Hard Moments - Lovely Moments

As everybody already knows, birth can be quite a paradox, really hard stuff coupled with unbelievably joyous moments. On Ward 14 this week, we have had lots of both.

Yesterday, I walked into the same room where Jody had her undiagnosed twin birth the day before. This day there were 3 women on the 3 beds squeezed into a room that is about 5 feet wide by 10 feet long. The sun was pouring into the window. The woman on the farthest bed was pushing. I wasn't too sure what I was seeing, then realized it was a very swollen testicle - an undiagnosed breech baby (baby coming bum first). In Canada, with a first time mom, that usually means a caesarean section. Here it meant that the woman had to get up, make her way down the length of the ward and get to a bed where we could deliver the breech. The first part of the breech, came easily. With Angela's help I got the legs out and most of the torso. Then I couldn't deliver the arms. Jody was calling the time for us. You have 4 minutes to deliver a breech. Angela took over, and the Ugandan Midwives tried. But we couldn't get the arms out. For 6 minutes. Despite doing all the "right things". When we finally got the arms down, the head delivered easily. But the baby never took a breath, never had a heartbeat. Despite over 10 minutes of resuscitation by me and Jody including positive pressure ventilation and chest compressions, repositioning, checking equipment, repositioning, checking, checking, PPV, checking again. When we told the Mom, she wailed and wailed. Grief is the same everywhere. You just have to be there, keep holding on. We wrapped the baby and placed him where you place FSB (fresh still birth) babies. He was the second baby to be placed there since midnight. It was one of the hard moments.

And then today. Again, we arrived at Ward 14 and were changing when we heard the unmistakable sounds of women birthing their babies. We looked out our door and realized that two women were delivering in the hallway, with no one with them. Jody, Angela and I got our gloves on and went out. My mom pushed out her lovely daughter within 5 minutes. Baby breathed immediately, cried immediately. Mom cried too. Her first baby, last year, a daughter, had been one of the FSB babies. Today she got to snuggle down with her new little one, smiling her gratitude, the baby dressed in one of the beautiful sweaters someone in Canada knitted, swaddled in one of the lovely receiving blankets, holding onto a little doll that someone created. It was one of the lovely moments.


Tina