Thailand

Tales from the bump

5 September 2010 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Google is not your friend if you’re pregnant and your hair dryer fries in your hand, briefly electrocuting you. Not to worry, he’s fine (says the doc, and yep he’s looking like a boy) – I can feel those momentous first movements. It’s like tiny little gas bubble rumblings :-\ He’s not packing much of a punch yet.

We spent a week in Jom Tien, Thailand, to check out a hospital and the ob-gyn there. Loved the doc. Loved the seafood – here we’re at a fisherman’s village gorging ourselves on the fresh catch.

About four weeks ago I started looking sufficiently femme fertile where people feel my tummy is public property and they can just reach out and touch the bump. Go away. This trimester’s more interesting than the first. The little rambutan’s stretching my tummy skin like a drum, he’s growing so fast! I’m starting to waddle, I need help turning over in bed, and did you ever notice those tailbone muscles? I didn’t til they hurt all day.

Sometimes we just sit back and marvel at this little tenant taking first dibs on my blood and nutrient supply. And I just have to poke at it a little bit hehe. Keith has been very supportive and indulgent, and my go-to griping board :-)

We spent a week in Bangkok too to check out another hospital. Samitivej Hospital is rated a baby-friendly hospital by WHO and UNICEF, meaning significant breastfeeding support with limited or no bottles allowed in the nursery. The hospital doesn’t accept for distribution to new mothers any free or low-cost formula.

Do you know there’s around a 70% caesarian rate at these hospitals out here?! Parents ask for it. They want an auspicious date and time for the birth. Seems like you’d screw up your kid’s astrological alignment doing that. Anyway I LOVED the birthing suites at this one hospital which is where many foreigners who work in SE Asia beeline for to have their baby. They have dim lighting, music, birthing pools, ladders, ropes and swings, aromatherapy oils, diffusers and candles, etc. Maybe I just haven’t visited a real hospital in a long time. Sure is the first time I have an intimate engagement with a health care system from the patient side. The docs at this hospital have a 3% caesarian rate [two thumbs up!].

So we’re planning for the delivery now. Going the natural birth route was a great idea before I got pregnant. It gets lousy the more you think about how big the sperm donor is, haha, although that supposedly isn’t a contributing factor (by size he’s already 1 1/2 weeks larger than the average). Diet? Low birthweight is the way to go? Induce early? Sigh. My own concerns, like the sneeze-and-pee side effect of a shattered pelvic floor, are suddenly so much less important now. I guess the joy of parenting is about beating these silly narcissisms out of you.

We’re also starting to look at baby things. Poor little guy have the most minimalist parents (maybe we’ve been working out here too long). I don’t understand why it needs a crib, a baby bathtub, baby shampoo, bibs, pacifiers etc…?

But I do notice the recent meltdowns savvied up this niche’s purchasing experience. It’s feel-good shopping on a gratuitous new scale.

An ergonomically awesome baby carrier created by a good ol’ mom-n-pop American shop? Gotta have it. Designer breast pumps and glass bottles, fashioned by professional moms using the latest evidence-based clinical specs, materials and sense? Click – BUY! And check out these adorable little haute couture ensembles for all his potty needs! I can just see the trendy little multi-cultured, fair-labor-, eco-geared, breastmilk-fed bambino being slung about the paddies in organic fitted sherpa (dip-dyed deep sultan!) and matching hand-knit sustainably harvested hemp/bamboo terry blend cover.

The more the buzzwords defy definition the better for you, your baby, the exploited 90% of the world, and the beleaguered planet.

(That narcissistic nimrod will go down fighting.)

So things are progressing quite well for us, thanks for all the emails! Hope everyone’s well! We miss you all!

Thailand’s state of emergency

14 April 2010 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Sociologist Dr Pasuk Phongpaichit was quoted in the Bangkok Post saying that the gap between the richest and poorest families in Thailand is 13 times, higher than any other country in the ASEAN region, a record I didn’t realise Thailand held. For about four weeks now, the Red Shirts (the disenfranchised poor or The National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in 2006) have been marching from the provinces into Bangkok and are agitating for fresh elections. They’re still gathering strength and they’ve hardened their negotiating stance.

Below are some links for keeping up with what’s happening:

Here’s a good collection of stills, maps and footage of the carnage this past weekend, on Media140, where the death toll has today risen to 23.

@nkoleszar has a great twitter list to watch for Thailand developments.

At least overall it seems armed repressions are in check, with a more solid consensus for non-violence. Both sides seem to have distanced themselves from the weekend’s clashes, with many observers now reporting a deeply divided military, unwilling any longer to take drastic measures to protect its military-installed Abhisit government.

The monarchy’s inability to reign in the situation, as it has successfully done so in previous political turmoils, seems to contribute to significantly diminishing its position. The Economist had a great backgrounder on the monarchy in Dec 2008, A Right Royal Mess (downloadable pdf as you need a subscription to access the archives). Severe lèse-majesté laws ensures that critical dialogue of the monarchy is restricted. So this radical call for monarchy reform by Thailand’s FM Kasit while on his trip to Washington DC for a landmark nuclear summit has surprised all observers (he being a PAD yellow shirt supporter, normally associated with the elites). Needless to say there is little coverage of this bombshell announcement by Kasit in the Thai presses.

