February 2009 Prayer Letter

Holly Findley

Mercy Maternity Center

Newlife International School of Midwifery

Davao, Philippines

The past few months have been a time of stretching and learning to lean on God for strength. There have been several times when I felt that it was all just too much; that I could not handle one more thing. And then God gives me that one more thing and shows me that I don't have to be strong enough, because He's strong for me. Every day He reminds me that I can rely on Him for strength when I'm tired, and that He will carry me through each exhausting, long day. Without Him, I know I would not have gotten this far without giving up and going home. It's only by His grace that I am here!

Things are going well with studies and work at the clinic. The list of classes and assignments keeps getting smaller and smaller and at the same time the pressure seems to increase as we come to the homestretch. It's hard to believe that in July I'll be finished with school and I'll be heading back to the U.S. to take the board exam. Please be keeping myself and those in my class in your prayers as things are fairly high stress right now as we work to get everything completed in time, both academically and with clinical requirements. Over January and February we have been taking algebra, statistics, counseling, microbiology, midwifery laws and protocols, community health and out of hospital birth. Phew! I'll be glad when this month is over! I have to say that algebra was, surprisingly, my favorite of them all. It was a nice change to be able to be given a problem with one right answer unlike medical topics where there are varying points of view every place you look. Microbiology has also been fun… swabbing things around the clinic and the house and seeing what bacteria grows and looking at stuff under the microscope can hardly be anything but enjoyable! After this we've got a few assignments about medical complications along with a few other topics to cover.

Work at the clinic is going well, and I am beginning to feel more and more confident in my abilities as a midwife. I am learning so much on my shifts there and I am so thankful for the Filipina and American midwives who take the time to help us learn while also caring for the women who come through the clinic. Things have been getting busier at the clinic as we are increasing the number of patients we see. Every week we interview and do initial prenatal exams on 70-80 new women. This leads to the occasional, extremely hectic shifts in the birth room, but it sure is fun! And most days I would guess we average 3-5 births a day. Some days it's slow and I end up getting plenty of reading and homework done while other days I hardly have a chance to sit down.

One exciting event that recently occurred, was getting to assist at the birth of twins! It happened on a quiet evening. Nothing was really going on at the clinic. All of the midwives on shift were just chatting, doing some small chores around the birth room and enjoying each others company. When all of the sudden, a woman obviously in active labor arrives. We rush her to a bed and immediately prepare for what seems to be an imminent birth. There was such a flurry of activity when she arrived that we didn't even have time to glance at her chart (or else we might have known that there was more than one baby inside). We were expecting a large baby to arrive when to our surprise a little, pink, yelling boy was easily born into the waiting hands of Medea, a classmate of mine. Confused by the small baby, we felt her tummy to see if there was another one inside. And sure enough there was! I helped to clean and dry the first little one while Medea waited to catch the second one. About 10 minutes later, a second baby was born, just as pink and healthy as the first! It was by far one of the most exciting births I have attended and I am so blessed to have had the experience of seeing twins born.

I would greatly appreciate your prayers right now as I seek God's will for what the next step is. The program ends in July and then I'll be home to take the midwifery certification exam in August. My heart is to go back to Africa as soon as possible and start work there. God knows my heart though, and there is peace in knowing that He is in control and that He always guides His children when we ask Him to show us what He would have us to do. Pray that He makes it clear what steps forward I should make. Thanks for all the prayers, thoughts and support over these last months. It's what keeps me going!

In Christ,

Holly Findley

Prayer Requests:

• Financial support for living expenses, travel back to the U.S. and for the certification exam coming up this summer.
  
• Ability to better communicate with the women and overcome the language barrier
  
• That I would grow closer to God and have a deeper relationship with Him
  
• Health and safety while working at the clinic
  
• Strength and endurance for work and school
  
• Wisdom and direction for the future
  

  
  

  How you can help:
  

Prayer support and monetary support are both greatly needed. If you are interested in helping financially, you can send donations to:

Central Community Church

300 Tucker Lane

Cocoa, FL 32926

If you are interested in getting email updates, send me a note at hollylovesmalawi@yahoo.com. You can also see updates by going to my blog at http://midwifemissionary.blogspot.com.

