August, September, October

August 2009

August was an exciting month as we planned for our first trip to the US for Emily and Josh’s wedding. By the beginning of the month, I was starting to feel homesick for some good friends, beer and American foods.

At the beginning of the month we got a maid, Mary. She would come 5 days a week for 5 hours. We wanted her to only come 4 days a week but the communication was not so good so we decided it was easier to tell her to come 5 days a week. She was to cook and clean. At first she was doing a decent job. I loved not having to sweep everyday. (It gets so dusty and with marble floors they need to be swept and mopped daily.) Her cooking was good as well. She would cook a dal, vegetable and chapattis everyday. I also liked that I would not have to be around when she was cleaning because it feels weird having someone working around you all the time. By the end of the month, Mike was working a lot of the house as there were not that many flights to do and he was just doing the consulting for people who want to start helicopter companies. He was able to see how Mary cleaned and how SLOW she would do so. Mary also had the same problems that I have living with someone so much taller than me. Mike puts things in very high places. Mary is about 5 inches shorter than me. Mike had to be there to get things out of high places. Finally, I am able to have a reason to have him put things on lower shelves.

At the end of August, we flew back to Denver. It was so great to be in the crisp air, green trees and amazing friends. We had a great time with everyone. My parents and Joseph came to visit us for a couple of days. I was able to do a talk on delayed cord clamping for the new residents at St Anthony North, a talk for the midwifery students at UCHSC and meet with some old professors. I found new energy to go back to India and Fernandez Hospital. We were totally rejuvenated by the trip when we came back to India the middle of September.

September 2009

September brought some interesting changes. Mike switched from being a pilot for Turbo Aviation to consulting for Sky Express, another company in Hyderabad that wanted to set up heli operations. Since Mike loves a new challenge, we are realizing, he decided that he needed to help a different company set up! Sky Express had some better backing and business ethics than Turbo so we thought this was a good change for us. Mike also started working with HeliCop, a marketing company from Delhi. HeliCop had some contracts in Goa so we thought we would be ‘shifting’ to Goa as soon as October 1. I knew of a birthing center in Goa so tried to contact the woman there. The contract never got solidified and I never heard from the birthing center.

We spent my birthday dinner at the Novotel having a Mexican restaurant with some great friends and birthday at the Marriott brunch (which was fabulous). It was so great to have such wonderful friends around to celebrate.

Interesting story of September: When we got back to Hyd we went shopping and got a liter of olive oil. It is more expensive than other oils but we think it is worth it for the health reasons. Indian food is known to have a lot of oil in it and I had always stressed to Mary that we did not want that much oil in our food. That month, Mike and I started to feel like we were not as healthy, gaining a little weight, feeling sluggish, bad skin. Around my birthday (27th), I was in the kitchen looking for something and saw the oil bottle was empty. It had only been 17 days since we had been back! We were both shocked and realized we felt so poorly because we had a liter of oil in just 14 meals!!! (Or Mary was stealing it from us.) We decided we had to change something. We found some cooking spray. We thought this would be the solution. On Monday, Mike was at home when Mary got there and told her we did not have any oil and she was going to cook with the spray. She told Mike she could cook dal but not vegetables because they would not taste good! Mike said, “well then just try a vegetable dish and we will decide if we need oil”. We might like vegetables without oil (and we did). When Mike showed her how to use the spray he told her how to take off the top, how to point and spray and how much spray she could use. Mike was sitting at the table when she started cooking and saw that she sprayed herself in the face. (He even told me his exact directions, which were much better and more thorough than I would have given!) Funny times in India.

Work was good at first because I told them that I wanted to do deliveries. I was able to meet with the doctors and explained what I want with this job. I want more autonomy meaning not needing to ask doctors if I can do a birth or do a vaginal exam and want to be seen as a provider. I started doing one birth a day and having a nurse shadow me to see how a midwife works. It started out working well.

October 2009
Exciting month! It started out pretty much the same. I was getting really frustrated with my job because I was able to do birth but would sometimes have to have a person monitor me. I tried to explain that I was confident in doing normal births but some of the doctors were not confident themselves so did not think I could be as well. On Saturdays, I started teaching childbirth classes, which I love. It gave me a better sense of accomplishment and the women and their husbands really loved the classes. I also had a friend who was going to be delivering at FH at the end of the month and I was going to do the delivery.

Our pregnant friends started having babies. Among the 5 groups of couples we hang out with they are all pregnant! We started realizing that we were not going to have many people to hang out with after they all have babies.

Mike was doing a lot of work at the office of Sky Express to start up the company. It was nice to have him home at regular times!

At the end of the month, I got an email from Corinna from the birthing center in Goa. She said she was in desperate need a midwife and wanted me to come help her out for November, December and January. We decided it was an opportunity we could not pass up so after our trip to the US in November I would go to Goa. I told FH that I would be going to Goa for a couple of months. It was a nice out so that I could do natural birth and be a real midwife for a bit.

October 29th, I was honored to assist at the birth of Pam and Greg’s baby boy, Patrick. Pam went into labor 36 hours after her water broke. She had a very fast labor and delivered within an hour of real contractions. Pam reached down for her baby immediately and grabbed the baby from me. The nurses were shocked because they had never seen a woman have an unmedicated birth who was not screaming and in agony. Pam was powerful and confident. It was an honor to be a part of this birth.