Catch #14 - Jasper

Isn't he a cutie?!  Jasper was born on 1/27/12 at 8:14am.  He weighed 3600grams.  The birth was a bit of a challenge for the mom, but she really did a great job!  Unfortunately for her the aunt that came with her had not been very encouraging all night.  She would tell her she needed push when she definitely didn't need to be pushing and was generally negative toward her.  That being said, she did bring us a bunch of bananas and say thank you for helping her niece.

She was a patient who was endorsed to us from night shift.  In fact, there were two labors that were endorsed to us and both were potentially close to delivering.  The other labor was slightly more active, so the supervisor left me with my patient and hurried to the other cubicle.  We are only separated by curtains, so updates are easily given.

She did start pushing early, however, she really did well.  So, with a little assisting from myself and the supervisor she delivered a rather large baby (for Philipina standards).  However, there was a 2 minutes should dystocia, so when the baby came out he had an APGAR score of 7 and needed deep suctioning.  Once his little air tubes were clear and we administered free flow oxygen he pinked up wonderfully!

And, this is my second suturing!  She had a small 1st degree and Ate Ana dutifully watched and taught along the way.

Can't wait to see him.  Hopefully they will be able to make it for their baby check tomorrow!!

 

Catch #13-Go Ernie Go!

Let's hear it for the bana!!  (bana = husband)

This birth was special in so many ways, so let me just try to summarize and highlight a few for you.  Every birth is a miracle, but this is a birth that He was so obviously present, although i doubted Him working sometimes.  We were on a time crunch because her waters had already broken. We are only given 12 hours to keep them and then we are supposed to transport them to the hospital.  Sometimes this makes things to stressful.

◊At 4:00pm we were going to have to transport for lack of progress, but one of the supervisors had mercy and said she could stay for 3 more hours, but after that no more! Off to the hospital she would have to go.

◊She did a great job exercising and her bana and her mother were super helpful!

◊At 6:20p she started pushing and we could see hair visible!! Come on Junior come!!

◊At 6:35pm Ernie Jr. was born!  So precious.  Oh, but did i mention...she was on hands and knees (a great position) and the bana caught!  Ernie caught his own son Ernie Jr.  Yay!!

It was fantastic.  So beautiful.  She worked so hard for so long to really bring about progress and it was hard.  She was tired, but she could do it!

What's in a Name?

Hello!

Ah, life is moving ever faster here.  Yet, there are moments of stillness and silence when the Lord's quiet voice is so easily heard.  On the night of the 16, over to the 17th i was on night shift.  Little did I know that the Lord would have a special blessing in story for me.  I was tired and thought that, really, the perfect blessing would be to have a quite night so we could all sleep!

  After sleeping for about an hour or so, a patient came in and it was my turn to check them in (and in 10 minutes we would all have a labor of our own...all 4 of us!).  If she stayed, she would be "my" patient.  At 2:15am we admitted her.  She was 6-7cm.  The only complication was her dates.  Either she was 34 weeks (thus premature) or she was 38 weeks and good to go.  It's a real bummer to be so off because it makes such a difference.  Based on other signs such as her fundal height (how big her belly was), the grade of the placenta (from the ultrasound - it was later in her pregnancy so it's not very reliable for due dates), and the amount of fluid.  So, the supervisor decided that we could just monitor her and see how things were going.

About 20 minutes after being checked in my little patient said, "Te, you are always the one i see.  It was you, then a Filipina, and now you are here again."  Then a contraction came, so she was momentarily distracted.  Then she siad, "Will you name my baby?"  Whoa!  This does happen from time to time.  Often they already have name, but sometimes they don't.  I agreed to be thinking of a name.

Over the next four hours i monitored her and she labored and slept when she could.  Then came shift change.  She had started to become very "pushy", but we always encourage them to keep breathing as long as possible to ensure the full dilation of the cervix.  Do to the unsure nature of labor and my great need of sleep I endorsed her to another midwife.  Ensuring my patient that my good friend would take care of her I went home looking forward to hearing the story!

At 11:30-ish that morning the midwife I passed off to texted me to say that the patient said i would name her baby so could i please text her the name.  Wow!  so taken a back. I had mentioned the name to her, but, well, it was a rather intense moment.  So, i texted back the name... Brandon Allen.

So, later that afternoon I was over at the clinic and stopped in to see her.  What a lovely reunion!  We had a wonderful time talking about her birth (no tears, controlled labor, healthy baby boy!)  She asked how I got the name, so i told her from my brother and my dad.  Her other son was named after her dad.  It was such an honor and a special occasion.  Thank you Jesus!

(pictures to follow)

Catch #12

Me, Gina "Ga-Ga", and Bernardo with baby Precious

Keen Precious Caroline

Keen Precious Caroline was born today at 10:50am.  She weighed 3100g.  Just a real cute thing.  Her mom did a great job.  She came into the clinic this morning at 6:10am and had her baby almost 5 hours later.  Quite good.  Ga-Ga lost a bit of blood, but that is very normal here, unfortuately.  We do give them prenatal pills, but Hemoglobin is always a struggle.  They have great resources here with veggies and the vitamins we give them, but it's still a struggle.  The result is high blood loss in birth.

Precious is another happy recipiant of a really cute baby blanket.  Her's is green with white stars, which matches a cute little white and pink outfit.  ok, it doesn't sound very cute written here, but it is!

We have more than just midwives that work at the clinic.  It takes many people doing many things.  We have office ladies who do an amazing job with all of our paper work and processing of birth certificates, we have two guys (one is the directors husband and the other is the husband of one of the midwives.)  We have guards.  Two at the front gate, which switch off on a 12 hour post for day and night, then 4 of "our own" then are employed by Mercy directly, not through an agency.  These guards are the ones who drive our ambulance, check patients in at the "desk" and retrieve the records and they do some handy-man things for us too!  Then, we have cleaning and laundry ladies.  They are so dear and do a wonderful job cleaning.

