week forty five- Bollobhpur-Dhaka

this week has been so crazy. tuesday started off with two deliveries and another lady in labour that i was monitoring. that night i did a delivery just before eleven, a beautiful little boy. Celia stayed up all night with the other mom who was still in labour and came to woke up me and Naomi at five am and Naomi did a delivery right then! another women was fully dilated and i delivered her at seven thirty. but this delivery was a bit more difficult. the baby’s heart rate was up and down, sometimes dropping dangerously low. i had to go to the head nurses house to ask for a drug to help the mom have more contractions so the baby could come out faster. it was a bit of a struggle and me and Naomi praying like crazy for this little baby. there were charms on the mom’s arm and we knew she was muslim. we saw break through at seven when the heart rate went up to a normal beat and stayed that way till delivery! the baby boy was born with a strong heart beat but not a strong cry. it took some stimulation and prayer but we eventually did hear a little cry from him which grew as the day went on!

that same morning Celia did two deliveries back to back! it was pretty crazy, i was her second and was running around helping her take vitals as well as taking my mom/baby’s vitals. it was fun, but exhausting as well. the rest of the day was spent getting paperwork and laundry done. in the afternoon our team went to Karpasdanga to say goodbye to Benuka and her family. it was a lovely lunch that they prepared, extremely spicy! my mouth has never been on fire as it was that day. thursday we had a team meeting, prepared for our seminars that we’ll be teaching on healthcare and tying loose ends up.

that evening we had a ‘tea/biscuit’ night for the nursing students. about thirty of them showed up in our small house! we were constantly serving Sprite, tea, cookies, sweets and water to the girls that continued to come and go. it was a lot of fun, we danced, sang, watched a ‘Bollywood’ video and started giving away things we didn’t need anymore. the girls were really sad that we were leaving and kept asking for photos of us. i ran out of ones of me and Naomi to hand out so started giving out my family photo’s! sorry family, you will now be shown to many people in Bangladesh! it was a good night though and the power stayed on for the most of it!

friday we packed, cleaned and got ready to leave. it was a bittersweet day, we are all excited to move on and are tired of outreach life but have all developed relationships with the nursing students and are going to miss midwifery. that evening Sister Gillian came over and we got to learn more about her and how she got to Bangladesh. she is a remarkable women who has dedicated her life to her work and to helping these people.

saturday we woke up early, and packed up the van and were off by six am. it was sad to say goodbye to our new friends. some of them cried. some of us nearly cried. the drive was no fun at all but a lot shorter than our original drive to Bollobhpur. we made it to Rachel’s house just after one and were able to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and rest! the next day was going to be a full one of teaching for me, Naomi and Jen. the other girls were heading out to a different part of the city to stay a night to do teachings to a group of Pakistani women. full on work but really good for these women. i’m excited but also very tired!

till next time...