Birthing in Vientiane
On Sunday night I drove a dear friend of mine to a hospital in Vientiane, Laos.
She is Lao, and she was in labor.
I had never been to a “maternity ward” in a Lao hospital; but I wasn’t expecting much.
Actually, it was worse than I expected.
We drove up to a long cinderblock building with an open door.
This was the maternity part of the hospital.
When we got out of the car and gathered our bags, a lady and a man were sitting at one of two stone picnic tables drinking beer and eating snacks.
Six or more cats were eating their scraps and also crawling around in some open trash cans scavenging.
The lady asked my friend if she was having a baby. When my friend confirmed that she was, the lady stood up and ushered her past the ten beds of the maternity ward to the back of the building, to examine her.
The lady was wearing a polo shirt, jeans, and flip flops with a kitten heel. Very cute, but not a nurse’s uniform.
We put the bags on bed number ten, the bed closest to the door. The person in bed number 8 was laying on her back, recovering from a c-section. One of her relatives gathered up the baby, sleeping on bed number 9, and moved it into a stained basinet.
My friend and I went outside as she waited for her labor to progress. Periodically, she winced in pain and grasped at a tree near the cat-filled garbage cans or onto the concrete table as she waited for the contraction to stop.
She wasn’t given any kind of instructions or offered medication to manage the pain. I stood by wanting to help so badly but not knowing what to do.
My friend started to dry-heave near the cats. I struggled to wrap my mind around this strange scene, replete with a bright, nearly full moon and the loud music of a late night party coming from a house somewhere near by.
A relative of the c-section lady came and massaged my friend’s back for a while to help with the pain.
Eventually a doctor came and began to ask her questions, writing the answers on a piece of paper. He had on a bright red silk shirt under a white lab coat. Maybe he was at the party before he came in to work, I thought.
While they were talking, a group of country bumpkins pulled up in front of the door. It was a large family, at least 6 of them crowded around a young girl lying on her back in the bed of the truck.
A 20-something girl hurried in and said (in Lao), “Doctor? My sister is having a baby, and (words I didn’t understand) head…half…already.”
Everyone in the room is intrigued, and everyone (4 or 5 women recovering from childbirth and all of their relatives) takes a look at the young teenage girl as she is wheeled in on a stretcher. She certainly doesn’t look like a baby is half birthed from her, so maybe that was an exaggeration.
Some people laugh at the whole group after they disappear behind the door of the delivery room.
Bed number 10, replete with stained sheets:
I try to imagine what it would be like to give birth in a place like this. There is no air conditioner. Babies sleep under mosquito nets, their umbilical cord tied off with string, still looking fat and fleshy.
Families crowd in around the 10 beds, arranged dorm-style with less than one meter in between.
People are sitting on the floor, some people aren’t wearing shoes. There is no privacy and there is no comfort.
Patients must bring everything they require. There is no hospital-issue anything.
My friend wears a cheap sarong for giving birth.
She tells me three times that I should leave, that it will take a long time.
Finally, I do leave. Maybe she doesn’t want me there. The next morning she calls to say the baby was born at 3:30 am.
I go to visit her and bring a roll of toilet paper, two juice boxes of soy milk (her favorite) and some bottled water, because the hospital does not provide these things.
When I arrive she is sharing her bed with the baby, asleep under a pile of towels.
He doesn’t yet have a name.
He is perfect.
Her labor was long and difficult. The baby weighs 2.9 kg.
I thought I would die, she said.
Will you have another baby? I ask.
No! She says, Too much pain.
I feel awkward asking if I can take some pictures, but I think she is glad, because she doesn’t have a camera.
Proud grandma. She smiled after the picture:
Some people have romantic view of giving birth in a underdeveloped country or a primitive culture, in a “back to basics” kind of way.
I wasn’t present in the delivery room, but what I saw was my friend scared, in pain, and alone, getting no instruction from the medical staff.
I am still processing the whole experience; I feel so many emotions when I think of that building.
