Postpartums, rain showers, and catching babies!

Hello everyone!!

This is funny because they all just cram in! (jeepney)

So it has been pretty busy around here lately, I think that our crazy schedules are finally catching up with me! When I am home, I have been talking with my roommates or reading. Outings to the mall are always fun and I even got my turn at buying food for the house for the week from the grocery store and the market using our budget.

I got home one day to find a chicken in our bushes! She is our neighbor's chicken who flew over the fence and set up shop with some eggs. We named her Roxanne  to go with her rooster cohorts Rickie and Ronnie.

Roxanne!

We are not quite sure when we will tell our neighbors she is over here but she makes for some good laughs!

I made some banana muffins with some over ripe bananas. Even if we buy green bananas at the market, they are yellow by the next day and brown just a few days later. It's okay by me because I love banana bread. I was a bit nervous because our oven doesn't have temperature regulation. It is a gas oven and it involves regular checking on your food to ensure not burning it. My first batch got a little bit dry but were still pretty tasty. I made another batch the next day.

Baby out at 5:59AM Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, I helped with another birth assisting and postpartum care. This birth was another good one,  praise the Lord! This woman leaned on her bana (husband) a lot while on the birth ball. Baby was out at 4:59am and she arrived around 12:30AM and her bana kept falling asleep between contractions!!! Even when she grabbed onto him, he was in and out of sleep!

Wednesday night Tilly, Kelsey and I went on another adventure for dinner. We found a nice Italian restaurant at one of the malls and had a DELICIOUS meal! The owner lived in Chicago for 15 years and came and talked to us several times. He must have liked us because he sent complimentary appetizers over to our table and kept complimenting Kelsey's blonde hair and blue eyes! He assured us that if we returned, we would receive a discount. The food was FANTASTIC! Each of us paid about $8USD and that included our beverages too! It is pretty crazy to think that some people here cannot afford that and we thought it was such a cheap meal.

After dinner, Tilly headed out to get ready for night shift and Kelsey and I tried to get a pedicure. Unfortunately it was close to closing time so we just bought some nail polish to use at home. We both had grand plans to get home and hop in bed early but mother nature had other plans for us! While on our jeepney ride home, it started to DOWNPOUR! The Filippinos rolled down the plastic tarp on the windows but I had a bit of a struggle getting my part latched. One Filippina looked at me and smiled. She tried to show me how to do it but the plastic just wouldn't stretch in my favor! Kelsey and I busted a gut laughing! We hopped off of the jeepney at our stop but stayed at a roadside shop for ice cream waiting out the rain and eventually dashed to a nearby restaurant for refuge. We ran across the street after a while (in the downpour) to talk a tricey driver (a motorcycle with a cab attached) into taking us into our gated community. He was concerned because the rules say no triceys but our favorite guard was working and he let us in after looking both ways. Sometimes I think that we provide entertainment to these guards ;). I love our outings all together, they always offer so many laughs!

 This video displays the downpour!

Thursday the 21st: a day that will live in infamy!

Checking Tilly's baby

 I arrived on day shift in time to watch Tilly catch her second baby! I charted the birth and did the postpartum cares for her patient as she left. This was the last item on my list before I could catch a baby! My supervisor for the day was awesome as were the girls that I was working with. It was a busy day and I was helping with baby checks, postpartum cares, and other things while everyone else was busy with patients and other things as well.

Hyacent Mae! First catch!

The guard came in announcing a labor. (10:20am) Our supervisor looked around asking who was up. After she said it was her, she turned to me saying, "No. It's you!" with a huge smile on her face. I hardly had time to think about it as I gathered a BP cuff, thermometer, tape measure, doppler, and reviewed my patient's chart. I had admitted patients before but always handed them off when delivery was eminent. This was different, this patient was mine. I said a few quick prayers as my patient was in the bathroom asking for God's help as I began this journey and for a healthy and safe labor and baby. Since everyone else was with other patients, they talked to me through the curtains asking if I had questions. I monitored my patient's contractions and made sure she stayed hydrated. When my supervisor checked her, she was 6cm dilated. Since it was her second baby, we knew that she would deliver soon.
I stayed with my patient and monitored the baby and encouraged her to breath. Her mom was her bontay and was awesome at supporting her daughter during contractions. Kelly, another missionary popped in periodically to see how we were doing. I had her check my patient once or twice and baby wasn't coming just yet. The next thing I know, I looked and then looked back and 4cm of head was visible! Kelly kept saying, "Support the head. Support the head." I supported the head as it crowned and head was out! My supervisor was there by then and helped me check for cord around the baby's neck. There was a nuchal cord (as in wrapped around the neck but it was very loose). Mama pushed and baby was out! (11:49am) I held the baby and did a summersault with it to unwrap the cord. Baby's APGARs were good, 9 and 10! Baby girl!

