week forty two-Bollobhpur

back on the home base, partners with Tiffany again! had a good week, went to a few clinics, worked the morning and afternoon shifts at the hospital and even went to ‘town’ to buy a few fun things for the team. things like ‘chocolate’ powder (not quite but pretty good when you got nothing), cereal, and we even found slightly melted kit kat bars for an easter treat!

wednesday i spent all morning and afternoon monitoring a labouring mom. around five we (nursing student and me) started walking her around the hospital yard. we’d walk her and then she’d have to throw up, then we’d walk her. (we did this to help her labour progress as it was going slow) we didn’t have to walk her long before we were walking her to the labour room. she got on the bed and by the time the nursing student could run our to yell ‘delivery’ to all her friends (so you get to have a small crowd watching you but its for their experience) the i had already delivered the head and body came immediately after! it was so nice to have a relaxing environment for the mom without the crowd and her to be able just to be in a position that suited her without having to have her knees up by her ears! and it was a little girl! my first girl in almost ten deliveries! both mom and baby were healthy and happy!

i was blessed enough to do two deliveries this week, my second being on saturday morning. a women came in at eight thirty who seemed to be much further along in her labour than the only three centimeters she actually was. she walked and stood and started pushing in the ‘labour’ area. i told the student nurse that we should bring her to the labour room cuz she was pushing, she waved her hand at me and said ‘no’. i looked at the mom again, and looked at Naomi who was with me monitoring another women and said again, ‘i think we should go or this baby will be born here’. the student looked at me, looked at the women, spoke something bangla to her and said ‘okay’. we walked her into the room at nine thirty and her daughter was born just ten minutes later! i couldn’t believe how fast she progressed. when i asked when she started going into labour the girls told me six am. this means she was only in labour for three hours! not impossible but highly unusual. so either their was a mix up in translation or she really did only have a three hour labour! pretty amazing.

Naomi did a delivery later on that day which was the opposite of mine. the poor women had been in labour since before four am that morning, she was fully dilated around two pm and started pushing but that baby wasn’t born until five twenty. i couldn’t believe the strength of this women and it was so amazing to see her and the baby both fine in the end. it was also nice that Nai, Bek and myself could be there to support her and encourage her. we could walk with her as she pushed (baby still very high up) and hold her in different positions so she didn’t get to sore or uncomfortable (as comfortable as one can be in labour). we earned her trust, especially Naomi who at one point was going to just go to check on something and the women didn’t want to let go of her arm. she was exhausted when all was said and done, but still managed a smile at the sight of her new baby boy!
our easter here was really nice! the night before we boiled and painted eggs as a team. we had to use permanent markers and nail polish as we had no paint! but they turned out beautifully! then sunday we had breakfast on the roof. some bangla food and also ‘french toast’ made with buns as we had no bread! but very tasty! we then read the story of the reason we celebrate easter, and acted it out as we went along. it was neat to ‘be a part of’ all that happened. we ended with singing an African song we remembered and then ‘Celebrate Jesus Celebrate’. we finished off our celebration with an egg hunt and a kit kat bar for each of us! it was a really fun day with the team. we even went on a house visit to see one of the nursing students families who lives near by. they fed us many sweets chatted with us as best as we could. her aunty actually speaks very good english and it was neat to chat with her about the beliefs of pregnant women in the villages. her job is to train TBA’s. (traditional birth attendants) mostly all women wear a black cord with a charm attached around their bellies, some very tight. this is to help protect the baby from being to big. they think if they tie this around their bellies the baby will grow upwards instead of out and it won’t be to big. there were other beliefs about certain foods that would harm the baby and that for twenty days after the baby is born the women is not allowed out of the house, i’m not sure why on that one but it is their belief.

so yes good day, good week! even a few cyclones which helped us have cool nights so sleeping isn’t too unbearable! next week i’m off to Karpasdanga once again for the last time, i’m looking forward to staying home after that but also looking forward to seeing Benuka again!

till next time...