It's a girl!

Today was a fantastic day. I woke up and started my day with a few lunges and crunches in my little home. It felt good to get the blood pumping a little bit. This was followed by a failed attempt at french toast so I had the usual oatmeal instead and the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a long time. My French press makes a whopping 12 cup so I took my time enjoying about 5 of those. There is something therapeutic about having a 9am start to your work day and it’s especially easy when you live at your work place. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good.

I started in the maternal-child health clinic where I assessed a few expectant mothers measuring their bellies and listening to the fetus’s heart rate through an old school looking cone shaped device. I always feel like I’m back in the 1800’s when I use that thing. Then I registered a few babies while sister Gaudie administered their immunizations. As soon as we cleared the line, I walked to the main clinic to see if anyone needed help. The woman who was in a motorcycle accident a few days ago was back again to get her dressings changed. Emmanuel, the lab tech guy, was about to do the dressing change and I could tell he was relieved that I stepped in for him. She has 5 major wounds on her knees and all over her face. They have been improving pretty well considering all I have to work with is iodine and gauze to dress the wounds. (I’d give anything for some santyl or collagenase right now for all you nurses out there). I can’t communicate with this woman in words because she is older and only speaks Luo but I try and be as gentle as possible while I’m exfoliating the dead skin off her cheek and she smiles at me, knowing I’m doing the best I can. I’m not sure how far she has to walk to get to the clinic, but I know she has been coming diligently every day since her accident to pay approximately 50 cents (that she probably doesn’t have) to pay for treatment.

In the next room over, we have an 18 year old girl who has been in labor since last night. Her contractions started to become stronger around lunchtime and after her water broke, I knew it wouldn’t be too much longer before we had a new baby in the world! Now some of the Kenyan women I have seen in labor hardly make a sound and you wouldn’t even know they were giving birth until you hear the newborn baby cry. This birth was not one of them… Nurse Pheobe was on the business end of things making sure she was fully dilated and checking for the head to show up. Our mother-to-be asked me for water which she threw all over herself as she thrashed around on the bed. She almost pulled her IV out and she was clutching me for dear life with each round of contractions. Pheobe yelled at the girl telling her she was going to kill the baby if she didn’t push like she was supposed to. I did my best to comfort our new mommy by letting her grab onto me and helping her push with each contraction. After what seemed like eternity, we had a new beautiful baby girl!

Another mom had given birth on her way to the hospital, so after getting mom #1 settled in bed with her baby, I got to weigh and assess baby #2 while Sister Gaudie took a look at the mom. I think I was the most excited person in the whole clinic as I proudly announced that there were “two beautiful baby girls” to the people in the waiting room who understood nothing of what I said. The day wrapped up with a flashlight and tweezers as Sister Suzie asked me to take the “insect” out of her ear. Unfortunately it had crawled back into the depths of her ear before I could take it out. Now I am just waiting for the houseboy from the convent to bring me my chicken to slaughter for dinner tonight. My mouth is watering already. All in all, I couldn’t ask for more today.

Mom #1

Mom #2