One of the Best Moments Ever!

When I first got to the Philippines and found out that the midwives knit, I figured they must get their yarn somewhere local, but I was wrong. A really sweet American, Darlene, imports the yarn and gives it to the midwives for them to knit scarves, shawls, and belts to sell. The midwives are constantly knitting.

One day I heard them all lamenting about how they couldn't have yarn of their own or knit anything for themselves because yarn is not present in the Philippines and they can't afford to buy any of their own work.

Then Jeri told me she was going to the US and I got an idea. First, I interviewed Ate Grace and Ate Bhel, asking them what everyone's favorite colors are. Then, I e-mailed the color list to Mom and asked her to pick up at least one ball of yarn in each of those colors for the midwives. Mom enlisted the help of my sisters in order to accomplish this and they bought each of the midwives two balls of yarn which Jeri brought back to the Philippines with her.

I picked up the yarn from Jeri last night and raced to SM today to get little gift bags. When I got back, I noticed that everyone was there and that all the day shift midwives and Ate Helen were about to leave.

"WAIT!!! I've got something for y'all!" I shouted, racing back to the apartment to grab all the gifts.

When I came back, everyone was waiting curiously. I handed out the bags and the fun began. Screaming and giggling and clapping erupted as everyone found two balls of fancy yarn in their favorite colors in the bags. While all the excitement was still high, I got them all together and took their picture.

It was so much fun! I love giving gifts like this. :-D

Enjoy!

from left, Ate Grace, Ate Helen (holding MaiMai), Ate Bhel, Maybel, Ate Lornie, Ate Lyds, and Ate Dina (Ryle, Roanne, and Johannah are in the back "row")

Psychological

Yesterday, one of my COCs had her second baby. While she was pushing, she looked at Ate Bhel, the midwife, and cried, "I can't push and have this baby without fundal pressure!" (Fundal pressure is a big thing out here which doctors do all the time. However, it's not very good for mom or baby.)

Ate Bhel tried to assure her that everything was ok and that she was pushing superbly but the mom insisted. So finally, Ate Bhel placed her hand on the mom's belly without putting any pressure. The mom responded, "that's not how the doctor did it!"

"Well the way I'm doing it is better," Ate Bhel replied.

The next contraction, with Ate Bhel's hands just lightly resting on the mom's tummy, the baby came shooting into the world.

Giving me a sly wink, Ate Bhel whispered, "psychological."

Whatever you do...

At a birth this morning, as the baby's head started to emerge, the dad quickly looked down and turned green. He noticed his wife about to look down too since she wanted to see the baby's head, but he, still slightly green, jerked her head up and shouted, "Nooo! Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK DOWN!!!!" 

LOL! 

Do You Have a Brother?

Yesterday, several nursing students came to Shiphrah to get experience with prenatals. At one point, I walked over to my bag, which was right where they were, and one young woman, probably about 21, said, "Ma'am, I have a question."

Me: "yes?"

"You're really pretty and tall."

Me: "...um...thank you."

She then flushes slightly and smiles, "Do you have a brother?"

Needless to say, she was quite disappointed to discover that he's only 15. Anyway, I was laughing pretty hard and we exchanged Facebook information. This is my kinda gal. :-D

In the Nick of Time

Last night I spent the night at the birth center because there was a mom in labor and I was next up. She is still in labor as I write this and is doing amazingly. She is so strong and perseverent.

Anyway, I was dozing off and on, going to check on her every once in a while then going back to sleep. At 5:43, the birth center's "door bell" started buzzing like crazy so I was quickly on my feet, pulling the heavy front door open. I could hear the mom before I saw her. She was about to deliver.

I didn't think we'd make it inside.

Anyway, we quickly moved inside the birth center and she stopped at the door. "Ok," I thought, "this is going to be an interesting birth."

However, we were able to get her into a delivery room and onto a birth stool. Within a minute of sitting down, her baby was born. She showed up at Shiphrah at 5:43, her baby was born at 5:45.

Then I found out she was a lady Karissa had been doing the prenatal care for.

Oops! Well, even if we had gone sprinting over to the apartment and Karissa came instantly sprinting back with us, she still would have missed the birth. But still, I felt bad.

Oh well. At least the mom (barely) made it in time! :-D

Department of Immigration...

Today, Karissa and I both needed to renew our visas...

Since Jorge left early today, Ate Helen took us to the Department of Immigration. To get there, we had to ride in a tricycle.

