Delivery #21

celia, me and chantal on the way to the village! completely unrelated to the story below...

During my first week I was waiting at the hospital for a mother to do a checkup on but no women were coming or were in labour… so I sat and waited and waited and waited.. a few hours later a woman came on the back of a bike who was about to deliver..and I had the opportunity to deliver her baby.. I was really excited as I get on all deliveries.. but excited just by the fact that we sit there and wait for hours and hours for women to come who are about to pop and its one opportunity a week to get a woman and baby who need you..they come to us with their need and we are able to help deliver their baby to the best of our ability..

Helped her to the delivery room and did all the proper preparations..did a VE and felt that she had a swollen cervix so I pushed it back during contractions…but she was still taking awhile to push the baby out..she was exhausted and realized once the head came out that the swollen cervix and the chord around the baby’s neck was making it more difficult for the head to descend.

But the baby came out slowly but surely.. it was a baby girl and Bek and I got the name ‘Marta’ for her..which means compassionate spirit and prayed over her 1 Corinthians 13:13 “but now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”

Delivery #20

My first delivery in Bangladesh! I found it to be both rewarding and exciting to do a delivery here in this land that is so foreign and unknown to me..in some ways I feel like im having double culture shock.. I got so used to the ways of Africans that now I have to get used to the ways of another people it almost in some ways is quite exhausting..but fascinating at the same time.

It was my first day in the hospital here in the Desh.. we actually live within the compound of the hospital. I have afternoon shifts from 1-7pm and nothing exciting had happened all day. The people here are quite interested in us white people.. mostly because the area we are probably the only white people they have ever seen.. I know this because it’s almost like they don’t know how to treat us..we go to their internet café (which is one sad little computer) and when its time to pay the owner tells me I don’t need to pay..because friends don’t make friends pay.. im like I just met you when I came to use your internet.. they are a sweet people that want you to be their best friend and if they could they would adopt us to be apart of their family.

Anyways.. I had a slow day working at the hospital and it was 5 minutes till my shift was over when one of the nurses ran up to me calling and telling me there was a delivery.. I was so in shock that there was actually a delivery bc I had been sitting there for 6 hours waiting and the moment had finally come! I went into the delivery room and saw that she was all ready to deliver.. I realized as soon as I walked into the delivery room how differently they do things here from Tanzania.

They are so much cleaner when preparing the woman for delivery.. give her an enema which cleans her out and then we wait for the baby to come..because there are so few deliveries each week all of the nurses in training will watch the deliveries on their shift, so I had about 6 nurses all crowded around watching me do the delivery 2 assisting me with it. I was getting a bit claustrophobic and asked them if it was okay if I do the delivery. I thought it was already clear that I was doing the delivery, but I guess not because they were pushing their hands over mine. They backed off a bit when I asked which helped the delivery go a bit more smoothly. It took 7 pushes for the head to deliver, then the head came out and the body shot out after it and was glad I had a firm hold on the baby.. I placed it on the mothers stomach and it began to breathe.
They give no medication to assist with delivery of the afterbirth, so it usually takes a bit longer for the placenta to come out.. I had been waiting 20 minutes for it to come and it hadn’t detached fully from the uteran wall, so I went to do a set of vitals on the mom while I waited. As I was removing my gloves and washing my hands I turned around to see the afterbirth coming out and one of the nurses who had no gloves on had it in her hands! I had never seen that before because we always wear gloves.

The mother was doing great as well as the baby boy. We got the name Matthias for him which means gift of God. He was super cute and I loved taking pics of his different face expressions. Here is his verse… Psalm 118:21 “I will praise you, for you have heard me and have become my salvation.”

17..18..19..

this is a bit late.. but havent had the best internet connection here in bangladesh. so these were some of my last deliveries when i was in Tanzania..

Delivery #17

It was my last week in Tanzania and I was excited to do a delivery. We had just arrived there and went to go look for a woman who was progressing. I saw a nurse with one of the woman who was 10 centimeters. I asked if I could do the delivery and nurse was relieved I was taking over the delivery. The first thing I noticed about the woman was that she had FGM (female genital mutilation) but it didn’t prevent the baby from coming and the head was crowning. The baby came out quick and cried right away. It was a beautiful baby girl and was caught up in the moment. She was a perfect little girl with the cutest cry. i got the name Lauren for her which means “victorious” ..1 John 5:4 “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

This particular delivery really got to me as our intercession focus later on that week was on female genital mutilation in developing nations and as I remembered the face of the mom as she held her baby girl. She was beautiful as her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face as she looked at me with gratitude. I couldn’t help but think of the future of this baby girl and whether she would have to go through the same thing her mother did. I prayed and continue to pray that there would be education on female genital mutilation for these people and their communities. That the next generation wouldn’t have to go through the same thing their mothers did.

