Five children’s mother, Zin did not realize she was pregnant until she was already seven months along. She had been so busy with working twelve hours a day and looking after her four children that she did not have much time to care for herself. In addition, she had been sick with chikungunya (a mosquito-borne disease), causing her to not wonder whether she could be pregnant.
Newborn girl Wady was delivered on 6 November 2019 at Mae Tao Clinic. She is the fifth child of her mother, Zin who is 30 years old. Zin is originally from Bago Division in Burma/Myanmar but now lives in Myawaddy, just across the border from Mae Sot.
After she finished primary school, she started working in the fields as an addition to her parents’ income. When she turned 18 she moved to Thailand in search of steady employment. Since arriving in Thailand, she has worked at three different factories until she moved back to Burma. At her first job, she earned only 45 THB (US$ 1.5) per day even though she had to work from 8 am to 9 pm. As she gained more experience, her monthly salary increased to 10,000 THB (US$ 329). Nonetheless, three years ago she decided to move to Burma for her children’s education.
She found a job , working as a kitchen staff. The job is quite tough and hard to combine with family life because every ten days her shift changes from morning to night or vice versa. Her shifts are from 8AM to 8PM or 8PM to 8AM, with only 2 days off per month. Nevertheless, she needs a job in order to care for her children. Her husband remains in Thailand to work.
Zin did not realize she was pregnant until she was already seven months along. All the time she had been using contraception. She had been so busy with working twelve hours a day and looking after her four children that she did not have much time to care for herself. In addition, she had been sick with chikungunya (a mosquito-borne disease), causing her to not wonder whether she could be pregnant.
Yesterday, she felt contractions so she crossed the border and came to Mae Tao Clinic alone. Almost immediately after her arrival her daughter was delivered. Fortunately, there were no complications.
“I have been using Mae Tao Clinic since 2008. All my children were born at MTC: four of them in the old MTC. Although sometimes I used other clinics for antenatal checkups or family planning, MTC is the only place I trust and rely on that is why I came here to deliver my baby. Whenever I visit MTC I feel safe and I can see the confidence in health workers and energy around the clinic. I do not need to ask my friends or family to come take care of me while I am staying in the clinic as all staff are kind and attentive. Compared to the old MTC, new MTC is a bit farther but is spacious while good services of the reproductive health depart remain the same,”
Zin was sharing with us her experience with Mae Tao Clinic over 10 years. She was continuously smiling at her baby and us during the interview, that made us to feel happy as well.
“I really thank all health workers and donors of Mae Tao Clinic.”
We aim to ensure specific training for our midwives, improved clinical supervision and improved infection control in the delivery room. We regularly review the patients we referred and monitor our referral outcomes. Of 1,786 admissions to Reproductive Health In-patient Department in 2018, 1,651 babies were safely delivered at Mae Tao Clinic while 135 women were referred to other health facilities for advanced emergency obstetric care.
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