Done with day 2

Wow. What a day. We spent 12 hours at Vila Central Hospital today, all day on our feet going between laboring, prenatal, and postpartum moms and babies. It was the equivalent to any sauna I have ever been in, hot as hell and humid. It was pretty challenging working that long in the heat and not taking the time to eat at the hospital or sit... so now being fed, clean, and laying down feels quite heavenly.

When I pictured the hospital and Vanuatu as told to me by the many midwives that have come here before me, never in my thoughts had I imagined it being so poor, and so dirty...and all the bugs everywhere, even crawling all over the hospital. It is so different from anything I have ever seen or experienced, and I am very grateful to have this amazing eye opening experience.

Something else I didn't expect is how friendly and kind everyone is. Almost every stranger we pass on the street say some greeting or start up a conversation. People are also being very understanding of my funny sounding Bislama, its getting better with every encounter I have though (hehe, only when people talk slow).

One of the births I attended today was a first time mom that had been in the hospital since the day before with SROM, she was contracting all night but mildly. I went to check in with her and she had had some bright red bleeding that had soaked a menstrual pad, I took her over to the monitor and listened to baby for a bit, she had more bleeding, quick slight drizzles. Then baby's heart rate was lost off the monitor and when I found it it was 50, I called in one of the head midwives to see about er c/s, baby's heart was still so low, about 80. After about 5 minutes without the monitor tracing baby, and my frequent checks finding 50-80, baby came back up to normal. I put an iv in, the dr came in, and said keep her on the monitor and if it happens again let me know, check her dilation in a couple hours. I stayed with her closely, mostly monitoring babe and giving support, she'd say to me "oh mummy it sore, so sore" and grab my arms, sometimes pulling me in to hold onto me during a contraction. About 2 hours after that scary as hell decel she started to push! We moved to the delivery room and had a lovely birth of a very healthy and strong baby (after an hour and 20 minutes pushing)! I loved that it all turned out ok, for many reasons (I felt quite bonded to her after our morning together), but her birth happened right after a mom who had decels to 70, a c-section, and a baby with meconium aspiration and apgars of 2 and 5. A good reminder how birth is always different.

Well, I need to get some rest before another long and amazing day tomorrow.