Wanderlust

There are so many other terms for it.  I like to call it itchy feet and there’s this awesome song by The Be Good Tanyas that calls it the wandering blues.  

I get it about every two years.  That’s probably how we ended up on this quirky little island in the middle of the Caribbean.  Midwifery here is very different than on the mainland – some ways better and some not.  One thing I love is that everyone knows what midwives are and it is never surprising that your baby may be caught by a midwife.  Also there is an extremely low epidural rate, mostly based on the fact that women here don’t want them and have the inherent knowledge that they can have a baby without it.  There are downsides however.  Working as a staff nurse midwife at an extremely short staffed hospital where an old school hierarchy prevails means that I am responsible for nursing and midwife duties (sometimes both for one patient), a ridiculous amount of paperwork, and simultaneously have both a lot and next to no autonomy.  This is also a high risk population, one of the reasons being that many women do not receive adequate, or any, prenatal care. 

A little side note on my choice of working in a hospital.  I love out-of-hospital birth, but often those options are not available to the underserved populations – clients who are uninsured or have government insurance.  This is because many will most likely have to pay out of pocket to have a birth at a birth center or at home.  Before I knew about midwifery, I knew I wanted to provide good care to those who may not get it otherwise and that is why I choose to work as a staff nurse midwife at a hospital.

Wow.  When I actually type those words out, it is actually kind of reinvigorating.

But there are days when my feet get itchy and I dream of other jobs or other places.  When I was a new midwife and nervous I might accidentally kill someone, I would sometimes think – I could always quit and be a bus driver.  Sure there is a lot of responsibility in driving a bus, but there are days when you just want to do something else.  Recently I’ve been daydreaming about starting a bakery.  Or teaching.  My dream before we came here was to just travel the world, or work at a clinic in rural Honduras.  Some dreams are obviously more fantastical that others. 

I love being a midwife and connecting with women, not only is it a perk of my job but I actually (not to be too boastful) think I’m pretty good at it.  But unfortunately working can be hard (whine) and my father was right when he said as much to an idealistic 16 year old determined to always enjoy her career.

I’m not sure yet what the solution is yet but my 2013 Resolution is to stay positive and not bring the stress of work home with me.  I’ll expand that to remind myself why I do this.  I came to the Caribbean because they needed health care providers and in that situation you know there will be challenges to overcome.  And I guess when I can’t stay positive I will bake the sorrows away or go enjoy some of the plethora of beauty here.

Ha'Penny Beach

Enjoying our walk

Sunset off the F'sted Pier

Getting Back to Blogging...

So clearly I've been gone for a while.  It seems to take me about a year to get settled anytime I move somewhere new.  But I've still been baking and catching Cruzan babies and I'd like to start sharing that again.

I haven't really written much about our new home in the Caribbean so here are a few updates.  We spent the majority of our first year on island living in a one room cottage in the rainforest built into the ruins of a Danish schoolhouse for slaves from the 1800s.  Obviously very cool and very cozy, but unfortunately we were cohabiting with some natives to tropical climates - cockroaches and roof rats.  There was also a very startling encounter where we woke up to squealing, which turned out to be a frog being killed by a centipede.  Yes.  That happened.

The other downside was the drive - it took about 35 minutes to get to the hospital and a large portion of this was down a road affectionately called "Pot Hole Preserve".

So we started looking for a new place and found a larger, bug free apartment with a gorgeous view.

Along with gorgeous view unfortunately came about 5 minutes of arguably the worst road on St. Croix - and if you've been here, you'll understand how bad that is.

We love it though and the plus side to living up a rocky hill is that it sure keeps the traffic down.  Downside - it also keeps some friends with small sedans away and I have a fear that any future babies could get brain damage.  I guess we'll cross that bridge at a later date.

Other exciting news - in the spring of 2012 we went to our favorite farm stand to buy tomatoes and ended up adopting a kitten!  Fitzgerald, who was a mere 2 pounds when we got him, has now taken over the house and forced everyone, some reluctantly, to fall in love with him.  He is our daily alarm clock and entertainment.

Photo courtesy of Justin Shatwell

I hope to stay more consistent about blogging and post a little more about midwifery in 2013.  But my other passion - baking and cooking will also get plenty of attention.  I have a lot of recipes I'm excited to write about and more I plan to explore.  I have a new pizza recipe that I'm in love with that includes a special ingredient; plus I've been baking a lot of bread and experimenting with lots of Indian recipes.

Here is a photo of a Cranberry/Pomegranate Rustic Tart (with a rye tart crust) that I indulged in for Thanksgiving as a little preview.

 
Hope you'll stick around for the journey!