Birth! :-D

WARNING: you might just want to skim part of this post if you are the squeamish type around body parts and birth. However, if you really don't care or want to read about it, you may proceed. :-D

So this afternoon while I was studying, a laboring woman walked into Shiphrah at 9cm. Karissa and I were up next, especially since Jennifer was at the mall, so we went into the birth room with her. Since I was the one assisting, Ate Larnie asked if I wanted to do the vaginal exam to check for dilation.

I gulped. Um...No? I've never done one before...

However, once the woman was situated on the birth stool, Ate Larnie gave me some sterile gloves and said, "stick your fingers in, you'll feel the head."

*Gulp* Yikes!

So I did. And I felt the head. And I was amazed at what it felt like.

Over the next hour, we sat and watched and felt the baby's head come closer and closer to the opening. The mom was strong and worked really hard.

As the head was finally starting to show, I was able to do something I've always wanted to do: reach out and touch the baby's hair as it is crowning (I think I've wanted to do that since the first birth I attended almost 2 years ago). Then, Ate Larnie showed me where to put my hands to slow the baby's head so as to protect the mother's perineum. It was amazing feeling that little soft head gradually be pushed into my hands. Its cheeks were so chubby as its face sat smushed as if there were a turtleneck around its chin! :-D

Then Ate Larnie took the head and pulled down and out to free the shoulders and the baby slid free.

It would have been totally beautiful, except I had been crouched on my knees in a hot room for the last 10-20 minutes. The last time I did that, I passed out. After the baby was out, I stood up since I felt like I was passing out. Then, in the flutter of activity after a birth, I quickly excused myself from the room. I made it into the study area before starting to black out in a chair. Thankfully, Jennifer had shown up by that point and she saw me and got me some water. I don't think I actually passed out, but it was close.

The whole time I was blacking out, I was thinking, "how do I explain to Ate Larnie that I'm not passing out because of the birth?!"

Anyway, they understood.

And in case you're wondering, I'm feeling better. :-D

And here's some pictures taken from today. Enjoy!

Karissa took this picture of me teaching Johannah how to crochet 

right inside Shiphrah 

outside Shiphrah 

outside our apartment 

please leave your shoes outside the door as we are now entering the apartment. :-D

inside the apartment. 

the room Karissa and I share 

outside Shiphrah, where prenatal classes are taught

the man on the far right saw me standing with a camera and suddenly shouted to the kids, "picture!"

random dog resting in the prenatal teaching area

adorable little girl playing outside

laundry

Martin

Karissa; people have asked her if she's a Catholic nun or Amish. The answer: neither. But it is kind of funny watching people's reactions to her. She's super respected out here. :-D

inside a birth room

popular mode of transportation out here

laundry hanging to "dry". Wet things take FOREVER to dry out here!

My little friend Johannah (on the left) and one of her friends

Bugs

As one might expect, there are a lot of bugs out here. Flies and gnats and mosquitoes are EVERYWHERE! However, I've found a couple bugs I haven't quite expected.

For instance, there's Stinky Pete in the bathroom. We have tried killing him multiple times but he escapes and hides for another couple days. He's a cockroach who likes to camp out near the toilet. Not a very comforting sight in the middle of the night... :-D

Then there is the spider Karissa, my roommate, and I found. He was 3-4 inches in diameter, no kidding. I told Karissa she could have the honor of killing him. Haha... That idea went far. Not. :-D The spider escaped back out the door. We found out that the door has a space where bugs can come in and out. Nice.

Another thing out here is the animals. There are cats, dogs, and chickens everywhere. However, Filippinos don't consider animals to be "man's best friend," so they're usually mistreated and sad-looking. A lot of them look hungry and have diseases. And they aren't friendly. I've gotten used to ignoring the animals, but I find it really sad, especially since I'm such an animal lover.

However, seeing the chickens wander everywhere is absolutely hilarious. :-D they wander all around, even into the birth center. Jennifer said one even wandered into the birth room during a birth.

Anyway, I've only attended one birth out here. Supposedly, it gets quiet whenever a new intern shows up and since Karissa and I showed up around the same time, it got especially quiet. There was a mom two nights ago whose baby I was supposed to catch but around 9pm she decided she wanted to go to the hospital. I'm not 100% sure why (and it didn't have anything to do with me, she didn't know I was the one going to catch the baby). I was a little disappointed, but oh well. Hopefully someone will come in soon (like, today...).

I've been taking some pictures lately with my iPod. I'm sorry that the pictures aren't great quality, but it's better than nothing.

Enjoy!

this little girl's mommy was getting a prenatal but I thought she was adorable. :-D 

this is Halo-Halo, which means "mix-mix." It has ube ice cream, ice shavings, unflavored gelatin, corn flakes, candied fruit, red beans, and whatever else they might have to go in it...Go figure. 

chickens wander absolutely everywhere out here. Here, they're racing around our yard. I've even seen them wander into the birth center a couple times. :-D

one of the midwives knitting a shawl. There's a lady who comes out and buys scarves and shawls from the midwives and sells them in several markets for about $60 USD

they have rather interesting ice cream flavors out here. For instance, this is ube and cheese ice cream. I wanted to buy it but it cost about $8 USD for 1.5 L. I don't need that much and I definitely don't want to pay that much! :-D

cheese ice cream. I'm really curious to try some of these flavors. :-D

our 4th of July celebration at Jeri's house. Even the hot dog buns were grilled! :-D 

candle to keep away the bugs

a S'more. This one belonged to Jennifer, one of the interns. She likes sweets so we like to tease her about it. :-D

Martin, the birth center's cat. He's very photogenic. :-D

Ate Grace checking her scarf

Last sunrise in Davao

Buntis (pregnant women), waiting in line to get their blood pressure taken

this is Ate Helen's baby,  My-My. She's absolutely adorable. :-D

Jennifer taking blood pressure. We take turns doing different skills so the day before, I was the blood pressure lady.