All of that is to say this last picture is of me with Ate Che-Che (a nickname, of course).  She only comes up to about my shoulder! hehe.  Love her!

Catch #11: Jassen Jeybre

Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Have you seen His blessings recently?

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day.  Even as my heart wanted to catch a baby, my mind couldn't handle the thought.  God knows what is most important and He has called me here, so each shift is really His, He knows what it will hold an it's perfect for that day!

We were on shift at 6:00am and at 9:05am after a couple other patients had been checked in (one was transported) "my" patient was admitted.  She was 7cm and already water broken (BOW Rup).  She started getting very active quite fast.

For as long as possible I encouraged her to breath, then when she couldn't resist pushing anymore she started pushing.  She did so well.  Her bana was very tender and helpful throughout it all.  At 10:04am a beautiful baby boy was born!  Jassen Jaybre was 3000g.

The reason this couple is so dear is because I probably won't see them again, except when their birth certificate is finished.  They live 2 hours away by bus ride!  I don't know her story, but her last baby was also born here.  Maybe she moved, but that part of her story isn't very clear to me (the language can be a barrier sometimes!)

Here are some pictures.  He's a cutie.  He kept sticking his tongue out, but the camera kept missing it.

Catch # 10

 Yesterday afternoon proved to be a bit exciting.  It had been a very quiet slow day shift with nothing on the board (where admitted patients are written).  Then, at 3:05 the world exploded. Not literally, but we did have a patient come in wanting to push, then just a few minutes later another patient came in too!  Eventually around 5:00 a third patient was added, but that's not my story to tell.

My patient was the first one to walk in.  She was familiar with Mercy because her first baby was born there.  She did a great job laboring, then at 4:06pm her precious baby boy was born! He weighed 3650g. or about 8lbs. 1oz.  And they named him Aaron Christopher (his dad's name is Christopher).  So precious.  i was privileged to be their attending midwife.  So dear.  

Here's some pics:

sorry it's sideways.

Aaron Christopher, 3650g

Prenatal Visits: "Clinic"

This is not a birth story, but it is an important part of the care that we give the women here.  Prenatal Appointments, or as we call them "Prenatals" and we refer to the shift as "Clinic."

Before the actual prenatal, the women are weighed, their weight is checked, we sing a couple praise songs, they have a devotion (we have a staff devotion time), then they hear a health teaching.

From the December 23 through January 2 we have had a lovely long break!  Oh, there were a few patients who were specifically scheduled to come during the break and have a prenatal check-up, otherwise, we took a break.  It worked out to be just a week and a half, which is very doable, and, Mercy was still open, so they were welcome to come at any time (and some most definitely gave birth!)

Today we had 90 prenatals of the 100+ scheduled.  Thankfully, the birth room wasn't too busy, so they helped a lot by seeing patients downstairs in the birth room too.  Overall, these patients were well established into their second or third trimester.  However, there were a few who had outstanding problems.

One had a large UTI (urinar tract infection).  The problem here is potential pre-term labor.  Another girl was only 16 y.o. and although she is still allowed to stay home and continues to work with her mother selling "Banana-Q's" (really delicious grilled bananas on a stick, sometimes dipped in sugar, then grilled so it's nice and crispy!) she still has a certain amount of shyness or guilt about being pregnant.  One women had a baby who was breech.  Another women's baby had turned, but had a tendency toward being oblique.

As with every women, they were prayed over before they left.  As usual, it struck me again what an amazing ministry we are given to take these women "into the throne room" through prayer regardless of their "religious" status.  We lift them up to the Father and give all their care to Him and entrust them to Him.

Wow!  May we always be reminded of the power and ministry of prayer.  These prayers are not elaborate, they are just what is needed and they are to bring glory to Him.  He is the One ultimately giving care, He gives the wisdom, and He is Sovereign.

Blessings to you all, may He give you a ministry of prayer, even as we know that the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf because we know not what we ought to pray.

It's a New Year!!

Happy New Year!! :) Honestly, I didn't stay up to bring in the New Year.  Although it's a huge holiday here they are not allowed to shoot off any fireworks.  They do shoot off fireworks in Manila, but that's a plane flight away, so we don't benefit from that.  But, we did take advantage of the evening and go out for dinner.  The strange part of that was that the mall closed at 8:30, so by the time we got our bill, all the servers had changed into their street close and were ready to get out for a night of partying.  None the less, we had a wonderful time.

Ah, but New Year's Day.  It was perfectly lovely!  The day could not have started better than with a double rainbow!  Can you see it a little in the picture?

it's nigh impossible to tell, but the rainbow just repeated itself making it a double rainbow. Gorgeous!

How perfect?  God reminded me of His faithfulness,

"I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 9: 13-17

Oh, how precious to be greeted in the morning with that reminder.  He closed off one year with His faithfulness and will be faithful through the next!  Wow.  The rest of the day was just beautiful.  My friend and I went to church.  Everything was closed, so we actually wondered if there would be church, but there was!  When I say everything, it was everything.  It would have been hard to find transportation that day.  The mall that is normally bustling with people that we pass on the way to church was completely closed, there were no vendors in fron, to triceys waiting for people to taxi...no one.  Well, the church was there, and we praised the Lord together for His goodness.

May the Lord bless your new year in Him, to be bold for His Kingdom and cause His Light to shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.

Blessings!
Kelly

P.S. Thank you also to that ladies of P4U Bible Study who sent a lovel box that arrived just a couple days before the New Year.  You have not only blessed me, but also the families who will get a little gift and the girls in the house with me. :)  Thank you so much!!