamed about being in Italy with friends and I have dreamed about washing machines and dryers - messages from our not so subtle unconscious.
Our Extended Circle of Friends Lest you think that we are only befriending two-legged creatures, we close with a quick survey of other community members. Consult the photos for the full effect. There is:
Franklin, the large toad that jumps out of our way on the way to school.
Henrietta, the humming bird that often dance around outside our windows.
Sammy, the scorpion that I turned to see on the bedroom wall just after tucking
Post-Call
On a few occasions, Kiran needed a little help getting up after a long night. the girls in to bed.
Bill, the crab waiting at our back door when we came home from school.
Archie, the large wolfe spider Leigh picked up by accident thinking it was a thread on her brown sweater.
In Closing Three weeks from today we hope to be en route to Cuba. The exact way we will get there continues to shift and change like a good corn maze in the fall. It looks like it will include a few unplanned days in Cancun and then flying from there to Havana. The travel company that was helping us decided that flying from Miami was no longer an option. All will be revealed in due time.
We love to read news from friends and family. We thank you for your interest in our year away. Much love from us all- Kiran, Mark, Joy and Leigh
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Stan Dotson
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Buen mensaje!
Beautiful stories! You people are amazing. Can't wait to see you in Matanzas. Raining here, but no floods, all roads are open. No critters in our cornflakes. Can't make the spoons stick. Lots to learn. Hasta pronto!