Jeri doing lab work. A lot of women out here have anemia so it's important to check their iron levels regularly during pregnancy.

Shiphrah!

Hi Everyone!

I am in Manila and am currently sitting in the kitchen/waiting room at Shiphrah, enjoying the fans, breeze through the open windows, and conversation with Jeri and one of the other interns. I got here yesterday afternoon and got "settled" in the apartment and met the other interns. This morning, there were prenatals and my "official' job was to take blood pressure. I took the blood pressure of about 30 women. By the end of it, my ears hurt from the stethoscope...But it was fun. :-D

Then I got the chance to help with the actual prenatal. I helped one of the midwives measure the fundal height (how many centimeters it is from the woman's pubic bone to the top of her uterus), feel for the baby's position (if she's far enough along), and listen to the heart beat. The dopplers out here are pretty old and I found them difficult at times to hear the heart tones.

During prenatals, the other two interns were at a birth. I'm next up. Hopefully a mom will come in soon...The last intern to arrive had to wait a week before a woman had a baby. That means that Shiphrah will probably have a lot of women all at once. That would be nice. :-D

I admit, I feel a little overwhelmed here since I have to provide for everything with regard to myself. For instance, I have to purchase my own water (since we can't drink the tap), toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. I'm also responsible to make sure my laundry's done. I've never been responsible for that before. For someone still feeling slightly jetlagged, it's been incredibly overwhelming. Supposedly, there's a shopping trip planned for this afternoon to show me where everything is and how to get it. We'll see...

I think it would be fun to close this post with the story of an interesting birth I attended at Mercy Maternity Center:

The mom walked into the waiting room, leaned against a metal locker, and gave a deep, guttural grunted. The student midwife asked, "Can you walk to the delivery room?"

In response, she grunted again.

The waiting room quickly turned into a flurry of activity as they prepared for a baby to be born in the waiting room. Then the midwife preceptor appeared. She did not want the baby born in the waiting room. So she had the midwives half-carry the mom to a bed where the woman laid down on her side and screamed with the next push. By this time, the laboring woman's mom had come in and she was standing right next to her.In the Philippines, it's very embarrassing to everyone if there's any sort of commotion, so this older woman leaned over and closed her daughter's lips to silence her. I'd never seen anything like it.

Anyway, within two minutes, the baby was out. He was pretty limp and white so he got oxygen. However, he pinked up within a few minutes.

When he was weighed, he turned out to be 4lb 6oz. He was so small and so cute! I was privileged to have been at that birth. :-D

Introducing little Jay-Mike!

Snorkel Fun

Now before anyone reading this starts getting worried that I'm not working yet, let me just reassure you that I'll start at Shiphrah on Tuesday July 3.

Dad and I got up pretty early yesterday to meet the Mercy girls and their families at a boat on the Santa Ana pier. We got there before everyone else and a little boy - probably around 3-years-old - walked up to us and began to beg. It broke my heart. He was absolutely adorable and it made me sad that I couldn't do anything for him except pray for him. He looked to be around the age of my youngest brother. It was hard seeing how different life can be for even little kids.

Then we went boating and snorkeling. This was the first time I had ever snorkeled and I really enjoyed seeing the colorful coral reef and all the fish and starfish. However, at one point, I was talking with one of the Mercy girls and we were standing on one of the reefs. Then, she shifted position and cried, "Ouch!" She had stepped on something poky and it stung her. I moved away from that area and stepped on something poky too. "Ouch" was an understatement. So we looked into the water to see what we stepped on. In several places on the reef we were standing on were rather large starfish-looking animals with needle-like stingers. And boy did it sting. I stayed in the water for another 40 minutes or so and the stinging never let up. Then I got back on the boat and it still stung. In fact, it stung until this morning. At least I can walk on it now.

Anyway, we visited one area called "The Wall." The coral reef extends pretty far then suddenly turns into a vertical slope and disappears from sight. It was pretty cool to see.

I really wish I had a water proof camera.

When we got back to the pier, we were surrounded by a whole bunch of beggars. They looked to all be under the age of seven. They saw us carrying bags of trash off the boats from lunch and instantly began asking for the trash. Dad was carrying two empty water bottles and one little boy made a really cute face and held out his hand. Dad handed him one and a little girl fiercely snatched the other one from Dad. It was sad watching the kids fight and beg for trash. Then, they snatched the bag of chicken bones from one of the midwive's husbands and began to greedily try to eat it. It was so sad. I really wished there was something more we could have given them but it's not good to give money to any of the beggars here.

Today, I was allowed to shadow some of the Mercy girls on the day shift. It was awesome and I got to see two births. I'll talk about it later, since I need to download pictures and Dad and I are going to the mall to get me a cell phone for while I'm here, eat dinner, and watch Spiderman (it opened a few days early here so I get to watch it before anyone in the US - nana nana boo boo :-D)

And for those of you who are wondering, don't worry, I'm not using any of the support money people have sent me for any of this stuff. That money is strictly for Shiphrah.

Sunrise from our hotel room

That really tall building is the Marco Polo hotel, where we are staying.

these ladies just came off of night shift but still wanted to come snorkeling!

Dad

Coconut

Me :-D

The boat we took

wish you were here?

Very incredibly annoying salespeople... Think: very annoying. I had to snap this picture on the sly or else they would have started trying to sell me pearl earrings...

The Mercy girls

star fish

As we were leaving one beach, this dog started playing tug of war with the rope attached to the boat