Delivery #18

This delivery was pretty quick..i came upon her during 2nd stage and the baby came out pretty quickly.. I think mostly because she had 8 previous pregnancies. She had a very quick and good delivery and the baby had an APGAR score of 8/10… she only had a blood loss of 50 ml. with a perfect perineum. I got the name Rebecca for her which means steadfast and faithful…1 corinthians 15:58 “be steadfast, unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord.” I prayed that she would grow to be an influencer and loner of her eternal father.

Delivery #19

This was my last day in the labour room and I came upon the woman in the morning.. she was really tired of pushing but I came back at 12:20pm when I saw the head coming. The baby was a bit flat on arrival and there was lots of meconium staining…so we did deep suction and baby’s lung sounds improved.. the baby had an APGAR score of 5/9 considering the condition of the baby when it first came out was not good. She expelled completely with no tears. The baby was 2.8 kg and I got the name Peter for him meaning “rock of strength” Psalm 62:7 “God is my salvation and glory” prayed that he would grow to be a man of strength in God.

you know your in the middle of nowhere when...

Hey! I havent blogged since I left tanzania a month ago.. the internet here is almost non existent.. we are in the middle of nowhere.. I don’t think I have ever had the opportunity to be as far from civilisation as I am now… heres a few things to give you an idea of where were at..

You know your in the middle of nowhere when…

-if you want a good meal, you befriend people so they invite you over for dinner

-the only dairy product is in the form of powder

-your listening to your ipod when a teenage girl comes up to you and asks the name of the foreign object in your hand that plays music

-if you want to eat meat, you have to buy a live chicken/fish and kill it at home (at least its fresh).

-you get excited when the electricity turns on.

-they don’t know what a washing machine is.

-you have to build a fire if you want to cook your food.

-your house is overrun by animals..birds build nests in the walls, bats in the rooms and bathrooms, huge spiders and cockroaches, rats in the toilet (tried to poison to no avale), cats and dogs come in when they please and monkeys chill out on the roof.

-everyone stares at you everywhere you go and if you stop for any reason you will have a crowd of 20 within seconds.

-you’re the first white person they have ever seen..

-there’s only one computer in the entire town, and you can only use it when there’s power

-you make children cry bc they don’t know what you are

-fastest mode of transportation is biking

-people bathe in the river as their social outing

-everyone laughs at you bc when you attempt to speak their language, you say everything wrong

-your easter brunch is french toast made from hamburger buns and the only thing to put on top is sweetened condensed milk

-you paint your easter eggs with nail polish

-its completely normal to pump water from the well outside and carry the bucket inside when you want clean water.

on another note...

I have been reading one of donald millers books and thinking about my life this past year. He talks about how life is better when its harder. He states…
“God is saying.. enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you. If one of the reason we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement. We don’t want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn’t remarkable, then we don’t have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants… if the point of life is the same point of a story, the point of life is character transformation.”

This has made me reflect on how although my year has been hard and challenging and not easy. When you make it through all that, the experience almost makes it worth it. Making it through some things you thought you would never make it through transforms us and makes us feel more alive than ever, because I know when I go home I will appreciate the things I never appreciated before..like opening up the food cabinet and having food and a stove that I can cook it on, like understanding people when they talk to me and them understanding me when I talk to them, like walking along the street and not having 20 people crowd around me if I stop for 5 seconds.. the things I grew up knowing but have now become a luxury bc I have realized how much I do have but then also learning how much I don’t need to be happy…content… stress free…

When I go home, I will probably want to grab people and be like… appreciate your life! Your life is so good ! you have it so easy…but now I know some people won’t realize this bc they are fed daily that you aren’t satisfied till you have the latest and the greatest and they will have to go through something hard and challenging to appreciate things and God beginning to show them areas they need to set right in their lives so they can begin living again.
thats all for now.. Bless you!