Faithful

I'm not sure where to begin today. God has been so faithful over the last few months, it's hard to know where to even start. He has been blessing me and showing me His faithfulness daily and I praise Him for that. Every day He shows me again that He is my strength and that I really can rely on Him when I'm tired, or discouraged or overwhelmed. Things have been feeling crazy and busy and overwhelming and there have certainly been times of late when I really just did not want to keep going. But somehow, God always helps me get through these times and continue on. What would I do without Him?

One blessing that has recently come my way is that as of last week I have all the money I need to pay tuition in March! Now the only expenses I have left to complete school are my flight home and the cost of the board exam in August. Praise God for provision! Every time I have a big expense, I seem to forget that God has never once let me down before or not provided the funds I needed for something. But every time He shows me again that He is big enough and that He will provide for His children.

Now that the end of this program is in sight, I am starting to plan for the next step. Both Sarah and I have felt God prompting us to stop waiting, thinking, considering and to start taking the next step. While it is certainly important to wait on God to show you what the next step is, I think that sometimes we use that as an excuse when God wants us to move on and take that step of faith. Please keep both of us in your prayers as we begin moving in this direction. We both desire more than anything to go in the direction that God would have us to go.

Here are some pictures of what's been going on in my world lately

Chino's baptism- He's so big now!

Visiting Clouds at the hospital

Assisting at the birth of twins

Baby catching...

Oh my word, it has been forever since I last wrote on this thing. I am not a very good blogger. Well, things have been going good since I last posted... it hasn't been easy, but it has been good. Lots of difficult things going on, but God has shown Himself to be so faithful and it has been a blessing in spite of it all. I'm learning to rely on God even more than ever and He is making Himself so much more real to me and teaching me lots.

I'm learning more and more about catching baby's too and caught number 17 yesterday... or was it 18? I'm not sure. Anyway, it's been several now :-) I'm getting closer to the end of a huge intrapartum (labor and birth) assignment, and I will be soooo glad when it is over. It's starting to feel like a never ending assignment.

Swing shift last night was pretty crazy, and lots of fun. A grand total of five babies born, two other laboring mommas, baby checks and lots of suturing. I started out with one labor that I was responsible for.... then I got a second... then the second one started pushing followed shortly by the first labor pushing as well! Laura came to the rescue though and caught labor #1's baby at 4:44pm as I caught labor #2's baby one minute labor while Heather was finishing things up with the baby she had caught 30 minutes earlier. Here's a picture of all of us on shift holding the babies we all caught.





Please keep me in your prayers. As I mentioned, things have been difficult... a lot of spiritual battle being fought. Never a fun thing. God is changing me and the girls around me into prayer warriors though, and I know that we will be able to stand up under the attacks. It's never easy though and I covet your prayers.



Just a few pictures of what I've been up to lately....

catching up...

Wow, it's been forever since I wrote here! Things are going well... keeping busy with work at the clinic and school work. I'm officially catching babies now :-) I'm already up to 10 handles... already double digits! Most of the time work is exciting and fun, but lately there's been a few near emergencies and stressful situations. It's definitely been a huge learning experience and God has been so good and present with us during each situation that arises. Here are some pictures of my life here lately. Thanks for your prayers!




Sarah and I with babies we caught



Sarah and I this Christmas







Studying at McDo.... :-)

Birth room stuff...

Yesterday I worked swing shift (2-10 pm). It started really slow with all the midwives just hanging out and Janelle occasionally checking in on the one labor that was there. After a while though we had another labor come in and Lois took her. She had two children who were 18 and 16 who were her banti's (companions) for the labor. She did wonderfully, but when the baby came out a few hours later it was making some attempts to breath, but not being too successful.
So the midwives started helping it with oxygen and the ambu bag and we did an immediate transport to the hospital. It was my first transport of a baby like that and it was an adrenaline rush to say the least. The baby's heart rate stayed stable though and while we were on the way to the hospital the baby started breathing better and we were able to just give it free flow O2. From the looks of it, the baby should make it just fine. So, we headed back to the clinic and cleaned up all the stuff from the birth and then I assisted at the other girl's birth. It was kind of a crazy evening, but I sure did learn a lot! And thankfully that baby was ok. Praise the Lord!


