Pregnancy across 3 continents

I am 28 weeks pregnant with our second baby. I am an expat and will have been out of South Africa (my home country) for 3 years on May 13th. I conceived our first child and spent the first 13 weeks of my pregnancy in South Africa, then moved to the United Kingdom and spent the remainder of my first pregnancy in England. This time around, we conceived baby in Cebu and I have spent the entire pregnancy thus far (save one weeks holiday in Hong Kong) in the Philippines.

I prefer midwife care during pregnancy and so have experience with working with 3 groups of midwives thus far, the South African home birth midwife, the English community midwives and now Cebuano Birth Centre midwives.

My experience with all three groups has been a pleasant one, I don't think its fair to compare them as each individual midwife will have her own way of working. My SA midwife knew me personally pre-pregnancy as I had worked with her as a doula during some home/birthing centre births. She taught me all I know about water birth for which I am eternally grateful as my daughter was born in water. My english midwife was one of the most gentle kind woman I have ever met, she spoke so softly and was just so relaxed it was such a pleasure being under her care during my pregnancy. My current team of midwives have very varied personalities, one is gentle, one is strong. I am hoping to have my "gentle" midwife at my babies birth but am glad to know that if need be the "strong" midwife is there to oversee and guide over any serious complications.

All 3 sets have had a focus on staying active, eating healthy and being positive about pregnancy and birth. My UK midwives joined my husband and I at our home for the birth of our daughter when I was in active labour. They were in my space but not in my face which I appreciated. The PH is different, we will go into the birthing centre when ready and I will be given the space and time to labour alone in my private room for as long as it takes. When I am ready to push, I will go to the delivery room and inform my midwife who will then prep for the birth. Immediate separation of mom/baby and cord clamping is practiced routinely here which I am against, however I have been assured that this will not happen with us and this has been discussed with the birthing team. I am left to now trust that what has been said will be done.

I have approximately 12 weeks left of this pregnancy and am in good health. I am looking forward to labouring and birthing this baby into the world. I am still processing and working through some thoughts in my head, I know I cannot control any situation but I do feel I can prepare for it.

 I read something along these lines recently which has really stuck with me:
I am the only person who can birth this baby into the world and for this I take full responsibility

My second expat pregnancy - another interesting journey lies ahead.

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Exclusive Breastfeeding in the Workplace - Philippines

We now live in the Philippines, have been for the past 5 months. It is a wonderful country filled with happy and friendly people. Also filled with poverty, heartbreaking gut wrenching poverty, which is in your face on a daily basis.

Women have babies, women need to work (its literally a life or death scenario), ALL babies deserve to be breastfed. When I first arrived I was shocked at the amount of formula available... aisles dedicated to the stuff. Plus the expense... over PHP1000 per can. Some woman who work as nannies only earn between PHP2000 and PHP3000 per month!!! (That is why formula gets watered down). Plus they leave their babes at home to go work in the cities. What ever happened to basic human rights for infants? They have the right to their mothers milk, especially vulnerable at risk infants (those living in poor families).

My husband's current employer has a new building going up, he tells me that they have really lovely lactation rooms in them for their employees. This kind of news makes my heart sing.

I have lived here, here, here and now here.

Since my last blog post we have moved to our fourth country in 2 years. Have baby, will travel :)

We now live and are in the process of settling and adapting to life in sunny Cebu in the Philippines. We have been here for a little under 2 months now.

As is said "at the end of your life you will only hold regret for the opportunities you did not take, the paths you did not follow and the decisions you did not make". We have chosen the road less followed and are loving it. There is so much more to this life than your village, town, city, province, country and even continent. You can read it, but you don't understand until you experience it.

I am looking into picking up my breastfeeding support work in Cebu. Wish me luck.