I haven´t
written in a while as life has been busy with moving, work, and well, being
pregnant. The weather has been getting
hotter and hotter as we move into Honduras´ “summer”, and I am feeling more like
an overheated sweaty incubator than a normal human being.
Augusto and
I have settled into our new place, a two level duplex with a lot more space
(and a lot more surface area to clean), and have been slowly putting the house
together. January was a miserable month
in which I promptly got sick the day we moved to the new house and stayed ill
with a brutal case of bronchitis for the next 3 weeks, leaving poor Augusto to
do most of the work in cleaning and painting the old apartment and unpacking in
the new place. Just as I started to feel better, Augusto succumbed, but luckily
his immune system battled the bug a lot better than I did. Suffice it to say, our diet was mostly chicken
soup for the month of January.
I have
started taking prenatal classes at the public hospital where I am planning on
giving birth. The chosen method of teaching here seems to be a combination of
scolding and the sharing of old wives tales.
Today for
example, we all had to tell the nurse how much we weighed. Most of us got scolded for weighing too much,
and when one plump young lady to be declared her weight to be lower than what
the nurse thought she weighed, she took her and weighed her in front of the
group and loudly declared the (higher) number in triumph to the rest of the
group. Once that mortifying experience
was over, we then got scolded about a) not drinking enough water, b) wearing our pants too tight, c) eating too much spicy food (that was aimed
directly at me) , d) touching our baby
bumps too much –apparently it stimulates the uterus and leads to early labour,
information which I am taking with a lot of salt, and finally e) allowing our
babies to become too big - better a 5 or
6 lb baby than a large baby, according to the nurse, it’s easier to birth a small
baby (I have a whole handful of grains
of salt by this point).
Needless to
say, the beliefs and practices here in Honduras are quite different than those
of Canada, and I am finding myself biting my tongue a lot at the advice I am receiving
from not just the nurses, but from well-meaning coworkers and friends as well.
As I am
giving birth in a public hospital, I really don’t have any freedom in choosing
how I want to give birth – the rule is, no one comes in with me to the birthing
room, and birthing always happens on my back.
I actually sat and read the entire birthing policies document for
Honduras, and was pleased by what I read in the document, but apparently those
policies don´t actually get followed, as in the document it said women can be
accompanied by a family member, and can choose the position they give birth
in. I am trying hard to let go of my
Canadian viewpoint when it comes to my labour and delivery, as the more I think
of how little control I will have, the more nervous I get. I take comfort in the fact that Honduras has
twice the birth rate of Canada, so they must know what they´re doing when it
comes to birthing babies.
The great
thing is, the hospital is literally two blocks away from our house, so I am
thinking of walking to the hospital when the time comes – albeit two blocks
while in labour may be a lot more than I bargained for.
I can´t
believe I am so close to the end of this pregnancy – it has flown by, but at
the same time, it´s been an eternity. I
had no idea how many changes a body goes through during this period, and it’s
been a whole new learning experience.
For example, some interesting fun facts:
At this
point, I literally have 50% more blood flowing through my body than a
non-pregnant person.
The amount
of fluid in my body has affected my vision – my focal point has changed due to
the excess fluid, so my prescription glasses now give me headaches. I have managed to do without glasses for the
past few months, because I want to wait to get a regular body back before
checking my prescription again.
My levels
of hormones have changed the way I smell – we all have a smell that we don´t
notice because we´ve always smelled the same.
Well, now I smell different, even to me, and it´s weirding me out,
because I don’t recognize myself sometimes.
My joints
and articulations are all stretching and becoming loosy goosy in preparation
for birth – this makes me really clumsy and prone to silly accidents. I twisted my ankle the other day while
walking, and luckily it only took a few days to recover from, but it reminded
me to be extra careful.
My
abdominal muscles have separated to make room for the baby, which causes a
weird cone shape as my insides squeeze through the middle when I flex my
abs. Hopefully this separation heals on its
own after birth.
Anyways,
this is all probably too much information for those of you who are slightly
squeamish, so I’ll leave it at that, even though I could go on for quite a bit more.
Next month
is baby month! Eeeek!
