Newest baby Elias! Twins!

The twins were born! Sister A called this morning to tell us to come in to see the twin delivery. I took this to mean, run! Molly and I both threw on scrubs and ran out the door. Of course Molly's entourage spotted us on the way out, and they called out, Molly! Molly! But we were running! Well, I was running, Molly was saying we don't have to run. We didn't, but it was fun.

When we got there, her most recent exam put her at 3 cm, but they had decided to augment her, and she progressed quickly. There was other business on the ward, including two other multips who were each at 7 cm, so we floated around, getting things ready, catching up on notes and progress made since we left at after midnight last night. I was on my way to check on someone when I heard my name-- twin 1 was already emerging! Molly was right there to catch him. When the mom and grandmother saw it was a boy, the grandmother declared he would be called Elias. I was honored! Molly took him to the warmer and I stepped in for twin 2. It took a few minutes for her contractions to come back, so we checked heart tones to make sure the remaining baby was okay. Then she started pushing again. Twin 2 emerged face up! Another boy! The grandmother quickly reassessed the situation, and decided that twin 1 would be called Moli and twin 2 would be called Elias, each after the midwife who caught him.

There were a crowd of nursing students in the room, midwives, and the consulting OB in the room, all thrilled to see another vaginal twin delivery. I have no awareness of who took the babies to be weighed and immunized ("scalem and stickem") -- I stayed to manage the placenta. The supervising Sister told me it was one placenta and I would manage it just like any other, and sure enough, one larger placenta with two cords and a chorionic divider.

The twins are adorable, clearly, and good weights (2.4 and 2.7 kg apiece). I caught up with them in the scale room and drew up the Vitamin K and Hep B vaccinations for K, one of the Australian med students, to administer to little E. Taking after the naturopathic midwife I work with in the States, I refused to jab him, lest he have negative associations with his namesake!

Quickly thereafter, two more women delivered. Molly guided Alex (another Australian med student) through that delivery and repair (and the family naming that baby after her), and I worked with K. The mom turned out to have a bit of cervix left, so I ended up holding it back to she could push past it, and that little girl was born quickly. This ended up being the first baby I bathed ("swim baby") and while I got her hair somewhat clean, that was all I'd seen done, so we'll see how well managed with the rest of the bathing and dressing. The only diapering accessory they have in common with cloth diapering folks in the US is the Snappi! (and the diaper cover, but here, from the day they're born, the babies wear giant covers that will last them at least a year).



Then we went swimming in the ocean at Eratap. Holy fantastic swimming. Go see the pictures.