day 3

Today was a Muslim holiday. I woke up to the sound of the call to prayer. But it just kept going and going on for what seemed like hours. Anyways. We got to the hospital, and for some reason it was slower than normal. Because of the holiday? There weren’t many staff working, and not as many women in labor. It was still busy, but not as chaotic. I was excited to be able to spend more than a few minutes with one woman. I entered the room on the right hand side and Melisa called me over to a woman who was obviously in a lot of pain. She was very small and looked very young. Turns out it was her first pregnancy; 23 years old and she had been in the room on that bed since midnight. I went over to her and spent the next 2 or 3 hours with her monitoring her contractions and taking her vitals every half an hour. I made eye contact with her and encouraged her to take deep breaths while massaging her back and trying to coach her through the pain. When I noticed her getting the urge to push I asked her to wait. A nurse eventually came over and ruptured her membranes. The baby’s head started to crown right after that. Melisa came over to walk me through the delivery. Luckily we had everything prepped and ready to go. I felt confident. Everything went well and the mother did wonderfully. The baby’s cord was around the neck but we slipped her through it, around her shoulders and she was fine. She was crying and alert and moving around right away on the mama’s belly. I felt so incredibly proud of her. My heart leapt with joy. The look on her face was priceless. She was so thankful to have the process (mostly) over with and she kept thanking me. I was so proud of her. She did so well. I congratulated her and told her that she had done really well. Melisa let me inject the dosage of oxytocin into her thigh and then we began the placenta delivery. That was the tough part. It was a challenge to get it out because she was still very tight. It was nearly half an hour after the delivery when it finally came. I felt so honored to be a part of the whole process. Even cleaning her up. I wiped her and cleaned her off. Gathered the bloody khanga from underneath her. Put cotton and underwear on her. Helped her off the bed and wrapped her in a fresh, clean khanga. She did so well and I felt deeply connected to her after the whole process. I was really glad that the baby came before we left!