I can see clearly now the rain is gone!

Monday was a bit of a set back. I sadly lost my battle with some momos and didnt make it in to work, lovely Sam stayed with me and by 12ish we were off out in the rain! We went to into Thamel and got lost in the lanes and lanes of shops and bars. We managed to find a postoffice and sent our postcards to a select few! Had a drink and left our mark at Sam's bar....yes Sam's bar!! And then had a race home to beat the rain. Had a huge thunder storm and had an early night. Luckily Tuesday I felt better and Sam and I were back to work! We had our last day on the birth centre and also had some time to update our antenatal education powerpoint that we are doing for MIDSON next week. Kiran, our hostess with the mostess, then took us to into Kathmandu to do some shopping. She took us to her HUGE 8 storey house, with panaromic views of Kathmandu Valley. She gave us a feast of fruit, rice, and other Nepali treats and made us feel like family. We can not get over the amazing warmth and kindness we have been shown while in Nepal.....do we really have to leave?? She then took us to see Kathmandu Durbar Square where we saw temples being dressed for an upcoming festival and visited the house of the living goddess. She was sleeping so we could not meet her this visit! Kiran then took us through the winding streets to see the most beautiful fabric, pashminas, food, and music. We decided we best hop in a cab ride home as it started to rain again, and we had our first day on the Operating Theatre, dont want to seem like cheeky British girls!! shhhh dont tell anyone!!

woah an emotional day.................................

hello england, so our second shift on the birthing unit at the hospital started off the q word yes it was quiet, no patients, then after an hour or so labouring women arrived. Laura was famous again we her nose piercing, they love it as traditional over here to get the left side of your nose pierced. We observed some distressed women today who we just wanted to speak to, reassure and encourage very hard tho when nepalise isnt out first language, we can just about say hello and my name is.......anyway we encourage in our own sign lanuage and ram roo = very good. One very tired patient finally delivered and had a lovely bonny boy who needed suction and a little oxygen but then he was fine. Kiran meet us after our shift and introduced us to the director of the Perinatal Society of Nepal, discussing the study day we may be guest speakers in. After lunch we bumped into our man that we booked our excursions for the last week with, a big thankyou and mention to him, Sam Pun at Above and Beyond Trekking who helped us greatly and give us lots of good advice for hopefully an excellent last week of our trip. Me and Laura are now very exhausted and its 5.15pm here so will do a spot of shopping and head home for an early night ready for work 2mor, all our love to you England, take care love Laura and Sam x

Monkey business!

Well what started off as a lazy Saturday turned out to be our busiest day yet! We had Lazmi and Kiran over to give the donations, which were very well received....so thank you everyone! We then went to visit the first and only stand alone birth centre in Nepal. What an amazing place! As stated before this birth centre is what inspired us to come to Nepal, and it continues to give inspiration now. Laxmi and her members have funded the birth centre themselves and purhased items that have increased the services avaialble to those who access it, including a $600 scanner! Laxmi's passion for safemotherhood is amazing! It is free for all who access it and it offers pregancy care through the antenatal and postnatal visits including home visits, to immunizations and sexual health. Laxmi hopes to expand the centre in the future to allow for more beds and a training centre. Kiran and Laxmi, and the other members of MIDSON (Midwfery Society of Nepal) are in the process of trying to introduce a 3 year degree training in midwifery as there are nurse-midwives here and SBA's who have minimal training. After visiting the birth centre we jumped in a minibus carrying over 15 of us to the monkey temple. We reached the top (365 steps later) in the pouring rain, and embraced like we had conquered Everst! The view was breath taking and the excitement of monkeys was a bit obvious, with Nepali people mimicking our squeels and laughing!
After walking down and seeing Buddhas Eye we ventured into Thamel and only just made it home alive after one crazy taxi driver blarring Ne-yo dropped us home! Don't worry tho Lisa/Mum, no fun without a little drama!!

how cute are the babies here......................

Hello England (sorry for the delay did start this blog yesterday and after 30 minutes we had a power cut). So we survived our first shift on the birthing unit at the hospital, started a bit slow and we stuck out like two sore thumbs, but then observed a few deliveries. Spoke to some very friendly staff including an SHO type doctor who conducted the first delivery we observed, very interesting the different practises and how strong Nepalise women are! Kiran treated us to lunch and we had some more delicious moomoos and tea. After mouching around and having drinks in the rain we had the best curry ever which i feel we will re-visit again, so yummy. Tomorrow is are day off and were planning on going into Kathmandu................ keep you posted take care Laura and Sam xxx

On Nepali time

So after a day of walking around Patan and having a few drinks at the Roadhouse Cafe we crawled into bed to be well rested for our first official day at the hospital. Well until our partners missed us so much they called and woke us up....well who wouldnt miss us?!?!?

This morning we walked in the rain to the hospital where we were so thrilled to have survived crossing the chaotic traffic on the Bagmati River Bridge! We were greated and formally introduced to the matron who informed us that Kiran was running late due to traffic....which you just cannot imagine, but closest comparison would be like oxford street on Christmas Eve!

