The Fast and the Furious

Two babies on two different nights: one fast and the other furious. Nearly every night that a woman is in labor Lindsay and I head to bed at our apartment (directly next door) and tell the women on duty over and over to call us when she is active (10 cm) and we will come right over to assist/observe the birth. Every time we wake up in the morning with no call, saunter over to the clinic and find a brand new baby and midwives saying, "sorry we forgot." We were ready to take action and decided to start camping out in the clinic overnight (the midwives have an "on call room" with three beds and air conditioning!). This method proved to be highly successful!

The first night we went to bed around 11:30 pm and the mother was 6cm dilated. It usually takes about an hour per cm so we figured it would be maybe 3am when she delivered. At 12:15 one of the nurses opens the door and tells us she is at 10cm. Wow, that was fast. We jump out of bed and walk into the delivery room right next door to see the head crowning. With one push the baby was out. The mom delivered like it was nothing. Sheila, the midwife delivering the baby, was squatting at the end of the bed barefoot to catch the baby. The baby girl was healthy and clearly happy to be out as she caused no trouble for her mom. Her mom, however, was a different story. She looked about 40 years old but was actually 27 with her 6th baby now in arms. She delivered a few of her other children at the clinic and brought one baby in with anal bleeding after she had let the witch doctor stuff herbs up it's butt to cure constipation. This mom is 'not all there' according to the midwives and who knows what baby #6 will mean for her.

The second night was furious and here's why:
We drifted off to AC sleep around 11 pm again and this time were awoken at 1 am with a first time mom on the table. She was pushing and pushing and the baby was not coming out. Within a few minutes we noticed that the baby's heart beat was plummeting- as low as 80 bpm- and then jumping back up to normal- 140 bpm. This is a sign that the baby is in distress and the compression from the birth canal is causing the heart rate to drop. Of course the midwives were only speaking Cebuano and Lindsay and I watched wide eyed as we wondered what would happen to a baby in this condition. 30 mins went by and the agony continued. The midwives had the mom use the wall to help her adjust the position of the baby and by 2 am the head was out. One problem: the baby was stuck. Not only did the head come out but the arms were stuck on the sides of the babies head, making it difficult for the baby to get out. The labor room went into emergency mode and immediately two women were pulling the baby out and the third was bracing the mom. It took a full minute of intense manual labor to finally get the blue baby out. No cry, no muscle tone and no breathing. Immediate vacuuming was required and within a few minutes the blue baby slowly turned to a yellowish/red baby and a loud cry ensued.

Lindsay and I crawled back into the beds in the midwives quarters and let the midwives handle all of the monitoring that took place after the birth. We were awoken at 4 am to find seven people sleeping in the room with three beds. It went something like this: Lindsay and I spooning against the wall and bed one. One girl next to me and one other on the edge. At the foot of the bed one of the midwives slept horizontal. On bed number three two girls curled up. We slept for nearly eight hours like this. The power of AC.