First Day, Four Babies

Spent my first day working at the hospital. I was super nervous.... here all by myself, don't speak the language, not sure what I am diving into. There was nothing else to do but jump in, so i threw on my scrubs and headed over there. I hung back and observed today so I could get the flow of things here, they do things a little different from the meds they use to the way they chart. I kind of expected someone to walk me through it, and explain what I was expected to do but no one did, so I just watched everyone do it and took careful notes so that I can do it right in the future. There were four babies born on the day shift today. Apparently it has been super busy here lately, over 250 babies born in the hospital in Jan. Nearly a record. The first two babies today were born 15 minutes apart and the midwife was running back and forth between them, directing nursing students through the deliveries and I jumped to help everywhere I could. Then things calmed down for a bit and it was about time for a shift change when someone came in saying that there was a mom that was about to deliver in a bus outside. We grabbed a delivery kit and a wheelchair and headed out there. We easily got this mom from the bus to the delivery room but when the midwife broke her water there was thick meconium. We coached her to push hard and fast to get the baby out as quickly as possible. The baby came pale and floppy and it was well after a minute before there was an attempted breath. They suctioned her over and over again and tons of green gunk came out of her nose and mouth but she had aspirated some of the meconium and was in respiratory distress. One of the Chinese doctors came over to check her out and gave her an several medications but her oxygen saturation wouldn't climb above 65%. The doctor said he didn't think she would survive the night. First day,welcome to Vanuatu. I kept standing by her and talking to her as she struggled to breath and everyone scurried about trying to get the delivery room ready for the next mamma that was complete and ready to push her baby out. We moved the sick baby into the nursery just as mamma number four got ready to push. By this point I was more familiar with the routing and took the baby to be weighed and vaccinated and brought her back to her mamma to feed. At this point I was well past shift change and totally spent. It was an exciting first day and I am ready to have a more active role tomorrow.