When Kiran arrived after about 3 minutes we were ready to roll! But we were told we had to meet the director and get formally approved first. This was at 1030am, we met and were approved by 1300! We are offically on Nepali time now! In between this we ate Nepali Guava, tasted like pear with crunchy seeds, drank milky tea, ate doughnut like bread, met more members of the Midwifery Society of Nepal and learned about the removal of TBA's and introduction of Specialised Birth Attendants (SBA's) who are trained nurses.

When waiting to meet the director we felt like we were meeting royalty. Made to wait and being ushered out quite quickly so she could have her lunch. But not once did we feel unwelcome. The staff here are so warm.

We had a formal tour of the hospital, after giving our greatly appreciated $200 US, with the Matron where we saw admission room, Sexual Health clinic, abortion clinic, damily plannning clinic, birth centre, SCBU and NNU and recovery rooms.

We startour official first day tomorrow.....wish us luck!!! Miss you all

Lots of love

Sam and Laura xx

Namaste!

So we are here! What an amazing trip. The plane ride was great and the transfers went off without a hitch. The drive to our apartment, well that was crazy! We have never seen so many cars, buses, bikes, cows, bulls and dogs all trying to get past one another! Walking through our neighbouhood is ok, a bit like Amsterdamn with motorbikes lol! We were greated by Ram who is absolutely fabulous, and the only reason we found this internet cafe was becuase of him. He took us to the hospital today, where it was the 51st anniversary! They had the prime minister of Nepal there and were giving awards to staff and even one for the best child. The baby was wrapped in gold, and we got a picture, will post later. We met Kiran there, and she is brilliant. She took us into the Matrons room where we practised our first new Nepali skills. Drinking out of a water bottle without it touching our lips or spilling on our shirt, so far Laura pass and Sam FAIL lol!! She is arranging our placements and a possible visit to a study day held by the perinatal association of Nepal and some birth centres in Kathmandu and Chitwan.
We then carried onto Patan, as it was Lord Krishna's birthday today. There were thousands of Nepalis there offering gifts to Krishna. We both ot given tikkas for good luck from Holy Men, but at a cost of course.
We start our first shift tomorrow on the hospital. We are working 8-2 for 6 days a week, but we may try and work some long days to allow for trips to Chitwan and Pokhara.
We want to thank everyone for their support and hope you enjoy reading our blog. Special thanks to mum/Lisa for your heart felt card which made us both cry on the plane! We are both wearing our guardian angels!

And we are off

So after months of planning........ we are off! Thank you so much to everyone's good wishes today and donations. We propbably won't sleep tonight and apologies to our families and friends tomorrow at the airport, we are just soooooo excited! Will keep you posted on here as much as possible and ......"see you in September, see you when the summmers through!"

Amazing donation from an AMAZING organisation

We recently put a story about our trip to Nepal in our local papers. We were so excited for our few minutes of fame we didn't even consider the generosity we would find. We received a phone call from Chichester SANDS wanting to offer us help with our trip.

SANDS is a charity that supports anyone affected by the death of a baby and promotes research to reduce the loss of babies lives. As student midwives we have both met people involved in SANDS and the work they do is absolutely priceless. Endless hours of support through carelines, supplies and advice given for midwives and families and a huge support network for those who have sadly lost a baby.

Sue Taylor and Heather Brooks from Chichester SANDS wanted to offer the women of Nepal some support as well. They have sent us a cheque to give the birth centre £200!! This amount of money will greatly help in the promotion of safemotherhood and allow them to get supplies they so greatly need. We cannot begin to thank SANDS enough for this generosity. But Thank you so much!!

Another boot sale.........

Another big thankyou, to My Dad, My Mum, My Nan who helped me raise another £50 towards Nepal from a bootsale on Sunday a special thankyou to My Nan for donating some hand painted pictures to the sale, very talented!

Avon Party

Thankyou to everybody who came to my Avon Party hosted by the lovely Lisa Pitt, I had a good night and hope you all did!We raised over £150 towards Nepal so many thanks for participating in all the games, raffle and bingo as well as placing orders, greatly appreciated. Sam x

Thank you RCM

The lovely staff at the Royal College of Midwives have donated 9 pinnards for us to take to Nepal. We have also been given leaflets and cards about the campaign for normal birth to give out and show what issues effect women and midwives in the UK. Special thanks goes to Angie Sahe-Lacheante for all her help with the Pinnards! Thank you also to Sue Macdonald for helping to edit and advise us on our Antenatal Education presentation. We have been asked to present on antenatal education to the nurse-midwives in Nepal and feel much more confident now. And a huge thank you to Manuela and Colin for giving me the chance to work at the RCM last week, I learned a lot and appreciate the hard work of the RCM even more now!!

Sam in the sky with diamonds!

So one of us got to jump on Saturday, and the other will have to wait till we return from Nepal as the rain prevented most of us from reaching the skies! Luckily Sam was able to wear the gorgeous suit provided and land gracefully on the ground! Thank you to everyone who sponsored us, and thank you for all the support on Saturday. Was an amazing weekend and can't wait to re-live it October for the rest of us that need to fly through the sky! We would also like to thank mum/Mrs. Pitt for her bravery while watching her baby jump. he he he