Crazy Day - part 2

Karissa and I finally got an night of uninterrupted sleep last night. It was simply splendid - except for some reason I was suddenly wide awake... Oh well.

When I woke up this morning, I discovered that one of Karissa's COCs was in labor so we vacated the room for her. I charted for the birth and one really interesting thing was that the mom sang. She sang during contractions, in between contractions, and even when the baby was being born. She was singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" as the baby slipped into the world. It was beautiful.

By that time, another mom had walked in and was ready to push. I gloved up and Ate Lyds and I caught the baby. It was a big baby - 3.2kg (normally, babies are 2-something kg.)

Then, just as I was heading for the apartment to re-fill my waterbottle, I noticed a car stop right outside the birth center and two men and a woman, very obviously in labor, got out and so I quickly led them inside. They were at church when the mom's labor started and they came straight from church so she didn't have her chart. Her husband raced to their home to find her chart while the second man, who turned out to be their pastor, stayed behind with the mom.

I didn't realize it was the pastor who had stayed behind so figured it was the husband. As I was trying to gather information on who this mom was, while she was in the bathroom, I asked the man what her name was. Except, I asked him what his wife's name was.

He gave me a very blank stare.

So I asked him in Tagalog, as best as I could.

His stare became even more blank.

I was starting to think, "ok, what language does this man speak then?" when Karissa laughed and said, "that's the pastor not the husband."

Oops... *hide under the rug in shame*

Anyway, the mom was fully dilated and started pushing. The pastor acted as her support through most of it, until her *real* husband returned. Then her baby girl slipped easily into my arms. The actual birth was unique (well, all births are unique,) because there was both a cord around the baby's neck and a compound presentation, where the kid's hand is trying to come out at the same time as the head.

All was well with all three moms and I attended a total of 3 births in five hours.

Also, I went through my records and have attended a grand total of 33 births and have caught 20 babies since getting to Shiphrah. Counting my births in the States as well, I have attended 49 births and have caught 21 babies.

Tomorrow a new intern comes. That should be interesting. :-D

this is Mangosteen - a very sweet fruit. It looks like garlic cloves, but is soft and squishy and extremely sweet. However, it's really good for you and is supposedly really expensive to purchase in the States. It's fairly cheap out here.

Crazy Night

A few days ago, I posted about the crazy morning we had (if you haven't read about it yet, click here). Well last night was just as crazy.

Karissa and I haven't really had a full night's rest in at least a week, possibly two, so we are both exhausted. However, because lots of women have started showing up in active labor at night, we've started spending the night at the birth center so as not to miss any births.

Well, last night was the bomb.

In the late afternoon, I caught a baby and then did postpartum checks until 9:45pm. Then I went to bed but decided since it was Friday night to watch a short movie on my iPod. Bad idea because I didn't fall asleep until 10:30.

Then at 1:30am, there was a knock on the door and Ate Grace said there was a woman fully dilated in room one. Since Karissa was next up, I was relieved to stay in bed and went back to sleep. The lady delivered a little while later and Karissa had postpartum checks until 3:45am.

Then there was more furious knocking on the door at 3:30am and Ate Bhel announced, "there's a labor!"

Since both beds in room 1 were full, this woman came into room 2. She was 5-6 cm but seemed to be progressing quickly.

Within ten minutes, another woman walked in, 3-4 cm.

Both women were in room 2 and Ate Bhel and I were monitoring both of them. Karissa was sacked out on the couch.

Everything was going just smashingly (though a little tiredly) when suddenly both moms were 10 cm and +2 to +3 station at the same time. In other words, both of them were about to have their babies right then.

Ate Bhel sent me scurrying out of the room to wake Ate Lornie and tell her we needed her. I got back into the room and caught the baby of the first lady. Then Karissa was called to assist with the birth of the second baby because Bhel and I were still busy with the second lady.

So within 12 hours, a total of four babies were born here. I've never seen all four labor beds full like that before. 

Now I'm really tired. Hopefully I can take a nap after lunch. :-D