Blog Post 5 - It's that time already!

It's that time already!

Hi everyone! Well, this is it. My last blog. This month has gone so quickly, but in other ways has gone slowly too... lounging about in business class seems like a dream it was that long ago! I thought I'd reflect over the last 4.5 weeks and write about how God has used little old me to be His hands and feet.

When leaving England I honestly had no idea what I'd be doing over here in the Philippines. Obviously I knew I was coming to a birthing centre, yes, but would I just be observing births? Would I have to care for women and deliver babies alone? Would I be running the centre with only 3 years of training??! (thankfully the answer to the latter question was no). However, all my fears disappeared when I was welcomed by the lovely midwives and nurses here and soon after arriving was hurried into the delivery room to watch my first Filippino birth.

Since that first day, I feel like I have become part of the Shalom team and have met people here that I will remember forever from the midwives, to the missionaries, and not forgetting the 2 great interns I've being living with too. They have taught me all so much about patience, thankfulness, and, most importantly, how to cook and do laundry ;) The people here are a great inspiration and are so full of the love of God that it radiates to everyone around them, and I have certainly been touched by this. Whether you're reading this as a follower of God or not, you would certainly agree if you were here that there's something amazingly different about the humbleness of this wonderful bunch who are working and living in the Philippines :)

I certainly feel that God has used me in this place with the little midwifery knowledge that I have compared to the midwives here, some who have being working in this career for longer than I've been alive! However, I have been so encouraged from the response that I have had from writing this blog that I feel that if God only sent me here to bless all you readers from my experiences, then I'm so glad that I came for that reason alone. All your comments and messages have made my 30 odd days here so much brighter :) Although I feel that I have only inputted small amounts in the short time I've been here, I know that God will use them for good... which reminds me of the 'Starfish Story'. If you've never heard of it before, it's a good one!

Early one morning, an old man was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. Off in the distance, he noticed a small boy approaching who was bending down and throwing things into the ocean. As the boy came nearer the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”. 

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.” The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

This story explains perfectly how although I'm just a little person in a massive country, or even in a massive world, that my actions, although small, will hopefully leave a lasting impact on people that I have met here. Who knows what will happen in the future. I don't know whether I'll be called out here in years to come, or whether this visit will be a one off experience that I'll treasure forever. But what I do know is that God has it all in control and He's not finished doing His work here yet. I'll leave you with a few lyrics from the song, 'God of this City', written by Bluetree and made famous by Chris Tomlin (look it up!). The simple, but heartfelt words from this song sums up my amazing trip and how even though there is great poverty and corruption here, that God still has an amazing plan for the people in Antipolo...

You're the God of this City

You're the King of these people

You're the Lord of this nation

You are 

You're the Light in this darkness

You're the Hope to the hopeless 

You're the Peace to the restless 

You are

There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come

And greater things are still to be done in this City

Thank you all so much again, and I hope to see you all very soon back at home :D Don't be afraid to message or grab me when you see me (not literally) to chat about my trip or about anything that you've read in the blog that may have stood out to you. The concept of 'God' may be totally new to you, and I'd be thrilled to answer any questions you might have - face to face or by message!

Over and out,
The Travelling Midwife x

Blog Post 4 - Life, but death too

Life, but death too

Hello fellow readers! Over the last few days I've been learning more about how Shalom Chrisitian Birthing Centre was initially set up and why the need was so great for it to be started here in this location specifically. I apologise in advance for the not-so-cheery update, but I thought it was important to share both the good and not so good times that I'm facing here.

The birthing centre is situated in Antipolo, which is next to the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Manila is the most densely populated city in the world with an estimated 1.7 million people living here in handmade squatter shacks and huts; most people staying here illegally.