P.S. I just got a text message from Sarah saying that she caught her first baby this morning! Congratulations Sarah!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now working on homework (well… maybe I’m procrastinating just a little bit once again) and there is Christmas music playing, and while I’m here in the air conditioning I can almost imagine it feeling like Christmas too! That will change as soon as I step back outside though.

I had prenatals again today. It was all brand new patients coming for their initial prenatal exam. It went pretty well. Initial prenatals always seem a little harder though. The babies are smaller and it’s more difficult to find the heart tones and palpate the position and then there’s always the one girl who believes she’s pregnant and then gets the sad news that she most likely isn’t. That’s always a disappointment, especially when you can see that they were really excited about being pregnant and wanted the baby so badly.

Sarah’s at work right now… and possibly going to get her first handle (catch a baby) today! I really hope she does. She’s so ready to. All the midwives at Mercy already are saying what a good midwife she’s going to make. What a blessing for God to have teamed me up with an amazing soon-to-be midwife!

Well, that’s all for today. I really should get back to homework. Yesterday, I was ahead of Sarah on the assignment and then she did a bunch of homework and passed me again while I was at prenatals this morning. Maybe if I’m really productive I can catch up to her again before student group tonight…

My Sunday....

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a nice Sunday. I slept late this morning and was almost late for church... but Sarah woke me up just in time to throw some clothes on and run out the door. We went to church with a couple of the filipina girls from Mercy and afterwards Sarah and I went to the mall and got some lunch. It was a nice morning. I'm really enjoying getting to be friends with these wonderful women who work at Mercy. Anyway, this is really short, but I really don't have much else to write about and homework is calling. Thanks for all your prayers everyone. God bless!

Procrastinating...

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, but I'm having a really hard time focusing and thought I'd procrastinate and blog instead!

This last month or so has been so full of stuff, I hardly know where to begin! Work at the clinic has been going well, and I'm beginning to feel a bit more confident than I had been. I'm beginning to really enjoy doing prenatals with the ladies. My team always does prenatals on Tuesdays and it's so much fun. I love talking with the women and getting to share in their excitement as the time for the birth approaches. I still sometimes have trouble palpating the baby's position and have to run and ask my supervisor to help me, but that's starting to happen less often than it used to, so I guess that's a good thing. And Ate (pronounced ah-tay and means big sister) Stef is so patient and an excellent teacher, so I am very blessed.

I had the wonderful opportunity of going on an outreach with two of my fellow students Jes and Tiffany and Josephine- a filipina midwife who works with Mercy. Unfortunately, Tiffany got sick on the first day and went home the next morning.

The first day of outreach was spent going around to the important people in the area and paying them a courtesy call. We talked to the mayor and vice mayor and then went to the health center where we met the head nurse, midwifes and the doctor who works on a circuit in the area and happened to be where we were that day. The following day the three of us went to a small health center to work with a midwife who was in charge of most of the health care in the area and got to see her clinic and the work she does there. It was not the day for the clinic to be seeing patients though, so we basically ended up hanging out with the health workers, cooking food and getting to know these wonderful, hard working ladies. One health worker, a lady in her fifties, decided that Jes and I needed some coconut juice and that she'd go put on her "short pants" and get us some. We just kind of chuckled at that, but sure enough, a little bit later I looked out the window and there she was climbing up a coconut tree! She came back with several young coconuts that we all enjoyed very much!

