A wonderful day to whine. Part 2

Beth began to get everything ready as I ran to get our staff Rachel. We soon returned. “She is fully dilated, but I know her perineum will not stretch enough and certainly not soon enough. We will have to do an episiotomy.” But I had just looked, there no scissors, no cotton, no bulb suctions well not much of anything to work with really. So Rachel left to find some in the sterilization room and returned successful.

With every contraction we encouraged the mother to push, but her tries were not getting the baby's slowing heart beat out any faster. She was very tired and didn't understand how to push. Beth prepped her with lignocaine and on the next contraction picked up the blunt scissors and began the episiotomy. It started small, but the baby's head would still not come, she cut a bit more, but still no head, the mother just could not push the baby out.

I poured water from my bottle into the mother’s mouth between every contraction and pleaded for Jesus to give her the strength enough for just a few strong pushes. Rachel cupped the mothers sweating face in her hands and looked right into her eyes. “Mama your baby could die very soon if it doesn't come, please mama you need to push.” As soon as Rachel let go of her face her head landed with a thump back onto my shoulder as I held my arm behind her. I realized then that God had given her strength, it was us.

Rachel grabbed the Doppler again.... Heart beat slowing and fading. “This baby has to come right now.” We gave each other a quick glance, Beth standing with her hands guarding the mothers perineum, Me standing behind the mother helping her sit up and Rachel standing the in middle at the mothers side, nothing had to be said, we knew what had to be done next. As for the mother we reverted to the one thing that makes us feel more useful when we couldn't communicate and no one is around to translate.... We started to speak to her in Swahili.

I pushed the mother into an almost upright position and held her rag doll body up as I crawled onto the bed and emptied my over filled pockets that hinder my ability to sit. I wrapped my arms under hers holding her as if I was a lifeguard rescuing someone from behind. I pushed against her back with my chest and stood on my knees. I pressed my sweating face against hers I started to pray quietly by her ear as the next contraction rolled in. “Nooko, nooko, nooko, nooko...” we all started telling the mother together. As I held the mom up and Beth waited for the baby's head to come down Rachel got onto the bed as well and pressed her hands to the mother’s fundus with all of her might and body weight.

After three contractions with us pushing for the mother the baby's head appeared. Cord wrapped around his neck was clamped and cut as hospital protocol and with that the rest of his limp body slid out. We prayed as he was rubbed, suctioned and flicked... nothing... “Heartbeat?” I asked. Beth moved her two fingers to his small chest... “Yes!” He was rubbed, suctioned and flick some more, his eyes opened, and his small lips followed as they parted to let his cry past his lips.

We all let out the breath we had been holding. “Mama your baby is going to be ok!” We showed her the sex and after confirming with us that she did indeed have a son I laid her back down on the bed and took the metal pan from Beth that held the small boy's slippery body. I walked quickly down the hall to the newborn room, on my way I told the madams the name of the mother and they turned to jot it down in a book that is the size of the book of life. There was a lineup of babies. “This one needs oxygen!” I stated and so the other metal pans with babies were quickly moved to make room. He was weighted and I shouted the weight to the madams still jotting information down in the book of life.

I removed him from the cold metal pan and wrapped him in a blanket that was soaked from the blood, vernix and meconium of other babies. I grabbed the oxygen tube and turned it on, holding it close to his nose I noticed the student nurses standing with the baby next to me were just playing with the baby and not taking it from the metal pan. I grabbed the baby's pink tag from its wrist and saw that it had been born twenty minutes before. “Why do you still have this baby in this pan!? Go to its mother's family and get it a blanket now! Can you not see its hands and feet are already blue!?” “But it has no family here.” said one nurse said without moving. I Looked back at the baby's tag and pronounced the mothers name and allowed the students to correct me. I handed the oxygen tube to another nurse and left the room.

At the end of the hall I pulled the curtain aside to expose the crowed of women waiting. As soon as I said the mothers name I immediately caught the attention of three women. “I need a blanket!” I told them... they didn't move, but then again I didn't expect them too. I acted out a cold baby and tugged on the fabric of their clothing until they understood. They left quickly to retrieve one for me.

As I waited, a whole crowd of women fought for my attention asking me about their daughters, did they have their baby yet? Was it a boy or a girl? I didn't have to understand the language to know what they were saying... but then again I delivered a baby on the floor last time I thought that. “Only English.” I said and that was enough for many of them to lose hope in asking me more questions. Then I was grabbed and pushed out of the door way by a doctor in a rush. “Don't talk to these women!” She scolded me “You cannot tell them anything so get out of here!” I knew full well that it was illegal to tell the family members anything here and more than anything you NEVER, Never, never speak about the sex of the baby to them. I tried telling the doctor I knew that and I was only waiting for a blanket but she just pushed me back farther and said again “Don't talk to them!” And then she pushed past me and entered the labor ward behind me. Just then the three women returned to me with a towel and I walked away with it ignoring all questions they had.

I arrived back at the newborn room and wrapped the little girl in a blanket before handing her to the student who looked rather ashamed for lying to me about the baby's family not being there, really she just had not asked. The student buried her eyes into the baby's just waiting to be scolded as her instructor would of done, but I was not her instructor really I was only a student myself who was blessed to have grace in my mistakes. “Hold her close and keep her warm.” I said with a smile and turned back to continue giving oxygen to the baby boy.

After taking multiple sets of vitals, expelling clots, assisting with suturing, fanning women with glove packs, answering student’s questions, taking pictures of hand written documents for the paper work that would follow later and doing full baby checks it was then time to go. We changed out of our uniforms, pried students off of us, and went out to the street to argue with each rickshaw driver till we find one would not overcharge us for being white women. Once home I found myself dragging up the stairs just to plop down in a plastic chair and hold tightly to a box of juice. It was just after 3:00pm.

“So much for leaving at 12:30 today huh?” I mumbled to a fellow student plopped in the chair next to me. “Yea so much for that.” feeling every part of my body groan as I stood up, “Well breakfast was eight hours ago, who wants to get some lunch?”

Beth and I soon found ourselves sitting in a restaurant surrounded by only men. We ate the fried yellow rice and orange colored chicken as fast as our right hands could before slumping in the hard bench to let our food digest for just a minute before leaving. Both of us were exhausted. We chatted about the stress of the day, the demand of work and counted down the days till we had real beds and good food again. But then again we walked away from work knowing we made a difference. It was days like this that put us on the edge of our seats and made life an adventure. I smiled, “It's been a wonderful day to whine.”