Written Tuesday May 31st
Wow, today was an amazing day. When we arrived at the clinic, Alto Caballero, we were told that there were two women in labor. One was a sixteen year old who was possibly pregnant with twins because her belly was huge and they detected two heart beats! Our clinic does not have fancy high tech ultra sounds only a Doppler to detect fetal heart rate. The other woman was a twenty year old who was pregnant with her first child and was not due for another month but was already 5 cm dialated. The staff called for the ambulance. I wanted to see a birth so badly, but the clinic usually calls the ambulance to take them to another clinic because they are more well equipt to handle complications. They said they rarely have births at the clinic, maybe about one every two months. Liz, Tina and I stayed with the twenty year old while she had contractions. We noticed that there was some liquid on her nagua (native dress) and we believed her water had broken. Shortly after we agreed that her contractions seemed quite frequent, so we began to time them. At first it was about two minutes and then it progressed to a minute and a half. We decided that we should tell the doctor because no one had been there to check on her in a while. When I told him, he seemed calm and just said "Okay." Were we making a big deal out of this because we had never experienced the birthing process before, or are we just anxious Americans?
The doctor came into the room about 5 minute later and examened her. Then he let me exam her too and I was able to feel the head of the baby! With the ambulance still no where to be found and the San Felix clinic still 50 minutes away, I knew then that this birth was going to happen at our clinic, and soon!
We helped her up off the exam table and more amniotic fluid came out. We brought her into the room that had already been prepared, just in case. We all piled in to the small room, and tried to make ourselfs useful. Liz, Suzi and I were holding her hands, wiping off her face and fanning her. J.J. (Hota-hota) and Matt were taking bets on if it was going to be a nina or a nino (and hoping not pass out). Victoria was getting her portable fan, Brooke was passing out gloves, and Tina was being our good luck charm!
The doctor came in and told us to help move her down on the table and put her legs in the stirrups. He had her push with every contraction. After about five contractions with little progress he asked for lidocane and numbed her before he cut her. I think all of our hearts went out to the mother at that point just imagining the pain. Then we started to see the head with the next few pushes. It seemed to be progressing slowly and the nurse said that she was concerned the cord was wrapped around the child's neck. After that was said we were all scared for the health and well-being of the baby, as well as the mother.
With a few more pushes the head came out. I stared to cry because there REALLY WAS a little person in there! He suctioned the nasal passages and with the next push they pulled the whole child out. The mother screamed louder than ever at that point. Una Nina! The cord was not wrapped around the neck, but she came out blue. She did not cry right away, at first maybe I was in blissful ignorance that, maybe, this was normal. But, when I saw Eloisa praying, I grew more fearful. It was probably about two minutes before she cried. And when she did, so did I.
She slowly began to get more color and Suzi helped with the umbilical cord and swaddling her. Meanwhile, I was still in the room with the mom. The umbilical cord was still hanging out of her and it just looks so foreign it is almost creepy. The doctor.clamped it and began to twist it around the forceps and slowly pull out. Eventually he pulled out the placenta. It was interesting to see this side of child birth because I feel like it is rarely spoken about or included in movies.
Being that we are in a tribal culture I think we were all a bit curious as to what the practice is regaurding what is done with the placenta after the birth. I know that some tribal communities will cook it and eat it because of how high in nutrients it is. Thankfully, the doctor put it in the trash, but I was also a bit disturbed when I let my mind wander thinking about where that bag was going to end up.
Matt was able to help the doctor stitch her up afterwards. He was thrilled and he said he could do that all day, although he may have preffered a different location. As they were stitching her up, the girls came in and presented the baby to the mom for the first time and the mom said she named her Diyana. She weighed 2.8kg and is a beautiful babygirl.
Needless to see we had an incredible day at the clinic today and the doctor told us that we were all really helpful and that we worked well as a team. Panama sure has been an adventure so far, I can't wait to see what more is to come.
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