I feel pity for the people who have no other choice but to give birth at a place like that. I feel anger at people in the developed world who callously think and say things like, “Well, they don’t know any different.”, or hint that an average yearly income of $365 might be “pretty good for over there.”
I feel sadness for babies born in places like this who maybe needed a little extra help to survive, and didn’t make it. Babies who would have easily been saved if they had access to modern medical equipment.
And also I feel admiration for women who have given birth in places like this, and places even worse than this for centuries. They continue to do so in third world countries, in huts, and slums, and refuge camps.
What emotions does this story awake in you?
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09 March 2009, 6:03 pm
Wow! How totally unbelievable and how very sad.
I’m glad that Mom and baby are both okay.
My prayers are with them.
09 March 2009, 8:37 pm
The baby is beautiful. I am glad there were no complications. I can’t imagine how I would feel in such a situation. Honestly, the birthcare center where both of my kids were born is so clean and so much nicer and more welcoming than the hospital’s OB ward just across the street. I was sad when we had to move over there when Jasper developed complications after birth but I realize now how lucky I was to even have a choice about such things…
Nick looks seriously creeped out.
09 March 2009, 8:45 pm
I think defintely a pride for the mother that gave birth, in those conditions, a sadness for the country that cannot or does not provide what young mothers need during this important time in their lives, and of course a sense of wanting to help out and to give of myself to help the cause. Thank you for the awareness. Many prayers for the country and especially the young soon to be mothers in Laos.
09 March 2009, 9:46 pm
Wow! I could never imagine giving birth like that. I think every woman should have the chance to deliver in a safe and clean environment. I wish that there was something that I could do.
10 March 2009, 12:37 am
Oh wow, that is such an amazing (and sad) story. I can’t believe how much care we receive in Western hospitals, so many things that are unnecessary and costly, and it’s too bad that things aren’t more evened out. I’d gladly give up some of the luxury of our hospitals so women like your friend can have a more comfortable birthing experience. It also makes me sad thinking of babies who didn’t make it because of the conditions, especially for small things like treatment for jaundice or other seemingly minor conditions.
As usual, you share such wonderful, moving stories.
10 March 2009, 1:13 am
I am so glad that you shared this story. I think we’ve all heard that conditions are less than ideal in some countries but I really had no idea. I think more than anything it makes me feel helpless.
Elizabeths last blog post..Through the Eyes of a Child - My Adult Child
10 March 2009, 1:22 am
I also forgot about this link my husband had sent me a few months back. It’s along the same lines of this post
http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2008/07/12/old-birthing-in-the-new-world/
10 March 2009, 3:21 am
frightening. that’s just it. I think women should be allowed to birth in a way trusting of their bodies and all but I also think they deserve a clean sheet stray cat free place.
10 March 2009, 11:13 am
Thanks for sharing a great story and point of view all too often we forget how well off we actually are.
thanks for stopping by my blog and entering a great contest Good Luck
10 March 2009, 2:21 pm
I would hate that! Sounds like she would have been better off just staying at home….I didn’t know that there were no “real” hospitals there, that’s sad
Alexias last blog post..Win a Bumbleride Indie Twin!
10 March 2009, 4:25 pm
It makes me feel very lucky to have good medical care. I think if I was over there, maybe I would have just went back home to have the baby. It doesn’t sound like they did anything for her.
Nancy M.s last blog post..David and Goliath
10 March 2009, 5:04 pm
The thing that makes me saddest about post is the lack of other women there supporting her. As a doula and a homebirther myself I do not mind the lack of a dr’s presence during labor. But what about he women in this young girl’s life to support her and let her know that everything is ok and that that amount of pain is normal. Unless we’ve gone through it ourselves we can’t possibly think that much pain is normal.
I agree that often the developing world is romantisized as an ideal when they are equally is far from ideal as we are in the west- using technology rather than common sense and medicalizing what is a natural and normal experience -like giving birth. If we could meet somewhere in the middle…
10 March 2009, 6:07 pm
The thing that bothered me was not the absence of epidurals, but just that she was frightened and uneducated about what was happening and what to expect, and what she should be doing to help herself.