On the third day we traveled out to "kilometer 23" which was basically an area 23 K up into the mountains that a couple of the midwives had to go to in order to do prenatal checks and vaccinations. Jes had come down with something now too and was pretty sick. She was such a trooper! I'm pretty sure that I would have been complaining a lot more than she did if I was the one as sick as she was. It was pretty obvious that Satan didn't want us going up there. He tried several times to discourage us from making the trek. It turned out to be an amazing day though, despite Jes being so sick. The five of us (me, Jes, Josephine and two midwives) hired two men to drive us up there on motor bikes. Now, you're probably wondering how 5 women and 2 drivers fit on two small bikes, but amazingly it can be done! Josephine was perched very gracefully sidesaddle on the gas tank with me and one of the midwives on the back behind the driver. And Jes and the other midwife were on the other bike behind that driver. There were a few times when the road was really washed out because of the rain or landslides and we had to get off and walk a ways while the driver took the bike on ahead to safer road. Once we got to the village, we gathered all the pregnant ladies and women with small children needing vaccinations and did some health teachings and a short gospel message. Then we did prenatals on the women, ate lunch and got back on the bikes for the long ride back to the dorm where we were staying.

We traveled back to Davao on the morning of Thanksgiving and had a wonderful feast at the clinic with all the wonderful thanksgiving foods and of course rice! Because a meal without rice in the Philippines just isn't complete!

So that kind of brings you up to date on what's been going on with me lately. Nothing too exciting happening currently. Trying to avoid working on my Intrapartum (labor/birth) assignment right now and doing a good job at it! I'm a little behind where I want to be right now, but I really am enjoying this assignment, so I don't think that it will be too hard to get motivated.





Here are some pictures of the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Me and Sarah's favorite place to go when we need a study break! Yay for McDo!

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Clinic

Jes and Josephine

Doing prenatals for the women at kilometer 23

We decided that this was a good place to get out and walk...

Adventures?

Well, after all the adventures of last month, I guess things had to slow down a bit. After turning in the first assignment, I came down with a bad cough and a high fever and really didn't get much work done on the second assignment for several days. I also wasn't able to work at the clinic for about a week, which was kind of disappointing, but I suppose it's better not to spread my germs to minute old babies. Sarah was a life saver and took all of my shifts along with her own as well as taking care of me and working on her assignment in between. I'm sure she was relieved when I was well enough to start working again.

This last week was filled mostly with school work and trying to make up for days lost while I was sick. And I finally made it back to the birth room on Wednesday. I was very happy to be back. There were three labors there, and two of them started to push as soon as it was time for me to leave and go to class. That was kind of a bummer, but I guess that's just how things turn out some times.

My latest "adventure" was actually this morning, right here in the house. I had just gotten back from the computer repair shop (pray for my poor computer please!) and went up stairs to go to the bathroom and something must have happened to the door knob because as I tried to leave the bathroom the knob jammed and I was stuck! So I started yelling and banging on the door, but no one seemed to be around. After several minutes some girls who were outside doing laundry heard me yelling through the window and came upstairs to see what was going on. Those girls tried everything to get me out of there. They tried to fix the door knob, but that didn't work. Then they tried to take the door knob off, but it would not come off! Finally, after about 30 minutes, Janelle kicked in the door and I was free at last. I was very grateful to be out, as I'm sure you all can imagine!

Well, that pretty much brings you up to date on what is going on in my life lately. Please be praying that my computer gets fixed soon. It's very needed for school and communication home! Thanks everyone!

Content

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in writing. It's been quite a week... or month.... I can't believe how the time has flown by. Life has definitely been keeping me busy, I'm not even sure where to start!

Work at the clinic has been incredible so far. I've seen 8 births already and prenatals are so incredibly fun! I love talking with the women and getting to find the baby's heart beat and seeing their faces light up when they hear it for the first time. Amazing! And there has been no lack of adventure over here. If there isn't anything exciting enough for us midwives, then we tend to create excitement. One birth room shift when we had nothing going on, Tiffany ( a second year student) decided to practice IV's on the rest of us (well, I've got really hard veins to poke so I ended up being in charge of picture taking) and that ended up with Jordan (a classmate of mine) fainting and then while she was still out, she seized! Yikes! Thankfully, Carmen remembered something she had learned about how to break a faint, and Jordan was fine.