In 1991, a retired nurse and midwife, Mavis Orton, came over to the Philippines and created this safe and dignified environment for women here to have a chance to live and be healthy through their pregnancy and childbirth. Not only that, but for them to take home a beautiful, healthy newborn too. Something that we, in the UK, would totally expect and see as the norm. We wouldn't expect to not take home our baby after going through 9 months of pregnancy and enduring the pain of labour, but it was, and often still is, the reality for women living here.

One of my good friends that I've met here on this trip experienced this only a few weeks ago when the baby that she delivered sadly died a few hours after birth at a nearby hospital. The baby had been born prematurely due to the Mum being physically abused by her partner. Not only this, but I found out a few weeks later that this Mum's older child also died a few days after her baby did from asthma...please keep her in your thoughts and prayers through this very difficult time. As midwives, you expect to be bringing new life into the world, and mostly we do, but sometimes we have to say goodbye soon after we've said hello.

Psalm 23:4 - Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Death is a strange thing. One of the only things we are completely 100% sure of in this world is that at some point in our lives, we will die. Every one of us. However, when this will happen is often unknown and we can't stop it from happening. This, I guess, is what is scary. What's more scary though is what comes next. What happens after we die? Do we just... die? Do we just live here on this world for so long and then, that's it? Or is there a purpose of us being here? Is there more to life than simply living our day to day routine lives? Maybe you've never thought about it before. This might be the first time it's entered your mind that there may be more to life than you getting up in the morning, doing your thing for about 15 hours a day, and then going to bed (or in other words... eat, sleep, rave, repeat!). Maybe you do think that's it. You might believe that that's all we're here for. To live, grow up, get old if we're lucky, and then exist no more. Yeah, we might have great family and friends to share it with, but still... is that it?

I don't believe that that's it. I can't believe that that's it. What a depressing existence that would be, not just for me or you, but for the whole of the human race! What would be the point in existing?! The people living here have a faith and hope in something much greater than themselves that helps them to get through this eat, sleep, rave, repeat type of life... and for them it's probably a much harder life than ours. Please take time today to consider why you're here on earth, living. Who put you here, and where are you going to end up? If you don't know, maybe the verse below will give you something to think about...

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 

Hope you haven't shed too many tears and I promise I'll make my final blog more uplifting! :) Thanks again to all of you who have taken time to comment, message and read my blogs while I've been away. It's been a great encouragement and I love you all.

Ciao,
The Travelling Midwife x

Blog Post 3 - What's in a name...

What's in a name...

Hey people! So for my third blog entry I found it difficult to know what to write about; there's been so many things that I've seen and done here that I have struggled to pick just a few to tell you all. I'm about half way through my experience now and the time has flown by! 

One of the most memorable experiences of this week has been the delivery of Baby Noah. His parents came into Shalom Christian Birthing Centre nervous and scared about what was going to happen to them... they were young and weren't married which culturally here is frowned upon and gives the midwives authority to give you the worst treatment and care. However, here at Shalom it's key that we show all women and their partners the love of God no matter where they are from and what they have done. Before telling the story of Baby Noah, maybe I should firstly take you through what typically happens when a lady comes in in labour.

The process of coming into the centre to deliver is the same for all. The woman will first go into the delivery room when she arrives to be internally assessed to see how dilated she is. The delivery room has just 3 beds, or mattresses on stilts, with just a white plastic sheet on them which is simply wiped over after each women has given birth on it with bleach (which is provided by the couple too, of course). Once we know how many cms dilated she is, we listen in to the fetal heart, do Mum's observations, and then tell them to take a bed in the recovery room. This is where both labouring and postnatal women and their families stay, so you have women bouncing on birthing balls in labour whilst baby's are screaming being bathed. 

Then, we wait. No CTG monitoring, no 4 hourly VEs, no pain relief, no documentation. Nothing. Just leave them on their bed. Amazing eh?! The stuff midwives back home can only dream of... or be silently terrified of, one or the other ;) So, how do you know when the time comes for her to push?, I hear you ask. Well, whenever the Mum feels ready. Women will simply get up from their bed, ask one of us to examine her, and 9 times out of 10 she'll be ready. 

