The MIDWIVES came to visit Friday. In Senegal (and probably France & Quebec etc.) a midwife is called a "Sage Femme". Here in Haiti one of the ways they are called is also "Sage Femme" if they are trained and "Femme Sage" if they aren't really "trained". Friday we met Stephanie, one of 3 Sages Femmes who is hosted by Haitian Ministries for at least the next 6 months to train Haitian Staff at Haitian Ministries. (Stephanie was delivered to our house by two Femme Sage, Beth & Tara, of Haitian Minsitries, and Paige, a 14 year old DOULA).
I can't think of a more empowering idea for Haitian women!!!! Stephanie, who had been in Haiti 2.5 days casually measured my bump, pulse, found the head, feet, arms, and heartbeat and then showed us the babe's position using Gabriela's Dora doll. And then she sat really close to me, looking me in the eye and told me candidly since you're an athlete, you'll love the high of giving birth but "birth is not a pain you can just push through". "This pain, you'll have to accept and embrace if you want the baby to come out of you." And, she said, double up on the avocados and find some liver to eat!
So our bambino's head is down although not quite at the exit but overall slightly posterior. Babies can be delivered posterior but labour can be longer and more painful (what can be called back labour). SO Stephanie showed me an exercise to encourage the babe's spine to line up about with my linea nigra (that light line that runs down a pregnant belly). I call it the belly-dancing-on-all-fours! I've been doing it every day...after doing it 30 minutes last night there was some rolling inside me and i felt some kicks on the other side. We'll see (feel) on the next visit, Friday!!!!
SO i have a bunch of homework (eating protein, belly-dancing, reflecting on pain) along with my usual de-cluttering (which apparently we now call nesting), teaching yoga, and regular work of living in Haiti and God willing (and Stephanie's prediction) I'll have another couple weeks to do it!
While in Canada thi summer talking to friends about pregnancy and post-partum, one said "make sure you have your freezer stocked with good things you like to eat". That was funny to me since barely can keep water cold in our beer-fridge sized fridge, not to mention spontaneous trees falling down on to electrical lines. But of things slightly more predictable, October marks the end of the rainy season and the curbing of the mosquito population.