Filipino trike

On the way there, I rode in the side car with Karissa. It was a lot of fun, going fast on a bicycle with the cool wind whipping our faces...Ah....this is the life!

Anyway, when we got to the Department of Immigration, we did our best to fill out the confusing renewal papers and eventually were able to hand them to an official to be approved.

Then we found out the cost. It was 7,560 PHP (almost $200 USD) to renew it for two months! I was not happy with the price...Thankfully I had stopped at an ATM today or else I wouldn't have been able to pay for it...

When they finally granted me the extended visa, they also gave me a signed sheet of paper that read:

This is to certify that the name WILSON, DANIELLE RENEE born on ....... a citizen of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DOES NOT APPEAR in this Bureau's Hold Departure, Blacklist, Watch list, and/or Intelligence Derogatory Records as of August 24, 2012.

Gee, I'm so relieved! LOL.

Back to Shiphrah, we rode in another trike. This time, the only room for me was right behind the driver. So I rode on the motorcycle part side-saddle. At first, I was a little nervous, but then I relaxed and had fun. If given a choice, I'd probably ride side-saddle again. :-D

And as usual, here's more pictures!

my first COC to deliver! 

Abigail, the new intern, and Ate Bhel

Ryle, Ate Grace's son

helping moms fill out the paperwork before their first prenatal

Ube pictures waiting to be picked up. There aren't usually this many, but we've had so many moms deliver in the past few days...

stairs

Mymy! :-D

Brownie, one of my four-legged friends out here

he's incredibly sweet to me, but really nasty to the other dogs. Look closely at his nose - evidence of the fights he's been in. Crazy dog!

charred eggplant, cooked with egg and tomato. It's very interesting yet delicious!

birthing stools waiting to be used

hemostats and scissors

a cute four-month old who was at a birth 

she got an Ube pic too ;-D

Diet...

As most of you probably know, a big staple for Filipinos is rice. They can't eat a meal without rice. If rice is lacking, it's a snack.

Anyway, eating white rice twice a day started taking its toll on both Karissa and I. I started having sugar swings and crashes (not very pleasant - especially when you realize that diabetes runs in the family...) and Karissa started having problems with yeast.

So we sat down with Ate Helen (who cooks all out meals) and started talking with her about some possible dietary changes. With the type of yeast Karissa has, the only option for her is to eat nothing but vegetables for a week or two and then gradually introduce other foods. I decided I might as well join her on the diet but add in some protein since that would help cure me of my sugar swings.

Ate Helen was really skeptical about the new diet but decided if we bought the vegetables, she'd cook it.

We started Tuesday (yesterday). At one point, Ate Helen had a talk with me. She thinks Karissa's the only one that should be on the diet. So anyway, she called me over and asked, "How are you liking the diet so far?"

Being the first day, I said, "It's fine. I really enjoyed the salad for lunch."

She smiled and said, "Well, I'm concerned about you being on this diet."

Me: "Oh?"

Ate Helen replied, "yah. I don't want you to lose any weight at all on this diet because right now, you're perfectly proportioned to your height. If you were to lose any weight, then it would make you look really gangly and not-so good. So make sure you eat more than just vegetables."

LOL.

Then she added, "And I don't want your dad to think I'm starving you." (Ate Helen and several of the midwives met my Dad when he came to visit Shiphrah with me and they all really liked him and don't want him to worry about me - that's one of their main concerns about the diet.)

I smiled and said, "Don't worry. He won't be concerned about me starving."

Then, to top it off, Karissa woke up sick this morning and was unable to leave her bed for a few hours. To this, Ate Helen and Ate Dina nodded knowingly and commented, "It's because of the diet. Her body's sick because it's had nothing but vegetables for 24 hours."

Haha, these ladies are great.

Crazy Morning

This morning was perhaps the craziest morning I've had since getting here.

Of course, the day was Wednesday, a busy prenatal morning, and of course I was exhausted from not getting much sleep because of births and postpartum check-ups the previous 2-3 nights so of course I slept in that morning.

I woke up at 8:30 and flew out of bed, feeling bad that I was supposed to have been at the birth center by then (the midwives like it if we're there around 8am...). I hurried through my morning routine and arrived at the birth center a few minutes before nine.

When I walked in, Ate Lyds said, "there's a lady pushing in Room Two. We thought you would be here by eight so we didn't text you." Oops.