And this is what happened to Baby Noah's Mum. She came in, 5cms, sat on her bed for 4 hours, fully dilated. Simples. She made herself comfy on one of the delivery beds, the only one free, and her partner paced up and down the other side of the curtain. Culturally, the partner isn't present for the delivery, but at Shalom we try and encourage the Dad's to be involved as much as possible. We called him to come in and, although scared at first, was brilliant at supporting his girlfriend. 

About 30 mins later, the baby was born. Trying to support and deliver a woman in labour is extremely difficult when she speaks another language, but myself and the couple connected really well through encouraging smiles. Soon after the delivery, the couple chatted to one of the Filippino midwives and asked her if she could explain to me that they didn't have a name for their baby boy so could I choose one. When this was translated to me, I felt an overwhelming responsibility, as well as excitement. No one had ever asked me to pick their child's name before and I knew I'd remember this for a long time to come! After some deliberation, I chose the name Noah, which means comfort. Thankfully, the parents seemed to like it, so we were all happy :) 

But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

So, thanks again for reading! I can't believe so many of you are taking time to read this stuff haha :) 

Until my next update, so long!

The Travelling Midwife x

Blog Post 2 - Appreciation to the max

Appreciation to the max 

Hi again! Firstly can I say a massive thank you to all of you who read my last blog post and especially to those who messaged me encouraging comments about it. I really didn't expect so many people to read it so it's great to hear you found it interesting :)

So, I've been here just over a week now (as if!) and I'm continuing to have many great experiences, too many to be able to write down in a blog post, so I'll try and summarise as best as I can. For the brilliant midwives at RHH who are reading this, I thought I'd entertain you by listing some of the childbirth superstitions that are truly believed by the Filippino women that I've been caring for (those who aren't midwives will find this interesting too!!). So here goes...

1. Pregnant women should wear something on the their 

    head at night if they go out so that the baby stays warm.

2. Throughout pregnancy, women should cover

     themselves with a black blanket when sleeping so that

     they avoid having any pain when passing their mucosy

     show.

3. Doors and windows must be open when delivery occurs

    as they believe this will help them to have a quick and 

    safe birth.

4. You shouldn't eat from a pregnant woman's plate as

    it will make you feel sleepy for the rest of the day and 

    may even give you morning sickness type symptoms. 

5. Childbearing women shouldn't have their hair cut as it

    will mean that their baby will be born bald. 

6. Women who are pregnant should not eat fish from a 

     brook as these type of fish are very slippery and could 

     make the baby 'slip out' prematurely.

7. Pregnant women shouldn't wear necklaces as it could

    make the umbilical cord wrap around baby's neck.   

Hope they made you smile! :D One of the, I guess, traditions of having a baby here in the Philippines is that the Father goes out following the birth of his baby to buy food for the midwives who cared for your partner... this is something I think we definitely need to adopt in the UK. I've been brought McDonald's, cake, sweets, rice, chicken... you name it I've had it.

Although there's many great things about being a midwife here in the Philippines (lack of paperwork is another biggy) there's also many struggles and disadvantages. In September, I'm going to be working as a midwife in England, earning very roughly £21,000 a year, which over here converts to 1479211.47 pesos. I've also worked out how much midwives get paid here and converted that to pounds... in a year, midwives over here get £1,294.24. Basically nothing. Knowing this information makes it even more astounding when the staff are so generous with inviting you round their house for dinner, buying you gifts, and just in general, so happy and full of life.

All I can say is that they are God-loving people who trust immensely on their faith and the strength that God gives them day by day to get them and their family through. I can't say I've ever needed to practice this much faith in my own life before, living in a wealthy country with everything physically that I'll ever need right in front of me, but I'd hope that if circumstances changed I'd be as strong in my faith as these amazing people are here. I've been to church with a few of the midwives already and the way that they, and the rest of the congregation, praise God so freely and wholeheartedly puts me to shame when I see the poverty that they are living in when they go back to their homes. It's really challenged me to reflect on my upbringing and life back at home and see how fortunate I've been and how grateful to God I should be every single day.