I continued to do postpartum checks on my patient for the rest of shift, and did the newborn exam on Tilly's patient (all by 2:00pm). I also did a newborn exam on my baby and gave it Vitamin K, eye meds, and Hep B. I stayed until 3:00pm to finish up charting. Tilly and I visited Kelsey at the clinic and took some of our donated supplies and Kelsey a Milo Mix in shake from Jollibee.

Hyacent Mae! 6-21-12 11:49AM

Checking out Hyacent Mae

A happy Mama, Mai Mai and Hyacent Mae

We both caught our first babies in the same day!

Friday the 22nd
I had double shift at prenatal clinic, one day baby check on Hyacent Mae, and then swing shift 2-10pm. We had staff devotion which were very good. Sylvette shared a testimony about an event in her life and shared James: 4:13-15

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money" Yet you do not even know what tomorrow ill bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and to this or that."

It was such a great reminder as I have been thinking about what this next academic year will bring and beyond. I am so thankful for the things that these women have been sharing with me! 

Prenatals went well, I shadowed Ruth (another missionary) for two or three patients and then was given my own bed. I am  still working on my Vesyan (the language) so it was a little slow going but I was able to see 4 patients in about an hour. I am getting much better at palpating (feeling) the baby's position and only used a fetescope to find heart tones on Friday. This is good because you have to be more accurate about baby's position when using the fetescope than the Doppler because the Doppler can pick up the baby's heart tones through the placenta. All in all the fetescope is more accurate if you can find the heart tones. The youngest patient I had was 15 and the oldest was 36. The 36 year old's baby was breech but it was okay still because she was only 33 weeks and the baby had time to turn. I learned so much doing prenatals and even worked on my skills reporting patients at the end of the shift.

This is part of our morning worship with the patients.

One day old, Hyacent Mae, mama, and her brother!

I headed to the birth room around 1:15pm, to do my one day baby check on Hyacent Mae. They had not yet arrived and so I had some lunch, shared by a fellow midwife and received a text from my patient saying they would be late. I was not worried nor bothered by this because I had to be at the clinic until 10pm anyways and it is socially acceptable to be late to appointments. I had to have my supervisor translate the text though because it was in Vesyan. (".hi c micha diay ni i inform lng nq maAm cAseyn malate me but oN da way ne me dha..."- it says: I am just texting you to inform you that we will be late but we are on the way ma'am Casey). I did the baby check and told mama that her baby was the first one that I had ever caught. She replied, "So this baby is so very special to you?" Her face lit up and was so happy. I told her that I would print pictures and bring them to subsequent baby checks. She even brought her 3 year old son to the check, he was very olu-olu (shy).

Hyacent Mae, too cute  (Tim knows that I love a baby's crying face, it's just too perfect!)

Swing shift was pretty eventful. Three babies were born (two of which were born within 10minutes of mama arriving), a patient was sent home because she wasn't very far in labor, another went to join her baby at the hospital and another was transported to the hospital. This woman had simply come in to see if she was dilated but her vitals had gotten out of whack since prenatals in the morning. Her pulse was VERY high and baby's was very variable (high then super low). While the other midwives prepared her for transport, I sat with her mom and prayed and held her hand. The power of prayer and presence are truly remarkable! I could tell that the patient's mom was scared and so I sat with her until her daughter walked to the ambulance. I am uncertain the rest of that patient's story since I stayed at the clinic during her transport.

We restocked some things in the birth room and then the two fully dilated patients came in and delivered so quickly! We all pitched in assisting, charting, and restocking birth carts afterwards. It was a very memorable shift!

What a fun group of inspiring women!

Love,
Casey
Saturday the 23rd at 7:35pm here