THE BIRTH

After many trips to the midwife´s clinic and checking many pregnant and sick women, we finally had a birth while Sara and I were there. It was quite lucky for Sara because today was her last day. It started with a woman entering the clinic sobbing... she had had many problems and pain during the night and she was terrified she had lost her baby. Ana immediately slammed the door and locked it so that she could take a look. The poor woman... she was already fully dilated. Ana and I rushed the woman into the birthing room and Ana proceeded to break her water with her finger. She then massaged the stomach and basically pushed the baby most of the way out herself. By the time the mom was told to push, I could already see most of the head. The baby came out... and it was sooo tiny. Obviously premature. It was also a little blue, but it had a good set of lungs on it. Ana started asking questions to the woman and demanding to know why she hadn´t come during the night when Ana could have stalled the birth. The woman said she didn´t think it was that far along. While Sara was told to massage the woman´s chest for increased lactation, Ana continued massaging the stomach until finally the placenta came out as well. This whole process, from her showing up til end of the birth, took probably less than 20 minutes. Ana started dressing the baby in the clothes provided... she explained that she did not wash premature babies because they need all the warmth they can get. When we weighed the baby, we realized just how bad a shape this poor thing was. She was only 3 lbs 6 oz at 8 months gestation. Ana handed the baby off to Sara and me so that we could wrap the baby in as many layers as physically possible. Ana continued to take care of the mother and demonstrated to us how to make sure all of the placenta is out and it is safe to say the birth is over. 10 minutes after giving birth, the mother walked out of the birthing room to the recovery bed with me carrying the baby behind her. We got the mother situated and explained to her and her husband that the baby needed an incubator and they had to go to the hospital as soon as possible.

I think I´m going to try and stay at the midwife clinic for a night next week...