I walked into Room Two and Ate Dina, the midwife for that birth, said, "Hurry! Get your gloves on!"

I hurried my gloves on and caught a baby two minutes later. It was a beautiful, uneventful birth. I left the birth room at 9:20, knowing that Kari was waiting for me to start the blood work/dietary counseling. I sat down and then noticed that there were several women who needed their blood pressure taken. Since Kari wasn't totally ready for me at the moment, I quickly jumped up and started doing blood pressure.

After a few minutes of that, Kari was ready for me to come do the dietary counseling so I told the rest of the ladies in line at the blood pressure station, "Sorry!" and raced back to Kari.

I had time to do one dietary counseling before it was time to check on my postpartum lady (we do postpartum checks every fifteen minutes for the first two hours after birth). Everything was well with her and I helped her start to breastfeed.

I walked out and saw that there was another labor who needed to be checked on so I took care of that.

Then it was back to Kari.

Repeat.

Then, to top it off, during the prenatal teaching, it was about baby care so Ate Helen was teaching how to bathe a baby with a live baby who was born here yesterday. All the women were crowded into the waiting room watching how to bathe a baby and the fan wasn't turned on.

A woman in her first trimester passed out.

I was (kind of) watching Ate Helen bathe the baby while (finally) getting to sit for a second and eat a little bit of breakfast when I heard a commotion and saw three women trying to hold up a fourth, limp woman. So they helped her into a chair while she regained consciousness while I raced for some water to give her.

The woman was ok but it was rather startling watching someone pass out.

About an hour later, things were starting to slow down when I had my last fifteen minute check on my postpartum lady. When I walked back to Room Two, I noticed that she was standing outside the CR (comfort room - bathroom) looking like she didn't feel well and her husband had his arms around her. Just as I asked her if she was ok, she collapsed and passed out and her husband did his best to lay her on the ground. Ate Bhel was called and the woman was helped back to bed. I ran for more water.

Thankfully, the postpartum woman was ok too. But still, rather startling to watch someone suddenly pass out.

So we had two women randomly pass out this morning. It was quite the morning. I didn't get to do a lot of sitting, but it was fun. I enjoy racing back and forth doing different things and helping different women.

Kill the Spider...

As promised, here's the video Karissa made of me killing the spider. The first part is like a newspaper article, but then it switches to actual video. And please don't judge me by my occasional lame swings at the spider. I wasn't exactly too enthusiastic to have this job...

Anyway, enjoy! :-D

Spiders....

Out here, we have had to face lots of spiders. Normally they're very small and inconsequential but last night's spider was different. He was bigger than the palm of my hand. And he was in the kitchen.

Karissa doesn't like spiders, so she was willing to just go to bed and hope he'd leave. However, I knew I couldn't sleep with something that big just sitting on the ceiling of the house so I grabbed the only thing I could think of - Karissa's broken umbrella.

Two jabs with the umbrella at the spider did absolutely nothing so I ditched it and found a metal rod. By this time, the spider had retreated to the floor. I swung with the "metal" rod and the spider dodged the hit so the metal rod smashed into the floor. When I checked it, the end of the rod was bent. Something tells me this wasn't really metal...

Anyway, I eventually cornered the spider behind the couch and mutilated it. Then, Karissa and I didn't want to touch the huge dead thing so we left it behind the couch. We knew the ants would get it.

At that point, I turned around and saw Karissa had videoed the whole thing... Oh dear.

I'll try getting the video off of her camera and uploading it to the blog so y'all can watch it. It's pretty funny as every time the spider moves, Karissa jumps and the camera jerks and shakes.

Ube's Big Day ;-D

This morning, I was wanting to do something fun. Looking around the room, the only thing that looked interesting was Ube, contentedly sitting in his usual chair.

He became my victim.

Scroll down to see what fun Karissa and I had with him this morning. ;-D

Also, if you read this, please pray that the rain will stop. It's reached critical condition and there's going to be problems with the dam if it continues to rain. In other words, we're going to get a flood and a lot of people are going to lose their homes. This has happened before and it was really bad. Please pray that the rain will stop and that the sun and wind will come out since those will dry up the rain.

Ube's thinking

Studying

taking a nap

Ube came in for a prenatal. Here she's getting her blood pressure taken

Looking out at the rain

playing in My-My's walker

Getting her fundal height measured

Listening to heart tones - don't ask

feeling for the baby's position

...having a baby... 

meeting her baby

bonding with her baby

baby getting weighed

baby's temperature being taken.

