Bathroom birth.

Ya know, it's probably not a good thing to have your baby in the bathroom. Between the unsanitary conditions and the fact that your child may have difficulty sharing their birthday story with others....can you imagine when asked, "Where were you born?" You'd say..."In the bathroom of a birthing center." Maybe a little embarrassing, eh? 

Well, little baby Mark will have just that story to share. Wednesday's birth shift was quite the crazy adventure. We had planned on a dead shift as the intake board was pretty much empty...but by 6:30 am, my fellow peer, Holly, had received a patient fully dilated and wanting to push. We all gloved up and headed to her birth cubicle. She was definitely ready to have her baby....but just as the head was coming visible, another labor walked in and made a bee line for the CR (bathroom). I was up next, so I kept my gloves on and followed behind her to the bathroom. She had just closed the door when Lumen (my other peer) and I heard a huge gasp and a giant SHRIEK! The door swung open and there Rose was holding her baby's head in...I fell to the floor in catching position, Lumen supported Rose and she lunged into birthing position spewing amniotic fluid all over my head and all over my scrubs...some would considered themselves blessed....me, I was not particularly "blessed". Thankfully, the amniotic fluid was clear and had no signs of meconium...that would just be so nasty. :)

Baby boy's hand reached out to grab mine followed by a very big head and a slippery purple body. Baby caught. Rose's bana rushed to her side after hearing the commotion and I handed Rose her crying, freshly dried baby in towel, picked up her legs while Lumen and Heather (my supervisor) positioned her in the wheelchair. I heard another baby cry....Holly's baby had just been delivered with Brianna (my other peer) at her side. Wheeled to the birth bed, Rose got situated, still connected to her baby by the umbilical cord. Baby immediately started to breastfeed and Rose's placenta came out shortly thereafter...NOT on the floor. :)  

Baby Mark, 7 lbs 4 oz. was healthy and strong.

 

Next came in copious amounts of baby checks, prescriptions to fill, and newborn screenings to do....then we heard another abnormal sound...yelling and honking from a vehicle just outside the door! The five midwives dropped everything and ran outside to discover baby out in a Multi-cab! Seems she had been laboring in a tri-c-cab and a Multi-cab driver had noticed her laboring while waiting at a gas station and offered to take her to Mercy. Well, little did he know, but her baby was coming too fast for his speed and she delivered a baby boy in the back of his multicab....delivered by her father and younger brother. Crazy. We got her into the wheelchair and wheeled her in. Everyone had a different position...I assisted the baby and the bantays, Heather caught the placenta and was her midwife, Holly made sure supplies were ready and at hand while charting the "birth", Lumen wheeled her in and Brianna assisted Heather. Meanwhile, another fully dilated labor walked in for Brianna. 

Yes, four babies were born and three more labors were walking in by shift change. What a day!

And today, I was on prenatal duty. I love prenatals. I had a very interesting conversation with a patient in English today. After talking to her in Visayan as I began her prenatal, she says in perfect English, "I have no idea what you are saying!" Ha ha ha...Apparently she speaks no Visayan as she is from Manila and only speaks Tagalog and English. I had a great time doing my very first prenatal in PURE ENGLISH! What a different experience! Ha ha ha.

Then my last patient was an interesting case. She was one of 3 wives of a Muslim man. She was sharing with me that though she was converting to Islam she was professing to be "Christian". I asked if she was Catholic and she said, "Of course!". So I asked if she believed that Jesus was the Messiah to which she replied, "well, yes." I asked if she believed that Jesus was God, she replied, "Well, not anymore because I am converting to Islam." I asked why she was converting if her beliefs were so very different and she replied that she loves her husband. I was reminded of Luke 14 that states that unless we hate our families, we cannot be disciples of Christ...no this does not mean we hate people, it simply means that if we do not love Christ MORE than His Creation, we cannot be His disciples. Though I did not share this with her, I couldn't help but realize what she was forsaking by converting to the Muslim faith for the love of a man....a man who already has several wives, several children and will most likely forsake her in some way. I convicted to love my Jesus more. She was headstrong and determined to convert to Islam so I just simply asked if I could pray with her. 

Unfortunately, this scenario is all to common here. Faith goes only so far as tradition and ritual. Nothing seems to transform life or bring joy. My heart aches to be a light that shines brighter than the alternatives. I am praying that the truth of Christ and His unfailing love will penetrate her heart before the completion of her conversion. Though we may pray to the same "God", my Jesus spilled His blood for her and made the pathway to peace with God accessible....for this I owe Him my life and so does she.

That's about it for now. Fourteen days until take-off. Finances are scary right now and things are somewhat bleak, but alas, God has been uber faithful....we will finish the race and look forward to our rest.

Be blessed!