So there you go, another blog post from yours truly. Hope it's given you some laughs, some "as if's!" and also something to think about. Thanks again for reading :)

Loves,
The Travelling Midwife x

Blog Post 1 - Arriving in the Philippines

Arriving in the Philippines

Hey Everyone! So here I am in the Philippines :) I've been here 5 days now and I have already experienced and seen so much. Firstly I need to tell you about my journey and how God definitely looked after me above and beyond what I hoped...

On the 14th July I left my parents and sister at Birmingham airport and headed through security with the crowd to start my adventure. After buying a tacky magazine, a cheap Sudoku puzzle book and some cherry drops I found my gate where I was to board my plane to Dubai, gate 44. I waited and queued there for about 20 mins until I got to the front of the line. A man scanned my boarding pass, like he had successfully for everyone before me, but my pass came up as an error on the computer. Poop. He tried again. Nothing. He started muttering to other staff who he had called over and kept repeating my name to them whilst still trying to scan my boarding pass. Palpitations began as I wondered what the problem was. The man then crossed off my seat number on my ticket and wrote another in its place; after this he asked me to go to gate 46 and wait for him there. Eeeeek! My nerves then turned to excitement as I knew what this meant. I arrived at gate 46 to see a room full of Emirates air hostesses and stewards. I waited outside for a short while until another man came to see me. He called me in and explained the situation... "the man who checked you in thought you were really nice so he upgraded to business class". Woooooo :D I was so excited! He then went on to ask if I was from Stourbridge as he recognised my accent and went on to explain that he went to Dudley College. Weird!

It was the fastest 7 hours of my life on that plane journey as I was playing around with my chair that could lie back and massage me, eating amazing food, being served free drinks constantly by my own personal waitress, and watching Disney films whilst I snuggled with my free pillow, blanket and cosy socks. It was amazeballs! God is very good :)

I eventually arrived in Manila at 11:30pm on the 15th where I was greeted by one of my house mates, Annette, one of the midwives from Shalom, Carmen, a missionary who lives out here, Mila, and Benjy, who was the driver. My room in the apartment is small with no drawers for clothes, but I wasn't expecting a holiday villa. Annette is from California and is a student nurse, and my other house mate, Emily, is a missionary nurse from New Zealand. We're getting along great at the moment and are having lots of fun adventures together. Our little apartment is on the first floor of the Shalom Christian Birthing Centre which is very handy when we're on shift. All the staff are lovely and think we are amazingly beautiful because of our white skin (the only time ever I've been pleased to be pale) haha.

Working at Shalom has been an experience too... culturally in the Philippines, women shouldn't be seen to be in pain when in labour and giving birth, and for this reason there is no option to have any pain relief at all! This isn't just the case at Shalom, but is also the same for other hospitals here too. Family members who accompany the women even shout at them or hit them if they make a sound during birth. This kind of 'practice' would also be shown to the women if they were to go to another hospital by the staff who are meant to be caring for them. Another thing which has stood out to me here is how all women here really have no option but to breastfeed their baby as the water here is dirty and contaminated with pesticides, so would therefore make their newborn ill if they used the water to make up a bottle of formula. Also, when a woman comes in to deliver, they have to bring all resources with them to give birth such as sheets, towels, wipes and even their own hot water in a flask and bin liners! Only 1 pair of gloves can be used per woman too which I've found really hard as I'm used to grabbing gloves at the hospital whenever and wherever I need them. This also means that gloves aren't always sterile when performing, shall we say, intimate tasks!

Hope you've had a little insight into what type of environment I'm living in here and I hope to share lots of stories on here as the days and weeks progress. Thanks so much for reading and for your continued prayers and support.

Lots of Love,
The Travelling Midwife x