breathe for life | Mommy Adventures

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Waiting for the doctor

It’s so annoying when you have to go to the doctor. Load sick kids in the car. Drive 5 minutes down the road. Hope they don’t spew all over the leather interior of the shiny new-ish WRX. Wait 20 whole minutes the see the doctor of my choice. While waiting, read books supplied by the doctors office, that are probably filled with who knows what kind of germs, and have probably been in a million different children’s mouths. Oh, and read it out loud. With everyone else around me all silent. Sigh. Watch Hannah run wild around the waiting room, trying to open the door, rolling around on the floor, climbing on all the seats….

Once, she was in the seat next to me (for all of 2 seconds). Daniel was sitting on the floor in front of me, no longer content to sit immobile on my lap. I was leaning forward, making sure he didn’t fall and hit his head on the tile floor.

“Mommy, your butt crack is hanging out!” Hannah shouted loudly, in the silent, full waiting room. I can’t help it, all my pants are too big for me. That’s what happens when you lose 19kgs after having a baby. Yeah, I pretty much wanted to crawl in a hole. Instead, I just said “shhhh, use your inside voice Hannah,” and totally ignored what she actually said.

No one likes going to the doctor. But in this country, we can. Easily. And not just easily, but for free.

Imagine not being able to afford seeing the doctor. Or not being able to actually go because the doctor is 5 hours away by rickshaw, dodgy boat, bus and incredibly crowded train.

I take the kids to the doctor when they have a cold. Nearly every time. I’m all worried like that. Better safe than sorry I think. The doctors always tell me that too. They never mind.

But in Bangladesh, 4,320 kids are dying every day from pneumonia. Yeah, pneumonia. Something that is easily treated. They simply can’t afford to get to the doctor, can’t afford to pay the doctor, don’t know the signs of pneumonia, don’t want to travel all that way if it turns out to just be a common cold.

With support from Australians through the Vicks Breathe for Life Project, Save the Children aims to train an additional 1,600 health workers and village doctors who will provide accessible healthcare services to 135,000 children in Bangladesh. Save the Children will also reach 270,000 mothers and caregivers through the Vicks program, providing them with the skills to look out for the early warning signs of pneumonia.

As a mommy blogger, I was invited to the launch of the Breathe For Life Project. Yeah, little old (well, not that old) me. My first event as a blogger! I got to meet Natalie Bassingthwaighte (who is incredibly lovely, down to earth, and approachable by the way). Got to molest a cardboard cut out of Rob the Dentist. You know, from those Oral B ads where they can’t show his face because he’s a dentist? Yeah, that one. I got a goody bag full of stuff. I got to get away from the kids for a few hours and chat with a bunch of other lovely mommy bloggers. I got to learn how fibre is good for your health. I got a free dental check-up from Oral B. First time at a dentist in about 9 years. Yeah, horrible, I know.

Daniel did fine without me by the way. Apart from flipping out when The Jess tried to give him my milk from a sippy cup. Apparently he didn’t think my milk should come from anything but my boobs.

How can you help? EASY! For every new ‘like’ on the Vicks Australia Facebook page, they will donate $1 (even if you are not Australian, ALL likes get the $1 donation). For every Vicks product purchased in Australia from 1 April, until the end of the year, 1 donation will be made to the Save the Children Bangladesh project. And who doesn’t use Vicks? I love the baby balsam, and LOVE LOVE LOVE the vaporizer. That thing has saved me much sleep when the kids have a cold. Last winter, Hannah would wake up about a million times over night if she had a cold, but with the vaporizer on, she’d wake twice. At most.

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