Goodbye Eljoy and JB

Today I went back to Eljoy's house to see my little godson one last time before I leave. We had a great time again, and I got to meet more of their friends and family. We ate lots and baby James was awake the whole time so I played with him almost the entire afternoon. I was very sad to go and to say goodbye, but I love knowing that they'll be so special to me forever. We exchanged postal addresses, so I hope to hear from them in the future, and perhaps even see pictures of James as he grows up. We all agreed that we'd pray for God to bring me back to the Philippines at some time so I can visit them again.

Big Boys

November 20th turned out to be quite an exciting day in the birth room. I delivered the 3rd baby on our shift - John Carlo, to 25 year old Nancy. Little John was not so little...in fact, he is a good two pounds heavier than his older siblings were at birth. So he had shoulder dystocia on his way out. Shoulder dystocia is an emergency situation where the baby's shoulders cannot actually fit through the pubic bone. After the head comes, we try to have the body out in less than a minute. Little John's shoulders took us almost two minutes to un-stick. My supervisor had to do supra-pubic pressure (looks sort of like the Heimlich maneuver but a little lower down) while I tugged and tugged. Our chubby little boy ended up weighing just over 8 pounds (which is very big for here).

An hour or so later, Starla (a student) had a rather interesting delivery also. Elai and I assisted in her delivery of an even bigger boy (8lbs 3oz) to a Tes, who actually pushed out her baby while she was standing up and leaning over onto her husband. Starla just kept repeating "Slippery!" as she was trying to catch him. It was quite funny. His cord was wrapped around his neck once and his body twice!

We were very glad Elai was the supervisor on duty with us. We both love working with her and she's an awesome teacher and even more amazing midwife. The three of us made quite the team yesterday!

Malagos Park and Philippine Eagle Center

Jireh

This is Lily and Pastor Bernie, and their new son Jireh. The baby was born at 8 this morning, after a veeerrrry long night. I shouldn't complain..it was much worse for Lily than it was for me, but still...we all had a rough time. But, the little guy finally made it out into the world and we all rejoiced.

Just as a side note...I know some of you may be sick of seeing baby picture after baby picture, but you must understand, this is my life. I work a shift, then recover from the shift. Then I work again. So ya..these little ones are so incredible to me...sometimes I spend hours anticipating their arrival. Please bear with me! :)

Kyla Faith

This is Kyla Faith, born today to mom Josefina. She has two older sisters at home. I learned a lot during her delivery -- got to try some new things! I won't go into details, cause that's too graphic, but it was a great experience. Kyla took a while coming, but as you can see from her picture, she's telling the world she is A-Okay!

Rex

This is Rex. His mom, Nancy, is just 21 but his dad is much older. They are a very nice couple though. Rex has an older sister named Red. Cute, eh?

Prenatals

Every weekday morning we do prenatals here at the clinic. As a staff, we are in teams, and each team has their morning to lead devotions and singing, do a health teaching, and then see each mother one by one and give individual checkups. I am on the team that has Friday morning prenatals.
The mothers come to the clinic early on in their pregnancy to "sign up" for prenatal classes and checkups. On any given day, we expect between 50 and 80 mothers. After we are done with each patient, we schedule them for their next checkup. How soon they come back depends on how far along they are in their pregnancy. The individual checkups include palpating for the fetus' position, listening for heart tones, giving nutrional advice, giving tetanus injections, prescribing supplements, checking for abnormalities, and reviewing lab results.
I really enjoy doing prenatals - it gives you a chance to sit and talk to the women about their lives, their families and homes. They are mostly very excited to be having the checkup, and love to ask questions and find out about how their baby is doing.

In these pictures, I am checking Jaqueline (my godson's aunt) and her baby. She is 21 and this is her 3rd pregnancy - wow! I scheduled her next checkup for in two weeks time - that way I'll still be here and can see her again.

Agdao Market - A great place to hang out!

Around the Neighborhood

Sari-sari store.
Some homes.
Tricycads.

Home Visit

The other day I went to visit my godson, James (JB) and his mom Eljoy. JB was the first baby I delivered - and will always be the most special to me. His aunt Jaqueline, who is 7 months pregnant was also there. We spent the afternoon just chatting and eating - we had an excellent time. Home visits are definitely one of the highlights of my time here.

Jasper

This is mom Jane and baby Jasper. This little peanut weighs just over 6 pounds. It was quite a complicated birth..but all is well now. They have gone home and I will see them in a day for their first postpartum checkup!

Precious Jowana

This is a lovely couple - Rona and Hipolito Magno. Their seven-year-old son named his new sister 'Precious'.

Kisha Kate

This lovely lady is Fabing, and her new little daughter Kisha Kate. I just love Fabing - she is the sweetest lady ever. I had a wonderful time getting to know her and look foward to seeing her a few more times in the next weeks. She is always smiling!

Friends

It's really great having the students here. It's fun just to go out for coffee, or talk about things while we're on shift. They're all really excited to be here and learn midwifery. It's great to see their passion, and I'm encouraged to see their motivation. In this picture are: Carmen (Pennsylvania), Starla (BC --home!), Sarah W. (Edmonton), and Liz (who is actually an intern at another ministry, House of Jubilee - Pennsylvania). Nice girls.

My friend Lea

This is Lea. Some of you already know the story of Lea, this lovely 20 year-old who is one of my favorite patients from prenatals. Here, in these pictures, she had come in with early labor signs. I had been called in since I had committed to being her midwife (just cause I took such a liking to her). But we ended up sending her home to get some rest since it would still be a while before her baby was ready to come. Well, in the middle of the night, her water broke, her family panicked, and they brought her to the hospital. I was heartbroken when I found out, but I went to visit her that afternoon. She had a baby girl. All is well! I'll miss seeing her.

Three more babies

This is Nino Paul Junior, his mom Luz and his sister Paulina. A lovely family and a lovely baby.









This is myself with Arby (makes me want a good sandwich!) . I could not put any pictures of his mom on this blog because, well, they are not descent for all viewers. Rated PG13. Sorry folks. Arby is a little chunk. But very cute.











And this is baby Diane with her mom Lourdes. Lourdes had quite a tough labor. And I had to be the one to break the membranes while her baby was coming out - her water never broke on it's own! She has two other children and is 25...hmm...made me feel a little "behind".