And the adventures don't stop there! Here's an excerpt from Tiffany's blog about another crazy shift...

The day shift started out pretty quiet; there was one labor, and Carmen had offered to graciously take her, because I needed to study for a semester exam. Her girl, Argielyn, delivered a 5 pound 3 ounce baby boy at 8:05 am. He was super small, but healthy and so so cute! Mom did a great job, and Dad was very proud of both her and his new son.At 10 am, Lois brought down a girl from prenatals who apparently was in labor. We sent her to the washroom, and I pulled her chart and began to go over it. Mary Jane was 19 years old, and this was her third pregnancy, although her second ended in a second-month miscarriage.I proceeded to check her vitals and the baby. Her pulse was high, as well as her blood pressure, but it was her contractions and the baby’s heart rate that had me a little worried. I couldn’t even palpate the contractions through her abdomen, but by her reaction and communication to me, one contraction was four minutes long! There was either something very wrong with her labor, or we were having trouble communicating. I was stumped. And the baby’s heart rate was a consistent 120. Normal fetal heart rate is 120-160, and although her baby’s was low normal, there was no variation. Most babies heart rates goes something like this: 136, 144, 144, 140, 132, all with fifteen second counts. Mary Jane’s baby was more like this: 120, 120, 124, 120. That was a little of a red flag, but we figured we’d monitor it to see how it went. She was also sporting a very small fundal height: Lois measured 29, and me 31…but either way, the baby felt very small.
I decided to do an IE; one, to see if she was truly in labor and dilating, and two, to get a better idea of her contractions. You can often feel the contractions better with an IE, as the bag of waters (amniotic sac) bulges tensely through the cervix during contractions, and is loose without. However, her IE was a little disquieting too. She was 3 cm along, which was great, but there was no water in her amniotic sac. I could feel the membranes, but no water between the membranes and the head. So, there were three possibilities: one, she had a leaking bag of waters that she was unaware of, two, she had severe oligohydramnios (lacking amniotic fluid), or three, all the water was behind the head. She was insistent that no water had come out, but it was still a possibility.
After her blood pressure had stabilized somewhat to 130/90 (still borderline), we decided to go to her house to get her husband and her supplies. Since she had been here only for prenatals, she had neither. At first, Ate Steph (my supervisor) was going to have her go alone, but she was beginning to react a little more to her pain, so she decided to have the ambulance take her. I asked if I could go along, and first she said no, then changed her mind. I asked if Holly, one of the new students, could come with me. She said no again, probably having flashbacks of mine and Holly’s last ‘home visit’, but with a pout and the puppy eyes from me, she also let her go. Sweet. I love home visits. I told Carmen where I was going, and she joking shouted out, “No boys this time”. This came from a the Filipinas joking Holly and I that our last transport had taken so long, because we had spent time at the girls house, flirting with her younger brother. Definitely not the reason we stayed so long…but you know Filipinas…they love love!Anyways, we all piled into the ambulance, only to found out that Mary Jane lives in Sasa, which is about 20 minutes away. Yikes. Oh well. What do you do?
The excitement started about 10 minutes down the road. I was looking out the windows, paying more attention to the scenery, when all of a sudden Mary Jane grabbed my arm, and gave me the whole, ‘this-baby-is-coming’ panicked look. I looked at Holly, wide-eyed, and proceeded to tell Mary Jane to breathe and focus. She could do it. I figured she was just getting active, and needed a little reassurance. However, the further we got from Mercy, the more frantic she got. She started holding her crotch and arching off the seat. That’s when I started to inwardly freak out. Those are definite signs of a baby coming! Especially in an already-mom! I yelled at Buding, the guard driving the ambulance, to turn around. Mary Jane, already lying on the stretcher-cot, sat up and yelled at Buding to keep going – apparently her house was close. We quickly got to her house, with me thinking “we NEED to keep going”, and Buding outside somewhere trying to find her family. (Later we found out that Buding had met up with a girl selling banana cubes on a little grill, and grabbed her by the arm, telling her to find him ‘so and so’, Mary Jane’s mother. The girl was freaking out, point at her burning bananas, but Buding just yelled, “It’s an emergency!” This is especially funny, because Buding is known as a very quiet, gentle man!)