Commercial interests are currently taking a hit, especially the crucial tourism industry, which makes up 7 percent of GDP. The SET index dropped 6.5% since the government declared a state of emergency last Wednesday, and more than 40 countries have issued advisories against traveling to Thailand. The protestors have largely kept away from the tourist-populated sites like commercial districts, shopping malls, the sky train. But these are the main hubs for demonstrations, as seen in these maps.

The gestational journey ends

18 January 2010 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Thank you, everyone, for sharing advice, for the visits, calls and gifts, and all the well wishes! We’re still catching up with baby and sleep so for now, just a quick update :-)

Tristan Quinn Abejero Kelly — 2 days old

Above is his first passport photo, taken by the hospital’s photographer at about a day old.

We flew to Bangkok at 35 weeks, since the airlines don’t let you travel any later into the pregnancy than that as a precaution against having to deal with a woman in labor on board. Other mothers in Phnom Penh have driven either down to the border at Koh Kong (via a road that goes off the grid for a solid hour, as of 2010), or else up north through Poipet into Aranyaprathet, Thailand, and then bus/train it to Bangkok. But I just didn’t think I could handle that! The road to Poipet border crossing has much improved since I’ve been through it last, but decreasing the number of uncertainties while I’m heavily pregnant is a good thing!

My first groggy thought after waking up out of anesthesia and meeting our son was a dismal, “they mixed ours up with this cross-eyed Chinese baby”, but Hubby reassured me that from the time they took him out the Chinese-looking baby hasn’t left his sight. The baby’s filling out his features now, so my mixup worries are going away :-)

We had an unplanned c-section. First contractions were at 8am and by 1030am when we arrived at the hospital I was already 6cm. Between the pelvic girdle problem I’ve been having in the last trimester and the contractions, there was no respite from the pain so I asked for an epidural. Three hours later I was fully dilated but he wasn’t coming down fast enough and his vital signs were rapidly dropping, so I was wheeled into the OR. Apparently the cord had wrapped around his neck and arm, and he was losing oxygen rapidly. WHEW!

He came with big lungs and a small stomach – they say this is normal :-\ Thankfully he doesn’t use his lung power much :-) except when he’s getting his BCG shot :-(

Here he is in his bassinet :-)

More fodder for hate

20 November 2009 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

The nationalist fodder continues, tit for tat…

THE government took control of the Thai-owned aviation firm Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS) on Thursday and banned its Thai employees from the offices after the arrest of one of their co-workers on suspicion of stealing the flight schedule of fugitive Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra during his visit to Cambodia last week.
The move, which is likely to further damage diplomatic relations between the two countries, comes amid accusations by a Thai opposition leader that Thailand’s foreign minister ordered the theft.
from the Phnom Penh Post

So CATS is now in the “caretakership of a Cambodian government official”. I might just have to delay my flight back into the country.

Thaksin– LIVE in Cambodia

11 November 2009 by Nathalie Abejero 2 Comments

Recent actions of Cambodia’s PM Hun Sen, inviting former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra to live in Cambodia and take a post as the Economic Advisor– on the eve of a regional meeting of ASEAN at that!– have now come to a very tense head. Thaksin, who initially declined the offer, arrived in Cambodia.

The average Cambodian is largely ambivalent to the storm of fury across the border. Generally speaking, an enemy of Thailand is a friend of theirs. But this matter isn’t to be taken lightly. Here’s what Details Are Sketchy has to say:

… Thaksin’s current visit to Cambodia is not merely some political stunt designed to enrage the Thai establishment — although it is certainly that — but part of a larger strategy aimed at regime change in Thailand. It’s hard to underestimate the stakes in such a gamble. The danger of war, say some analysts, has never been greater.

It is impeccable timing to grab the headlines. Obama is jumping in the fray for influence in the East Asia region and arrives tomorrow for meetings with the leaders of its powerhouse nations.

and the pot calls the kettle black (Thailand on Cambodia)

7 November 2009 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Hun Sen Shows Lack of Class and Tact, an editorial by The Nation (one of Thailand’s English-language news publications) on 25 Oct 2009, says of Cambodia’s PM:

Holding on to power by any means and turning his once war-torn country into his personal playground would not count for much in terms of achievements in this day and age. Under his rule, Cambodia continues to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. We think the Cambodian people deserve better.

And the Political Prisoners of Thailand blog responds:

Just in case anyone wanted to compare the Cambodian government with that in Thailand, the writer claims that “the current Thai government came through a parliamentary process, not because of the 2006 coup.” No one would describe Cambodia as a model democracy, especially not domestic opponents of the regime. And one would expect Thailand to do better than Cambodia on most indices. That said, on both the Reporters Without Borders Index and the Transparency International index of the perception of corruption, while still ranked lower than Thailand, Cambodia is rising while Thailand is falling.

Hat tip to PPT, and read their About page. This is a good blog for those interested in Southeast Asia politics, especially with increasing political repression in Thailand in face of the impending succession.