Partos in Ecuador

Last night I had my first experience with births in Ecuador.  It was very interesting.
First, they don´t have any pain medicines or epidurals (or hot tubs).  The women STAND in labor.  Standing certainly makes it go a lot quicker (they showed me a graph of how much quicker). (However they do give birth lying down.... this confused a lot of readers.)

(A little ecuadorian boy is trying to distract me by typing on this computer, in case you see any funny characters.)

Once a person is fully dilated, they all yell ´PARTO´ and rush her to the delivery room.  I didn´t understand what the rush is for a woman with her first baby... I know it takes 2 hours sometimes.  Not with these woman.  They immediately cut an epesiotomy (PAINFUL, although they use some local anesthesia).  They don´t monitor the heart rate, except for once per hour, and they check the cervix EVERY hour, even if ruptured.  And no option for C section in this hospital. 

So overall, I liked the low technology, but it was a lot more interventional then I thought.

I came home and saw horses running through the street.  We had no idea why.