Deborah's kids sitting on a bridge. They're really cute and a lot of fun to babysit

Belly dancers at a pregnancy festival Deborah was asked to speak at. They were fun to watch

Deborah speaking at the festival

My-My!!!!

Let me see you do it!

One thing that happens quite frequently out here is that the dads get frustrated and embarrassed if the moms push for a long time or make noises when they push. They believe because she's showing "weakness" that she is shaming herself and him. So quite often, the dads will click their tongues or gives exasperated sighs. It's really annoying for me.

The last time a dad did that, I couldn't help but think, "listen, buddy. Let me stick a watermelon up you and watch you push it out. Let's see how effective and quiet you are!"

However, I remained serene and calm, quietly catching the strong mother's baby a few minutes later.

Ate Grace and the baby I caught - photo taken by Deborah for Help Intl Ministries 

LOL...Oops!

So Karissa and I have a long (ok, one month) history of delayed texts to each other. In other words, one of us will send a text and it takes at least 10 minutes for the other person to get it. And today, that became kind of bad.

In order to understand this story, let me just mention that our bathroom door is sticky. At certain times of the day, it's nearly impossible to open and close. When it's like that, I don't shut it all the way. However, Karissa does.

While showing the midwives pictures of my family at the birth center, my cell phone rang. However, I have never received a call on my cell phone, so I didn't realize it was mine until it was done ringing. Then I realized whose cell it was and checked it. It said Karissa called me.

I tried calling her back but the reception was too bad. Excusing myself, I walked over to the apartment, expecting her to be there. I opened the door but didn't see her and the light was out. I was slightly concerned, wondering where she was. Nevertheless, I called for her a couple times really loudly in case she was somewhere in the apartment.

Then I heard, "Hey! Help! I'm in here!"

It was coming from the bathroom.

Yup, Karissa was stuck in the bathroom because the door wouldn't open. She had been in there for twenty minutes.

Thankfully, all I had to do was knee and push against the door really hard a few times to get it open. But the poor thing had been stuck in there for twenty minutes!

So now neither of us are probably ever going to completely shut that door again. And I never received her text until twenty minutes after I rescued her.

LOL...Oops. :-D

A Fun Outing

Yesterday, Karissa and I went to Mega Mall, which takes 30-75 minutes to get to, depending on the traffic. It is an *amazing* mall. I know I definitely want to go back before I leave and buy more gifts for people (yes, I was gift shopping yesterday, but I'm not saying who I bought the gifts for or what they are...*evil cackle*). It had six floors full of clothing stores, fast food places (who knew you could find Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, Wendys, and other American fastfood chains out here? And the ones I've tried so far taste like home - Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, and Pizza Hut), sit-down restaurants, a *huge* cinema, Imax, and more. It was crazy and I had so much fun wandering around and looking at everything. I think I probably drove Karissa crazy, especially at this one shop called Carolinas, which is like a mini JoAnn fabrics but with nicer stuff (I'll be returning to that store before I leave!).


After spending many hours at Mega Mall, Karissa and I went to visit one of her friends who is in the hospital recovering from Dungae fever (a bad illness which causes you to hemorrhage internally. It's spread through mosquitoes). In order to get to the hospital, we had to catch a train. However, we couldn't find the train station so we asked a security guard where it was. He pointed us in a direction and said, "That way." 


We went that way until we couldn't go any farther and asked another security guard where it was. He pointed us in the opposite direction and said, "That way."


Eight security guards later, we *finally* found the train station. Except by that point, it was 6:30 in the evening so everyone was going home from work. The station and the trains were packed with people. I have never been so squished. Let's just say, if the train had gotten into an accident, no one would have gotten hurt because no one would have been able to move. It was that tight in there. 


Then we had to catch a second train and talked to four more security guards in the process. This train was less crowded. Once we got off the train, we weren't sure where to catch a taxi to get to the hospital (a jeepney would have been too overwhelming at that point) so we talked to two more security guards. We didn't get to the hospital until sometime after 7:30 and spent about fifteen minutes there. 


The hospital was a private hospital so it was one of the nicer ones in the Philippines. However, it was still nothing compared to hospitals in the US. For instance, there were four people per room. And there was no privacy. No sheets/curtains/dividers, nothing. Just four beds lined up along the wall with four patients in them. It was pretty sad and makes one very thankful for the privacy of American hospitals. 


