Crazy Fun!!!!

Well I am back from Haiti and exhausted.... so exhausted. I was back in Illinois a mere 12 hours before going back to work. I feel like I have been run over by a truck. The alarm this morning was not my friend. I have a very short turn around before heading back to the ship (7 days to be exact) and way to much on the to do list but as always I know it will get done. Despite the sadness and the craziness of this last week it was all worth it, and there was a big highlight in my memory and I would love to share some pictures and the story.

Monday morning we started our day in the supply room getting prepared for the day. Stocking up on what we might need in our toolbelts (we literally wore home depot tool belts to carry supplies with us, they were very useful and very fashionable) and having a prayer with the nurses to start the day off right. On the way out I spotted a doppler (for finding fetal heart rates or for finding pulses ect), as I saw it I said hey we have a doppler we should have a baby this week. Marlene was a sport and said ok I'll pray for one.

During afternoon rounds Marlene comes running up to me saying boy did you get your wish. A laboring women had been carried in by 5 men on a wooden door and placed down on the floor in the middle of the ward. Pat (one of my team members) spent years as a L&D nurse and I were in our glory so. She was actively laboring already 7 cm and having her second baby.

We put her in a room and scrambled for supplies. It was turning into evening and there was no light in the room so to a new room we went.

So here we were 2 labor nurses and a orthopedic surgury resident ready to catch.

I was a little nervous, I had to scramble in my mind to function without all my modern day tools. There was no continuous monitoring, no oxygen, no suction, no baby warmer. The babies heart rate was good from what we could tell with that doppler (thanks to new batteries and a quick clean up by Heather, it worked like a charm). The big thing that made me nervous was that the amniotic fluid was thick meconium stained (baby had first bowel movement while inside leaving the fluid stained and putting the baby at a higher risk of taking some of this fluid into it's lungs causing breathing problems at birth). At home we would have nursery nurses present and suction ready for the moment the baby was born. Here we had none. (but we did have prayer and I'd take that over suction any day)

She progressed fairly quickly and delivered a beautiful baby girl about 2 hours after she arrived at 7:18 pm (I had predicted 7:17 not to brag or anything ;) The baby did great needed a little encouragement to start but perked right up. We used the mom's skin and blankets she had brought for warmth and everything went great!!!!!!!!! So crazy fun. She named her Valentina so appropriate for our Valentine's Day baby.

This was such a reaffirming event. I have my interview for midwifery school in less than a week and I know that this is exactly what I want to do.

To see the rest of my photos from my week in Haiti check out my facebook album