After another absolutely pathetic night of poor sleep, I….. er…. got up. My head still whirling (please stop) partly because visits with midwives yesterday dragged my thinking in so many different directions. Kiran, the head of Midwifery Society of Nepal is very into her political efforts to professionalize and this colors her views of what should be done perhaps and therefore my thinking. Rashmi, head midwife at the birth center, speaks English that is hard to understand and not sure what she wants. Rashmi works full time as head nurse at a hospital, does home births on the side and as a second job runs the birth center…… and we think we have a lot to do!
Today I just went in to the birth center at around 10 and spent most of the day with the very young, mostly inexperienced, and delightful midwives there. It was not busy. (More about that later). First, I reviewed with them how the birth center functioned. One, (Prena) had a lot to say. The others seemed pretty shy. Trudy, one of the UK midwives came later. (The UK group leaves next week) and she gave a bit of an inservice on essential oils and massage. We had fun demonstrating stuff together and got into some funny positions. Should have taken pictures.
Then I reviewed record keeping with them. That sounds boring but we had a good time! They are delightful young women but feel very undertrained for the responsibilities of daily running of the birth centre/clinic.
By the way, some corners of the birth center are fairly homey, like this one
Others are really, well, downright depressing.
The Birth room!!!!:
Here are a couple of gorgeous babies and a gorgeous mom. One at the birth center, the other on the street.
So, after feeling that fun and learning was had by all, I went back into town and did some wandering, where I found among other things some great book shops and a place selling some powerfully hot and good soup. Then it started raining. Time to go home and write the blog.
wiwok 