deliveries

1st delivery-

everything happened so fast and the baby came incredibly quickly so i don’t remember that much but what i do remember is that i was the first hands to touch that baby when it entered this world.. the first one to hold it.. and cut its umbilical chord. it was a cute baby boy that was very healthy and we had a very happy mother!

my 2nd delivery-

i remembered this delivery quite clearly and at the time wasn’t happy with the delivery.

i was doing the delivery and everything was fine, the baby came out quickly and successfully with the mother only having a small tear. most of the babies have meconium all over them (which is a sign that the baby is in distress inside the womb) but this baby boy didn’t have any on him which was a good sign. Amy who was working with me went to clean the baby and i stayed with the woman to deliver the after birth (placenta). it takes about 10-15 minutes for the delivery of the placenta to come out after the baby and i had sterile gloves on so i couldn’t touch or do anything until it comes out. the mother had blood clots coming out and lost 500 ml. of blood. i was getting nauseous, queasy and lightheaded and started to sweat but had to stay with the woman. i couldn’t look down because she had blood continually coming out and by this time she was in a pool of blood up to her shoulder blades and it was dripping on the ground. it also made it hard because i knew that she was uncomfortable but couldn’t clean up the mess myself because i couldn’t touch anything and didn’t think of asking for help because i felt like i was going to faint. 15 minutes later i delivered the placenta, cleaned her up and stepped outside to get air. i sat out there for awhile and then went back in to see how the baby and mother were doing. the baby wasn’t doing well and its breathing had sped up. it had an APGAR score of 7/8, the lowest out of all the babies we have delivered so far.

as we were driving back to the base in the dala-dala (bus) i thought about the entire experience. i was disappointed in myself, that i didn’t ask for help, that i got sick from smelling and seeing so much blood loss, and disappointed in the condition the baby was in.

There are many moments here when i find things to be overwhelming and often forget why God has called me here. i wouldn’t have a problem packing up my bags and leaving. One of the things that keeps me from doing that is looking into the faces of the women who are desperate to be comforted as they labour alone and knowing that if i can help make a difference in areas of cleanliness and bringing hope to a place of confusion, loneliness, pain and helplessness.. then at least i did something to help others and have God glorified through me.

it was an eventful first week in the hospital. we do rotations every 3 weeks in the hospital so i am there 2 weeks out of the 3 and the other week i am at the base going to the base clinic in the morning, preparing food, having a bit of time to reflect on the shocking circumstances of the hospital which has been good for all of us to get a bit of a break from the chaos.

this week i am at the base. when i was at the hospital last week i communicated with the women with only a few words that i could say in Swahili like ‘breath, very good, very sorry’ and thats about it. i will be learning more words in the next few weeks. With not knowing the language comes the fact that we don’t know how the women feel about white people being there assisting, helping and delivering their babies. Today, though, we found out from one of the doctor’s that the women were saying they really appreciated the care we gave them while we were there. this was exciting for all of us to here and know that they liked it when we were there. we knew we were helping but sometimes its good to get a reassuring response.

its good to be at the base this week and mentally rest from a lot of the stress of the hospital. i am over the initial shock of the hospital and am excited to go the next time because i know what to expect.