The All Nighter

We had our first all nighter and I just now am recovered enough to blog about it! We returned from Kamagayan at about 1030 pm only to find in the clinic one woman had just delivered and two more were doing cervical dilation exercises to prepare for their deliveries. Lindsay and I went upstairs to find a new mother breast feeding her babies and two other women squatting and stretching to prepare for labor. There were about 4 nurses and 2 midwives so we decided to go home, pop some popcorn and watch House while we waited for a call. Around 12:30 am they said the women were both "active" aka 7 cm dilated. We rushed over only to find that both women are new time moms and 7cm means still about 4 more hours. Finally at 1 am Lindsay and I resigned and went to bed.

I was in the middle of a great dream when I heard my phone ring. It was Hilary at 3 am letting us know the women were both at 9cm and come quick. We hurried over to find more waiting. Woman 1 was barely pushing and not cooperating with the midwives. Woman 2 (on a bed about 3 feet over) was squatting on the ground moaning in Cebuano. We watched and sweated and yawned for about an hour. Finally, they gave up on woman one and told her if she didn't start pushing properly they would send her to the hospital (read previous post about disgusting-ness of the hospital). Attention was now shifted to woman two who finally got on the bed. Lindsay was in charge of assisting with the baby for woman two and I for woman one. We were racing to see who would come out first and she nailed me by nearly two hours.

Woman two, like a total champ, pushed her baby boy out in about 30 mins- pretty impressive for a first timer. Unfortunately, the baby was a total conehead (or so we thought until we saw baby 2) and the mom was pooped. Lindsay got to help clamp the cord, clean the cord and suction out the baby's throat. She took vitals, helped with the mom and took first place for getting her baby out by 4:30 am.

As baby two is happily suckling, woman one is still not pushing properly. Finally they tell her to get off the table and start squatting. At 5:30 am they let her back on the operating table and try to get her to cooperate. My eyes are heavy and I am anxious to get this baby out. By 6 am she is still pushing and seems to make no progress. Baby one's head is showing but she can't seem to get it out. 6:15 same thing. They give her an ultimatum of 7 am and the sun starts to rise. Roosters are being obnoxious and the street is waking up to go to work. By 6:35 am she births the ultimate cone head boy. She is relieved and the baby is healthy aside from the cone and the chord around the neck! I assist with suction, vitals, bathing etc.

It's now 7 am and Lindsay and I quickly sneak back to our apartment to get some shut eye. We sleep from 7-830 and then are awoken to go visit patients at the public hospital. When we walk back over to the clinic we see that the midwives are just then finishing suturing woman one. One of the midwives, Shayne, takes us to the public hospital. Shayne was up all of the night and delivered two of the babies. Our visit was brief as Shayne was so exhausted she couldn't even spot our patient in the hospital!

After a night of work we were happy to see three healthy babies! We then embarked on our Saturday at the beach.... Next post for some amazingness!