IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

I am on cloud 9. Even still today. We got to deliver a baby yesterday!!!!!

If you know me at all, you know that OB is totally my thing. The entire time I have been here I have been saying that the one thing that would make my trip like the best ever would be to have a baby born here at the clinic. Which in reality, I shouldn't have wished for because laboring moms only come here when there is a problem, otherwise the baby is delivered at home. But secretly, I was still hoping for it.

Yesterday morning I said that I was giving up hope and settling for a hurricane to top off my trip (hello Anna!). When Licia popped her head in the office to hesitantly tell Lori that there was a woman in labor outside the gate, my heart about jumped out of my chest. I know it is scary to take on risky deliveries (not to mention takes your entire day) so Lori could have easily sent this patient into town. But knowing how excited I would be, she agreed to at least check the patient out. I, on the other hand, was about to burst with joy!

So here is the story (because in Haiti, there is always a story)....

Mom is 18 years old and she lives several hours away up in the mountains. This is her first pregnancy and she had come through the clinic 3 or 4 times for prenatal visits. Dad is not really in the picture (she did manage to call him in between contractions, but he never showed). She went into labor Saturday morning, but still had not had the baby by yesterday afternoon. They were getting very worried so several men CARRIED HER DOWN ON A BED. Like several hours down a narrow, windy path. I was in awe.

Her mother (who I will now refer to as Grandma) and her sister also came down with her. Grandma has had 13 children and only 6 of them are living. Sister has had 3 children and all 3 of them have died. Can you imagine why they were worried for their daughter/sister?

When we got her up on the table, we immediately noticed that something was not right. There were two separate bumps on her belly, one much larger than the other. Hmm... Bladder! She had not peed in over a day. Ok, let's put a catheter in and see if that doesn't help. Oh wow, BABY'S HEAD IS RIGHT THERE. Forget the catheter, she is about to deliver. But wait, she hasn't had a contraction in 10 minutes? How could she be this far along and not having intense contractions every 2 minutes or so. Weird. Ok, back to the catheter. 4 catheters and 1 hour later we empty nearly 1000 cc of urine and the bump goes all the way down. Thank you, Jesus!

So now that is out of the way, surely the baby is going to come any minute now. Wrong. 4 more hours, lots of position changes, a bottle of 7 up, and lots and lots of prayers and diet cokes later, we had a beautiful (very bruised, swollen, cone-headed) baby girl!!!!!

Her contractions never became regular, even up to the last hour they were still several minutes apart. Some only lasted 10-15 seconds. Very strange. We had a couple bleeding scares and ended up giving Pitocin, but in the end mom and baby are very healthy!

One of the reasons I love Labor and Delivery so much is that you get to spend a lot of time with the patient and family and have a really unique opportunity to help them on one of the best days (or sadly, sometimes worst) days of their life. This family was so touched by the time and energy we gave them. They said that there was no Haitian who would rub her legs and wipe her face and take as good care of her as we did. Another really cool thing we got to do was take pictures. Nobody here really has pictures of themselves, and especially not of their baby's birth. Licia was the official photographer when the action really picked up, and after a very long day and night, she printed off the pictures and laminated them for the family. They were ecstatic!

No joke, this is what Grandma did most of the time.


Here is older sister. It must have been very hard for her, as she has lost 3 babies of her own.


Did you know that drinking a coke helps push the baby out? Me neither.


Also, it is completely normal for someone to plug your nose during a contraction to help with the pushing.


Baby is here! Lori took care of mom, I did baby, and Licia was the official photographer


Tying off the cord


Cutting the cord with a razor blade


Suction! Sounds so official, right? Well they always yell it on Grey's Anatomy


Mom is so happy that baby is out!


Mom is blowing on the top of the bottle to help deliver placenta. This is her sister's husband. He came in and saved the day when both Grandma and sister were literally on the floor praying and we needed strong arms!


I am laughing so hard at her blowing on the bottle


Super- Lori and the new Mama!


6 pounds 8 ounces


Proud Grandma!


Licia and baby girl. You are going to laugh, but we can't even remember the baby's name.





We did it!!!!





Such a great day. I can't even tell you how much the whole pregnancy/baby/delivery thing makes me love God more! Everytime it is a miracle.