Meanwhile, I managed to take off her pants and panties, and told her to keep breathing. Buding finally came back, and we turned on the siren and went on our way back. We didn’t have time to actually pick up the bantay, but only to tell them to meet us at MMC; I was hoping we’d make it back to the clinic. This all could have been avoided with a simple cell-phone text, but alas, Mary Jane had no cellphone. So, with Holly at Mary Jane’s head encouraging her, and me at the opposite end, we prepared to catch her baby.
With her next contraction, out came a very tiny baby boy. He literally slid out, so small he was. As predicted, there was no amniotic fluid at all, and thick mec to boot. I quickly began wiping the baby with the one wash clothe the mother did have, then grabbed her sweat pants to wipe off the rest. I yelled at Holly to pray, then I did what came to mind: postural drainage with stimulation, and when he still wasn’t responding, I did what ever midwife knows she has to do, but cringes at the thought of it…I sucked out the mec/mucous with my own mouth. But don’t worry, I spit it out afterwards! I didn’t get a whole lot, so after I sucked, I blew a little air over his mouth, just to help him a little. At this point, Holly was praying up a storm at Mary Jane’s head. The baby eventually gave a couple whimpers, and I almost cried. When I was confident he was more stable, I wrapped him in his mother’s pants and put him on her abdomen. The rest of the ride to the hospital was a lot calmer, with us reassuring Mary Jane and encouraging her to hold and talk to her baby.
Buding must have thought we were still in a state of emergency, because he was careening through traffic and for a minute I though I was going to fly to the other side of the ambulance. We eventually made it to the ER of Davao Medical Center in one piece, and with our siren blaring, we quickly brought lots of attention. I hollered at the staff to bring a blanket (she needed SOME coverage), and a stretcher. We quickly got her and the baby situated, and made our way into the hospital. The staff kept asking where the placenta was and how I cut the cord, and I kept telling them the placenta was still inside, and I didn’t cut the cord! The rest of an hour was spent checking her in, then being on a wild goose chase taking in blood work for her, since she had no ‘bantay’ (watcher). I eventually went back to the ER and told them I had to return to Mercy, and someone else would have to do the running around. They were definitely not happy, but I knew if I was any longer, MY supervisor would not be happy! I promised the Ob/Gyn doctor I’d find her a bantay, fast.
When we returned to the clinic, the first thing I said was, “I promise she was only 3 cm!” This brought many hysterical laughs from the Filipinas, known for their boisterous laughing. Holly and I had to recount the story hundreds of times, and were very high strung for quite a while… I couldn’t stop talking really fast and loud! I’m sure you all know what I mean! At one point Ate Susan walked into the birthroom and asked if it was a boy or a girl…”a boy”, I yelled! Carmen turned to me and exclaimed, “I said no boys!” We all died laughing.It wasn’t until after shift that I crashed, and had to go take a nap. And don’t worry…I brushed my teeth, and washed with Listerine!

Tiff and I later went to the hospital to visit Mary Jane and her little boy. He was on oxygen, but was doing fine. He ended up being a mere 3.5 lbs at birth! He was having a little trouble breast feeding, but he was very alert and I think that he's going to make it.

Outside of the the birthroom, things have been busy also. I just finished my first assignment for school. It felt really great to get that done. It was about a three week project to finish the whole thing. And, to our great delight, Sarah and I discovered that the nearby McDonald's tastes just like it does at home! It's a perfect study break for tired brains (not to mention homesick hearts).

Well, I think that I'm going to go find something fun and exciting to do while I'm in between assignments. Hope that everyone back home is doing well. I'd love to hear from you all. Thanks for your prayers!