Blog Post 3 - What's in a name...

What's in a name...

Hey people! So for my third blog entry I found it difficult to know what to write about; there's been so many things that I've seen and done here that I have struggled to pick just a few to tell you all. I'm about half way through my experience now and the time has flown by! 

One of the most memorable experiences of this week has been the delivery of Baby Noah. His parents came into Shalom Christian Birthing Centre nervous and scared about what was going to happen to them... they were young and weren't married which culturally here is frowned upon and gives the midwives authority to give you the worst treatment and care. However, here at Shalom it's key that we show all women and their partners the love of God no matter where they are from and what they have done. Before telling the story of Baby Noah, maybe I should firstly take you through what typically happens when a lady comes in in labour.

The process of coming into the centre to deliver is the same for all. The woman will first go into the delivery room when she arrives to be internally assessed to see how dilated she is. The delivery room has just 3 beds, or mattresses on stilts, with just a white plastic sheet on them which is simply wiped over after each women has given birth on it with bleach (which is provided by the couple too, of course). Once we know how many cms dilated she is, we listen in to the fetal heart, do Mum's observations, and then tell them to take a bed in the recovery room. This is where both labouring and postnatal women and their families stay, so you have women bouncing on birthing balls in labour whilst baby's are screaming being bathed. 

Then, we wait. No CTG monitoring, no 4 hourly VEs, no pain relief, no documentation. Nothing. Just leave them on their bed. Amazing eh?! The stuff midwives back home can only dream of... or be silently terrified of, one or the other ;) So, how do you know when the time comes for her to push?, I hear you ask. Well, whenever the Mum feels ready. Women will simply get up from their bed, ask one of us to examine her, and 9 times out of 10 she'll be ready. 

And this is what happened to Baby Noah's Mum. She came in, 5cms, sat on her bed for 4 hours, fully dilated. Simples. She made herself comfy on one of the delivery beds, the only one free, and her partner paced up and down the other side of the curtain. Culturally, the partner isn't present for the delivery, but at Shalom we try and encourage the Dad's to be involved as much as possible. We called him to come in and, although scared at first, was brilliant at supporting his girlfriend. 

About 30 mins later, the baby was born. Trying to support and deliver a woman in labour is extremely difficult when she speaks another language, but myself and the couple connected really well through encouraging smiles. Soon after the delivery, the couple chatted to one of the Filippino midwives and asked her if she could explain to me that they didn't have a name for their baby boy so could I choose one. When this was translated to me, I felt an overwhelming responsibility, as well as excitement. No one had ever asked me to pick their child's name before and I knew I'd remember this for a long time to come! After some deliberation, I chose the name Noah, which means comfort. Thankfully, the parents seemed to like it, so we were all happy :) 

But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

So, thanks again for reading! I can't believe so many of you are taking time to read this stuff haha :) 

Until my next update, so long!

The Travelling Midwife x