We've had a rush on maternity services in the last week. Whenever things in that department are particularly busy, I start wondering what happened 9 months ago. The event from mid-January 2014 that comes to mind is a huge rainstorm we had that washed out several bridges and made the rivers flow so high that people couldn't get to work. The hospital was quiet because our catchment area suddenly shrunk down to the 2 miles of road in between rivers, but people must have been busy at home.
I had a particularly busy shift the other night. This beautiful baby was born in the middle of the night with a cord wrapped around his neck 3 times. God was protecting him from harm as his delivery was safe and normal.
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| Baby #1 |
This baby made a few more of my hairs turn grey, but is another example of God's providence.
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| Baby #2 |
We had tried to induce mom's labor the day before, but not only did she have no change in her exam as well as feel no pains despite us cranking up the Pitocin to the highest level we thought safe, but this kiddo also started showing signs of stress in utero after a few hours of provocation. After deliberating and thinking through every option I could for a safe outcome, I decided to call it quits on the labor induction, let mom and baby rest for the night and do a C-section in the morning. I peeked my head into the inpatient room around 1:30am when baby #1 was born and mom was sleeping, baby #2 sounded normal and not stressed out on the fetal monitor. Next thing I know, I'm being called on the radio by the student nurses who report that the baby's head is crowning! This on the patient who I didn't even think was in labor! The call came at 6:40am, at which time I was supposed to be meeting my running buddy for a morning run, but I had wimped out because of the middle-of-the-night delivery I had been up for. Providentially, this meant I could be at the hospital in 3 or 4 minutes rather than the 10 or more minutes it would have taken me to run from whenever I was on the road up to the hospital in sweat-soaked exercise clothes. I sped down the hill on my motorcycle instead, and ran into the room to find the baby's head out but nothing else. I literally pulled the rest of his body out and ran from the inpatient ward where mom had been resting for the night, over to the labor & delivery room where our newborn warmers and resuscitation equipment are. Baby was blue, not breathing, and not moving. The 2 student nurses and I got the resuscitation started with breathing for him and doing chest compressions. Just as I was wishing I had another set of hands, other missionaries began arriving. The student nurse on duty had the foresight to call a Code Blue on the radio to alert the rest of the compound while I was making my mad dash down the hill. Everyone pitched in helping continue the resuscitation, taking care of mom, and starting on the paperwork. After 45 minutes of TLC, baby was crying lustily and objecting to our pokes and prods. He went home today with mom, doing all the things newborns are supposed to do.
To finish off the night, which by now had turned into daytime, we needed to do a C-section on a woman who came in while we were still in the process of resuscitating baby #2. Here's the view from the operating room (ocean just to the right of the middle of the frame).
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I'm thankful for a team who rallies around any challenge, for hospital staff who are competent and helpful, and for a God who orchestrates even the smallest details to make sure people are in the right place at the right time to care for these precious little souls.
