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!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
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…
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…
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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!
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!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
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!
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...
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