This week: Watoto (babies!)

This week I have been in the OBS and GYN ward at the hospital.

Heather and I began Tuesday by simply walking right in and offering the “sisters”, aka nurses, shortbread cookies.  It is also fair to say we walked in with ONLY the cookies, lacking any previous knowledge or experience in labor. We shuffled into the labor ward and noticed that five beds were occupied, and two of the beds were taken by screaming mothers. The women are not given any painkillers in order to hasten the second stage of labor.  We had no idea what we were doing, or what was going on… so we stood around until one of the nurses snapped on two pairs of sterile surgical gloves.

An injection of oxytocin was prepared and a sterile pack was set on the end of the bed of the birthing woman. I stood at the edge of the bed looking on as the nurse half guided the birth. She wore a very tired, apathetic face. My face was lit with excitement and anxiety. Before I knew it the head was out, and the rest of the body was guided out in a short instant following the head. I felt a rush of indescribable joy and happiness that moment. It was truly a feeling I have never felt before. My body suddenly warmed toe to head, and I heard myself utter an uncontrollable “aw.”

I saw that child take his very first breath of air on earth.

The following day in labor ward a crying baby was slow to come. After about one hour of waiting, the screaming from the mama of bed three began. A baby was born. The baby had low muscle tone and was having difficulty breathing. The births I had seen the day before lacked complications, so when this blue baby was born I was unsure how to stimulate breathing. We rubbed that back of the child vigorously, before the nurse brought him to the newborn warming table. The sister used suction until she entered a suction tube down the baby’s nose and throat. The machine broke, and the nurse reverted back to manual suction. Final the baby was breathing well enough that they ceased suction and let the child lay under the heat lamp. It was clear that the baby was still having trouble getting air in and out of it’s fresh lungs. It was painful to watch the fight of this 15 minute old mototo. All we could do is hope for a happy ending.

Upon walking back into the labor ward we found the doctor who was in distress over a woman who had umbilical cord prolapse. Umbilical cord prolapse is a delivery complication in which the umbilical cord leaves the body before the infant. Because the umbilical cord is the fetus’s lifeline, without it the fetus will die.

This woman had to be rushed into surgery for an emergency cesarean section.

I SCRUBBED IN!

Thankfully I had a second pair of scrubs, thanks to Zigi for running home to get us (Heather, Zigi, and I) an extra pair. What we didn’t have were hairnets, so we used old cotton rags pictured below. We looked pretty official.

If I thought I couldn’t handle blood before, NOW I without a doubt know that I am capable of seeing blood… and lots of it. We saw handfuls of blood in surgery. The mama was first given a vertical cut sternum to lower abdomen. The second small incision was in the fascia, which was made bigger by ripping a bigger hole to make the uterus visible. The last incision was made in the lower portion of the thick uterine wall. The doctor quickly grabbed the baby by the foot (the baby was positioned breach in the uterus) and set her down for the nurse to take over. The nurse whisked him away and we heard a faint but audible cry. We all smiled and awed, thankful that she was healthy. Before the three layers of suturing the doctor showed us the woman’s anatomy (briefly). Looking at the tightly packaged organs was my favorite part. He also showed us the very full bladder, which was the reason behind the initial vertical incision. Next was the bloody suturing… three layers of it.

The doctor did a beautiful job. After the Ketamine (street name: angel dust) had worn off the patient was dazed but awake and healthy.

Heather and I saw the baby in the neonatal ward today, pleased to see it’s happy smiling face.

Today (lao) is Thursday. Our move tonight will be to club ViaVia with many other volunteers and friends! It will be lonely without our crew of 12 but we are anxious for the night regardless!