The Miraculous Power of God

Dec. 28, 2008
Part of my reason for this trip to the Philippines was to volunteer for a week at a birthing clinic for the poorest of the poor. It is run by a British midwife and four Filipina midwives who are all superheroes in my book! I didn't have internet access there, so I'll spread these posts out, but I wrote them while at the clinic...They are detailed, but a very certain someone told me to make them as detailed as I could. ;-)

Day 1, 2, & 3 at birthing clinic (Shalom Christian Bahay Pa-anakan)It’s a known fact for all doctors, nurses, and midwives: when the day is slow, the night will be chaotic. Yesterday I had lots of opportunities to nap, read, study, and laze around. We had one delivery at 7am, about 15 post-natal check-ups with absolutely adorable kiddos, but for the most part things were quiet. We did have one 24 year-old (let’s call her Marilou), who started true labor at 1:30pm. She was here with her boyfriend. Her story is so very sad. She is the mistress of a 40 year-old construction worker and lives with his wife and their five kids. She is pregnant with her first. We knew this would be a very long labor.

Then it all broke loose. The day midwife left at 5pm and the night midwife arrived at 7pm. Immediately 4 women showed up at the door. One was in active labor, two had urinary tract infections (UTIs), which can cause contraction-like pain, and one was in very early labor. We sent the two suspected patients w/ UTIs to the lab to verify our suspicions, we sent the early laboring mom home, and admitted the active laborer. As soon as we got her situated on a cot on the floor, we had two more show up in active labor. They were also admitted and placed on two more cots. This was all before 8pm. The night midwife and I placed our guesses on the time of deliveries and we prepared ourselves for a very busy night ahead. Good thing I’d had my naps!

The two UTIs came back positive so they were given meds and sent home. I went into our room to take a nap while I still could. Right around 10pm, I was awakened by the midwife yelling for me. I ran out just in time to see the baby slip out and grabbed the bulb to begin suctioning the goop out of its mouth. I placed the baby on the mom’s skin to keep the temp steady (we call this skin-to-skin) and continued to monitor the baby and assist the midwife with the placenta removal and inspection. While the midwife was cleaning up the mom, I took the baby, replaced the Kelly clamps with the umbilical clamp, gave it a bath, and dressed and bundled it up. We got the Mom and baby settled back on the cot on the floor. Both the midwife and I went back to bed. (picture to left is of a new family. Lady in orange is another of the midwives)

At 11:30 I heard a frantic, “Ma’am! Ma’am!” I woke up the midwife and she ran out to see what was up. Minutes later I heard my name again. The mom was up in the stirrups and a baby was slipping out. We didn’t even have our instruments yet. I ran and got them out of the sterile water and did the same thing all over again with Mom #2. I started giving the baby a bath while the midwife gave Baby #1 it’s Vitamin K shot. Right as I was lathering up Baby #2’s hair, the Mom #3 and dad on the cot less than two feet from me started yelping. I looked down and saw the dad pulling down the underwear with the baby slipping out. This was her second kid…but she had been 2cm just 2 hours before!!! The baby had the cord TIGHTLY wrapped around its neck two times. I placed Baby #1 in his dad’s arms and called the midwife urgently and she came over. The baby was very, very blue and not breathing at all because of asphyxiation. I grabbed the sterile suction, clamps, and scissors and we went to work. After 60 seconds the baby took a breath but held it. I grabbed the ambu-bag and we started manually breathing for it, but we couldn’t get the mouth open. After three minutes we called the head midwife (a British midwife who runs the clinic) from her bed. We grabbed the oxygen tank and transferred the baby to the counter under a lamp. I knew there were enough people working on the kid and the most important thing I could do was pray. I sat on my bed, bowed my head, and just started pleading. Seven minutes passed with no breaths – the longest a baby can go with no brain damage. Finally after ten minutes I heard the sweetest sound I have ever heard…the tiniest little squeak. I got up and went out to help if I could. I took over for the midwife and held the little simple mask with 7L oxygen flowing over the nose and mouth while rubbing the baby’s back. Slowly, the baby pinked up. After 20 minutes it gave it’s first real cry. PRAISE GOD! (picture of me above is with the baby and parents)

If the mom hadn’t delivered the baby so fast, the baby would have been stillborn. The baby was supposedly overdue and had an extremely small amount of amniotic fluid. Even still, it only weighed 4lbs 10oz.! Later when the two midwives and I talked about it, we all agreed that we had thought the baby wouldn’t make it. We were already thinking how to deal with a dead baby. Without a doubt this was a miracle of God! Here we are, at a rather primitive birthing clinic for the poor…we don’t have a crash cart, means to intubate the baby and such, but it still lived. The baby didn’t breath for at least 10 minutes! Please pray with me that this little boy does not have any lasting brain damage. We didn’t see any signs of it when we sent the family home today, but sometimes it takes a while to manifest. (Picture to right is with the baby, midwife on left, older sister of baby on right)

We had one more normal delivery at around 4am and had two more laboring women. Remember Marilou? It’s now 12:30pm the next day and she’s just started pushing… (to the left)