I wasn’t able to go with her to prenatal appointments, but she didn’t seem very informed.
10 March 2009, 6:08 pm
I was a Labor and Delivery nurse here in the US for almost 20 years. From day one it annoyed me that we put women to bed, started IV’s and did C-sections on 25% of them. We drugged them for pain. I often thought this has only come about the last 100 or so years since men got in the business of delivering babies. Up until that time for centuries women midwives delivered women. I often got my patients out of bed to help them avoid c-sections. I would have them squat to push and keep them active as much as possible. Childbirth is a normal natural bodily process. In the US we are rich and spoiled and we want everything in life easily (myself included) so now we do epidurals. I felt so sorry for your friend. I would have stayed with her but I am experienced at being at a bedside and know what to do. I worked the night shift and over the years had to deliver maybe a dozen babies by myself. I had never even had a women tear even if it was her first baby and yet doctors do episiotomies on all of them. The animals and the filth of the scene you describe bothers me the most. In the U.S. we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the Western world. I often believe this is because of the drugs, alcohol abuse and nutrition. Also we have the highest teen pregnancy rate and STD’s in the Western World. Our society has lost the sense of family, honor and religion that other less developed nations have. When I was in Singapore last summer and we visit “Little India” and the Muslim area I though every American should travel abroad so we understand other people and we would be less likely to bomb them. We are all the same in God’s eyes
10 March 2009, 7:20 pm
Wow! I can’t imagine what that would be like. She has a beautiful baby boy
Lorri Ss last blog post..Neosporin to the Rescue!
10 March 2009, 11:33 pm
Thank you for sharing this with us. Her baby is gorgeous! I sadly, was not surprised by the conditions, just further saddened, I think mainly by how unaware she was, to be so scared on what should be such a happy time. Also very grateful that only did she come through alright, but that her baby is well. I would have literally died giving birth to my oldest had I not had the medical team I had.
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11 March 2009, 5:17 pm
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12 March 2009, 11:05 am
You are a good friend! The main emotion for me is sadness. Sadness for lack of information, lack of support, birthing conditions, etc. It is encouraging, however, to remember that our Savior was also born in filthy, sub-standard conditions and He offers grace and love to all!
12 March 2009, 5:37 pm
Anybody whose had a baby, even in a nice, clean hospital, realizes how easy it would be to die in childbirth. It becomes suddenly very apparent why it used to happen so frequently in the US, and still does in many parts of the world. As someone once said to me: giving birth is like shitting a bowling ball while someone is ripping out your spine.
18 March 2009, 4:52 pm
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08 May 2009, 3:54 pm
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10 May 2009, 10:12 pm
Thanks so much for stopping by Travelingmama! I love your blog and cannot wait to look through more of your archives. This post really spoke to me because of recently having our third baby in Spain. I was originally going to have him in Morocco and was honestly freaking out because I had seen the hospital when a friend gave birth. The public hospitals sound just like the hospital there. Thankfully I was looking at giving birth in a private hospital, but it was still pretty bad- dirty sheets and all. When at 36 weeks the doctors couldn’t decide if there was a major problem with the baby we packed up and went to Spain to have him. I am SO glad, but I suffered from major guilt because not even my other American girlfriend had the funds to do the same.
22 September 2010, 1:14 am
i am an aussie and have lived in Laos for 5 years my wife is Lao and having witnessed her sister nearly die simply because the hospital had no blood supplies in what is still called the best hospital in vientiane (settathirat) i was appalled at the conditions, we now have 2 kids , both born an hours drive away in udon thani Thailand we are lucky i have a job paid in dollars a luxury a lot of locals cannot afford i still see daily here examples of extreme wealth (and corruption) i am not trying to take the moral high ground here but surely some of this money coming from NGO organisations could be put to better use such as a first rate hospital which udon has (incidently most thais consider udon thani a backwater) the hospitals and treatment she received there put a lot of aussie hospitals to shame , and whats all that bollocks going on down at the river front about ?? bloody typical Lao style put on a good image and forget about the infrastructure while receiving the cash from a third party who wont be doing it out of the kindness of there heart