#15 and #16

Delivery #15
An hour later after Nigel said hello to the world.. I delivered Nalani. I had moved the first mom off the bed and hadn’t even been able to fully clean it when they put another mom on the bed.. I told them that they needed to wait until I was fully finished and cleaned everything off before they put another mom there..the hospital staff nodded and agreed with me but never took the time to clean off the bed..i didn’t have time to get frustrated or clean off the bed bc the head was coming and the next mom was delivering..the baby was still wrapped in the membranes but came out successfully and beautifully at 11:40am. I got the name Nalani for her which means from heaven!
Nalani’s verse… “You shall guide me with your counsel and after receive me to your glory.” Psalm 73:24



Delivery #16
Today I had an 18 year old Primi (first child). She had been fully dilated for 2 hours so they gave her oxytocin through a drip to speed up contractions which worked quite well. I had around 10 people watching this delivery since it had been slow all morning in the labour room. It was a textbook delivery (perfect) and a baby boy. He seemed to be in a good mood the entire time which I was happy about. 5 minutes after she delivered the placenta, she got up..cleaned up her stuff and was ready to go.. I had to race after her to get a picture with her and the baby before she drove off! I got the name Jason for the baby boy which means the healing one.
Jason’s verse… “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me, to preach

#13 & #14

#13
I remember quite vaguely this delivery it was a few weeks ago but it was a fun delivery! I was checking vitals on a baby and turned around to see a mom not making one sound but a baby’s head was coming out still inside the amniotic sac..looked like an alien! Since it was still in the sac it made it easier for the entire thing to slide right out and that’s exactly what it did. I only had one sterile glove on so I grabbed the baby with that glove and waited for my secondary to get sterile so we could continue with the delivery. It was exciting and quick..my favorite moments!
Delivery #14
It is my last week in the labour room here in Tanzania and I am so sad to go but also excited that I get to do some of the final deliveries. Yesterday I did 2 deliveries on the same bed! We arrive at the hospital ready work around 10:30 so I was monitoring one woman when another woman began to deliver. Since I was sterile I did the delivery. It was her 3rd delivery so I am assuming that is why it came so quickly…I looked everywhere for her records and they were missing. So I had no information on her and had to call one of the nurses over so I could ask her questions about previous history. She delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy at 10:40am and I got the name Nigel for him which means ‘consecrated to God’ which I liked since my name means the same thing. Prayed over him that he would be dedicated in all that he does and he would grow to know his heavenly Father.
Nigels verse… “I have set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.” Psalm 16:8

baby #14

kenya.

Kenya-
Last week was a trip to Kenya. Mostly to get visas but also to meet up with Janika who is an American married to a Kenyan . she lives in Nairobi with her husband Martin and their 2 children. Janika works with Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in the slums of Nairobi and we were able to go visit the slums and teach her valuable hands on skills since she is still in training to be a midwife. The first 2 days I was working out visa stuff with the Bangladesh embassy so I was only able to see one TBA the last day we were there. when we visited the largest slum in East Africa. We walked through poop and dirt and children excited to see white people…up down and through rickey homes till we finally arrived in the dark, quaint home of the TBA and what most people would call pieces of scrap metal put together to create 4 walls and a roof, they call home. It was quite dark inside seeing as there was no electricity or windows. we sat down with her and talked to the TBA how she was trained and how many deliveries she does monthly. She seemed like she was trained quite well bc every question we asked her she knew the answer thoroughly and seemed to take the right steps through a delivery. She had been working as a Midwife since 1982 so we figured that she had done 1800 deliveries up till now. It was an amazing experience.
As far as the visas go, Bek and I spent 3 days running from embassy to embassy trying to get visas approved. I only had one full page left in my passport and was hoping it would be good enough for my Bangladesh visa but when we crossed the Kenyan border they put a stamp that covered my last page. Bad news for me, but good news that they had an American embassy in Nairobi bc the 2nd day I had to run over there (2 hour drive) and get more pages put in my passport. After 3 days of running from Bangladesh to America to Bangladesh again..i got my pages..and everyone going to Bangladesh got their visas. Praise the Lord! Then we drove the 12 hour bus ride back to Dar Es Salaam and passed Mt. Kilimanjaro on our way back down. Africa is a beautiful place with beautiful people.