New Adventures in Mexico!

Wow. So much to write and so little time! I am in Mexico now and I cannot even tell you how different it is here! I am really enjoying myself though.

The last few days in Costa Rica were really sad. I really had a great last week though! My classes finished out well and I was able to spend some good quality time with my friends. I am starting to feel a little homesick for Costa Rica. I miss it a lot already! Going to the airport and through all the customs and security and all was annoying and a hassle, but it all went very smoothly, thank goodness!

My dad met me in the airport in Mexico and it was really nice to see him after so long! We both took a bus from Mexico City to another big city called Cuernavaca. I feel asleep on the bus because I hadn’t slept all night! The bus was really nice and played a movie for everyone. Once in Cuernavaca my dad and I took a taxi to Angelina’s house in another town called Temixco (teh-mees-koh). I was really nervous because my Spanish is still not all quite there, but there was not much I could do! Angelina came out and greeted us right away! I can’t really explain to you the kind of woman Angelina is, but she is pretty incredible! She greeted us really warmly and invited us in and my dad just stood smiling. She took us through the side of the house and up some outdoor stairs up to my room that I would be sharing with the other girl who is staying with Angelina named Aurora. She is 24, studying to be a midwife and speaks fluent Spanish, kind of a HUGE blessing haha. The room is really nice and I have a pretty large bed, a desk, and room to put my stuff. The bathroom separates Aurora and my room from Angelina’s and the three of us share it.

I had some time to settle in and then, sooner than I expected, we all headed out to go for lunch/dinner with some other midwives in a city called Zepotztlan. We had some really interesting, but yummy, organic food. It was a very interesting meal because I was not understanding everything that was going on, just parts, but Dad was totally lost. Poor guy! Haha. Still fun though. Angelina’s family, Aurora, Dad, and I all went afterwards to visit a woman who had given birth the night before in her home and they wanted to check on her. She had bled a lot and fainted after the birth, but thankfully recovered just fine! (Angelina and I went back again to see her two days ago and she is doing even better and the baby is beautiful!)

Angelina has a husband, Juan, and 5 sons! The youngest three live at home with her and the older two are both away married and have children. The oldest of the three that live at home is also a midwife! It is really something! He is really smart, loves midwifery, and helps me out a lot! There are lots of other people here at the house all the time too, its nuts! Angelina’s father is not mentally well in his old age and he lives here and everyday Angelina’s sister comes over who is also not mentally well. There is a cook/house keeper named Estella who is here every weekday and lots of other people… its crazy! And that is just the “house” part of this place. In the front yard is the birth center where women come to give birth and for other women’s healthy and pregnancy needs. They wait in the driveway if it is a busy day.

On Sunday my Dad and I went into Cuernavaca to see the city and be tourists. We walked around the city went to a cathedral, a museum, and a zoo! Later we went back to Temixco to eat dinner at my Dad’s hotel and walk around Temixco. It was really nice! I got to get to know the town around Angelina’s house and pick up a few necessities along the way. Later we went back to Angelina’s and hung out with the family. We talked (well tried to talk) and Dad played a little guitar and taught one of the sons some songs, it was really fun! Later we played a game called “Basta” which is the Spanish version of Scategories! It was tough to play in Spanish, but all the gringos were allowed to write words in Spanish and English haha.

Dad had to leave on Monday and that was sad, but I was able time to catch up on some much needed sleep and that was good. I observed and helped out with a few prenatal visits on Monday and Tuesday and hung out with the family. It took me a while to figure out the flow of life around here. I am still adjusting to it even now. There really is no normal flow of life. People come and go constantly; women come to the clinic for different reasons; if there is a birth, than there is a birth; you eat and sleep when you can and do everything else that you need to do somewhere in between all of it. AH! It’s a little nuts.

On Wednesday, around five in the morning, Angelina came into my room and told me there was a women in labor who was having a home birth and asked me if I would like to come and of coarse I said yes. So I quickly got ready and we packed up the car FULL of different supplies and headed out to Cuernavaca, which is about 30 minutes away from where we live. I was extremely excited! The house was a nice little condo that was very modern and clean. When we got there the woman, Fernanda, was laying on the bed while her husband was filling up buckets of hot water to fill up the inflatable tub they had set up in their room. Fernanda was in early labor and dealing with it all beautifully. She would take a deep breath in when each contraction began so we would all know to come and support her and the fall asleep when it was over. She was very calm and quiet and very much concentrating on her baby. Angelina and I were doing lots of different things, she taught me different foot massages and pressure points in the feet and ankles that help release hormones that speed up labor, we set up lots of “just in case” things around the room, and assisted the husband with the different things he needed as well. After a few hours of labor Fernanda changed her clothes and got in the tub. I was put to work getting more hot water from the shower. While I did that, Fernanda’s contractions came closer and closer together and before I knew it the baby was crowning! We all came around her, with Angelina at the edge of the tub ready to catch the baby, and she pushed the baby’s head out quietly beneath the water. She gave one more good push and the baby came out! It was about 9am in the morning with a little light coming through the windows; it could not have been more beautiful. The baby was very blue and covered in lots of “baby cream”. Angelina immediately placed the baby on the mother’s chest and everyone was in awe. It was an amazing moment! The baby began the cry very soon after the birth and Angelina helped to suction out some of the fluid from the baby’s nose and mouth. The baby was a beautiful baby girl named Camila. Everything moved very slowly and calmly before, during, and after the birth. It was really a beautiful thing. The baby’s color turned a nice pink tone within a few minutes, Fernanda began to breast feed and I helped to take lots of pictures and videos. Angelina said that the “baby cream” is really good for the skin so all of the grandparents wanted to have some on their face! Haha that was pretty cute… and weird. Fernanda got up after being in the tub a while and moved to the bed to deliver the placenta. Since she began to breast feed really quickly this allowed the placenta to come out quicker and easier (because of the hormones breast feeding creates). Angelina prepared the umbilical cord and Fernanda’s husband cut it. So beautiful!