Going back to Mega Mall, we only talked to one security guard. But this time was the funniest. As we walked up to him, he got this big, proud smile on his face, and quickly glanced at his buddies to make sure they noticed that two white girls were walking up to him. Then, when Karissa asked to make sure we were on the right side of the tracks, he puffed up. I mean, he was very obviously pleased that we were asking him for help. He literally puffed up with importance right in front of us. The moment we turned away, we both burst out laughing. It was so hilarious! I wish I had gotten video of it for y'all to see.

Anyway, long story short, we didn't arrive back at our apartment until after 10pm...We left at 1:30 in the afternoon and were gone until 10. And we were walking most of the time. My feet and shoulders were so sore! But it was fun and I got to see a lot more of Manila. Now I'm ready to spend several more days at the birth center, hoping for more women to go into labor...There haven't been any for several days...Oh well.

Cuteness overload

Hi everyone!

Yesterday was My-My day. :-D In other words, I got to take a ton of really cute pictures of her. She is the cutest baby in the PI. :-D

Also, I caught another baby yesterday. So far, I've attended 10-12 births since getting here (sorry, I need to check my notebook to figure out the exact amount...) and have caught (or at least, helped to catch) 5-7 of them (once again, I need to check the notebook...). I absolutely *love* catching babies and am so excited to complete my midwifery training (in several years) so I can do this for (hopefully) a really long time. :-D

It looks like the births are finally starting to pick up. When I showed up, Shiphrah was at its all-time low with only 1-2 births a week. However, there has been at least 1 birth a day. Today, for instance, there have been 3 births (possibly more...I only know of the 3) and there is one more woman in labor.

At the birth I charted at this morning, a few minutes after the baby was born, the midwife, Ate Lornie, handed the little girl to me and said, "Hold it for us while we work on the mom." So I was sitting there holding the newborn and continuing to chart.

After a minute or so, Ate Bhel (who is an *amazing* midwife - I absolutely love her!) peeked into the room quickly and started laughing. I looked up. "Oh, Danielle! For a minute I thought you were breastfeeding that baby! Hee hee hee!" Ate Bhel loves to laugh, which is one of the things I love about her. The other night when I was returning from the apartment to Shiphrah, she and several of the other midwives and their husbands were sitting outside, enjoying the cooler weather. As I approached, one of the husbands (I think he's Ate Grace's) asked, "Danielle, how tall are you?"

I replied, "six foot one."

Instantly Ate Bhel and Ate Grace were on their feet, screaming and giggling, "I told you so!" They were so funny to watch! I love them all.

Another funny Ate Bhel story I have is the other day when I was wearing a really long skirt because it was the only clean thing I had (yes, I'm terrible at laundry... :-S) and Ate Bhel started laughing. "You know, if I were wearing that, it would be a dress! And yet you're wearing it as a skirt!"

Yes, I love these ladies. :-D

Ok, as the title promised, here are some adorable pics of My-My!

Jorge, Shiphrah's chauffer, playing with My-My

Sticky Subject...

Ok, you can mostly disregard the title. I was just messing with you. ;-D But this post does have to deal with sticking someone.

Today, Jeri popped her head into the birth room where Karissa and I were and said, "Kari (who runs the blood work during prenatals) is willing to teach you both how to do blood work, if you're interested."

Ate Bhel, who was the midwife for the birth nodded to us, "Yah, you two have time."

The first part of blood work is drawing the blood. Karissa went first to draw mine. She stuck my finger but wasn't able to get much blood. So she stuck the finger next to it. And still wasn't able to get much blood. Kari was watching and had me switch hands for which one to poke. Then she grabbed the needle-thing and stuck me again. I was poked 3 times! Thankfully, the 3rd one gave enough blood after some coaxing and pinching. (My fingers are still sore...)

Then it was my turn *evil grin*. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what I was supposed to do, having only watched it be done before, but I eventually poked Karissa. I was planning on poking her twice but was able to get enough blood the first time.

Karissa knew I was planning on poking her twice so she said, "Well, you can pinch my finger as much as you need to get the blood, but don't poke me again. I think it hurts you less since you didn't react when I poked you."

...Right....

Jennifer was taking pictures of the ordeal and I posted the pics on Picasa. You can see them here (click on the picture):

https://picasaweb.google.com/113112312516189518414/StickingSession?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIv70c6L3NnC1AE&feat=directlink