In The Eye of the Storm

Jody, Grace and I left Masaka today to return to Kampala. Grace and I decided to spend a late afternoon shift on Lower Mulago in Kampala. We arrived on the Ward at about 3:30 pm, changed into our white uniforms, loaded up our pockets with gloves and supplies and headed to the labour room. We arrived in time to see one baby lying on a bed in a pool of amniotic fluid. There was a first year medical student, Paul, standing there. It was the first birth he had seen. The Sister was cleaning up and welcomed us. Twenty minutes later, we had our first birth. Twenty-five minutes later, we had our second birth. In the next thirty minutes, we had 3 more births. There are only 6 beds in this ward. We had forced one mom off a bed to put another mom on it who was actively pushing her baby out. The mom we had asked to move was now standing at the base of the bed, delivering her baby. We barely caught that baby. We were ripping the tops off our gloves to try to tie umbilical cords and rushing for oxytocin to prevent post partum haemorrhage. Barely ten minutes after the mom birthed standing, another mom called us from the door. Before we could reach her, with a sickening thud, her baby was expelled onto the floor. The cord tore. I grabbed onto the placenta end of the cord while Grace grabbed the baby and Paul ripped the top off his gloves so Grace could tie off the little bit of cord left attached to the baby. Then, I delivered another baby while Grace caught the first of a set of twins. I caught the second twin, a footling breech ( feet coming first) baby. Another mom was birthing in the hall. Two moms needed suturing. Another mom was bleeding. I caught a little preemie that only weighed 1.9 grams. We barely got him breathing when we were called to another bedside. We finally had to leave. It was getting dark outside, 6:50 pm. There had been 12 babies born in under 2 1/2 hours. We knew no mothers' names. We left with more babies coming. It was a storm.

Tina