As the family oogled over the baby, Angelina and I began to clean up. Of coarse, Angelina wanted to keep the placenta to give it to her friend… so we went out to the backyard to cut out the pieces that were good to keep and put it in some tupperwear… It was interesting to say the least. After that I began to take buckets of the water from the tub and pour it into the garden. I made like a million trips and was kind of sweaty and exhausted by the end, but its all good haha. The family fed Angelina and I some breakfast tacos and we all hung out for a while. Angelina went back to the mother and baby later to weigh the baby and test her reflexes, measure her, do all of the paperwork, and put her in a nice little outfit. That was very fun.

After a while Angelina and I packed up our stuff and headed out to give the placenta to her friend. However, if you go with Angelina to do one thing, you have to be prepared to do a million other things as well. So first we had to go to the store to buy Angelina a new shirt because she had gotten it all bloody. And of coarse we walked through the whole store (its was like a Costco/ Wal-mart kind of store) and bought a million other things and spent a really long time there. THEN we were on our way to drop off the placenta, but we drove right by the home of a girl who Angelina attended the birth for a few months back so we had to drop in and say hi. She was very young and super cute and they lived in a little adorable farmhouse. After that we headed out again and stopped at another lady’s house, the same one who had bled a lot that we had visited the first day, and she was doing great and so was the baby. We checked on his belly button and it was healing well. Then we finally headed out to the lady’s house to give her the placenta. It was REALLY far way up in these gorgeous mountains in this interesting gated wilderness community. Angelina asked me to hold the tupperwear with the placenta in my purse so we wouldn’t freak people out and some of the placenta blood totally leaked out into my purse, through my purse, and onto my pants… awesome… all of the dogs really enjoyed coming up to me and smelling me… ugh, that was pretty gross. So we hiked up this hill to the lady’s house, she turned out to be American and actually did not want the placenta… AYE! Que lastima! That was a lot of work for nothing. Oh well haha. So I was exhausted by this point, but we were not done yet! We made about three more stops on the way back to pick up MORE food! Hahaha INCRIEBLE!

We finally headed home around 5 pm and I grabbed some food and headed for bed. I slept for about 5 hours only to be woken up again that there was another birth! I was excited still though. Esteban (the oldest son who is also a midwife), Auroa, and I all helped with the birth because Angelina was getting really sick. The girl was 17 and was there with her mom and her sister and her boyfriend. I stayed with them and I did lots of labor support and helped her through the pain while Aurora and Esteban slept. I was a little nervous to stay with her by myself, but I just counted the minutes between her contractions and looked for signs that things were moving along more quickly. Esteban and Aurora were just steps away if I needed them. She labored beautifully for 3 or 4 hours, not that long after had a beautiful baby boy! She had him on one of the beds in the birth center and Esteban caught the baby. It was about 3:30 in the morning. I went back to bed shortly after and Esteban stayed with her afterwards since he had been sleeping. We all worked together so that we could all sleep a little. It was great!

So on Thursdays the clinic is closed (except for births and emergencies) so it was nice to be able to hang out and catch up on a little bit of sleep. I didn’t do much, hung out around the house a lot. Slept a lot. Ate a lot. Studied a lot. Nothing that exciting. At night, around 9 or 10, a women came to the clinic in early labor. She was doing well so Aurora suggested that I go to bed and they would wake me when things moved more quickly. She labored a lot of the time on her own with the father of the baby. Angelina went down to see her around 3 am and then came and got Aurora and I (because Aurora had gone to bed too) around 4 am and we helped prepare everything that was needed. By the time we got there she was very close to having the baby. She was using the cloth they had attached to the ceiling (I don’t really know how to explain it better than that) to move through the contractions and the contractions were very close together. Angelina had me run into the house to grab something for her and by the time I came back they head was already out! Within a few seconds the baby came out too! It was extremely quick! She was standing up the whole time so the baby practically fell out! Aurora caught the baby and she told me later it came out so quick she thought she was going to drop the baby! The baby is a girl and her name is Sarah. She is just as beautiful as her mother. The placenta took a while to deliver and was a bit of a struggle, but it came out fully intact and looked lovely haha. Angelina got a piece of paper and made a print of it for the new family after Aurora and I cleaned it up a bit. We all helped clean up after the birth and everyone, including the new mom and baby, went to sleep.

So today is Friday and it was another slow day. Gracias a Dios! A few women came in for consultations and one lady who was pregnant came in because she had a lot of pain and it turned out she had a urinary track infection. The woman who had the baby last night stayed most of the day and we filled out paper work for her. Angelina and I were going to go to visit the lady who had the water birth, but Angelina has been really sick so we did not end up going. I had a lot of free time to myself today so I rested and wrote out this whole thing haha. Who knows what will happen tonight, maybe another birth or maybe just time to hang out with the family? We will just have to wait and see.

I am learning so much! My brain is always tired because I am taking in so much Spanish and so much new knowledge about midwifery! I am loving it all though. All of the births have been absolutely beautiful! None of the women have torn or needed sutures yet, which is really awesome! I am sure I will experience that at some point, and I am excited to learn about it, but for the sake of the women I think it is great!

I know this is an extremely long update, I hope you all enjoy it because it took me a long time to write! Hahaha. Please excuse my grammatical errors and typos if there are any. My brain is too full of Spanish to be able to worry a lot about English. Apologies! Much love from Mexico! Besos!