gthemidwife

Beautiful Maboy when I first met her in 2004.

Maboy is one of my favourite mothers in Kalinga.

Every time I see her she has a huge smile on her face and she always asks how I am doing.

Since I very first came to Kalinga in 2004 she has welcomed me with open arms to her village of Pakak.

Maboy is the mother of 10 children – all of them as beautiful as she is. She came to deliver at our clinic when we first opened in 2007 but all the rest of her children she delivered at home unattended. This year Maboy found herself pregnant again. We had been doing regular prenatal visits in her village but she was always working in the fields when we were there so we barely saw her during her whole pregnancy. In the first week of July I happened to see Maboy at her home and asked her if she would come and deliver at the clinic. I told her we would come and pick her up no matter what time of night or day. I told her I was worried about her, because of her multiple pregnancies she was at risk for having a difficult labor and delivery. I think sometimes it is hard for mothers of so many children to believe they need help during their deliveries– especially when they have done it themselves for years! Maboy just smiled at me and said “we’ll see.” And so, I as very surprised to see Maboy come into the clinic one day for a prenatal check-up. She was having some common discomforts of pregnancy and we were able to send her home with a good quality medicine for a low cost.

We got word from Pakak a few days later that she was feeling better. Then, on the evening of July 7 , we got a text from someone in Pakak that Maboy was in labor. The midwives on duty drove out to the village to pick her up, with their emergency birth bag in tow – you can never tell if the women are going to deliver the minute you get there or even possibly on the way back to the clinic. Maboy was still in early labor so the midwives took her back to the clinic. By early morning I went into the clinic to see how she was doing. She was exhausted from having strong contractions all night but still no baby. We gave her IV fluids and lots of encouragement. A few hours later, with a lot of support and help from her midwives, Maboy delivered a beautiful baby girl.

A few hours later as Maboy lay resting in the postpartum room, she shared that this was such a hard labor for her and she wasn’t sure that she could have done it herself. She told me that she decided this little girl would be her last. I feel so blessed to have been able to help her with the delivery of her last baby and to have made sure that she stayed safe and healthy for all her other children too.

Maboy holding baby Zanele Grace as she gets her BCG vaccination at the clinic.

Novelyn came to us in her second trimester of pregnancy for prenatal care. She was living about an hour outside of Tabuk at the time but she came faithfully for all her prenatal check-ups. There was something about this strong, determined woman that drew me to her and I took her as my “continuity of care” patient. A “continuity” patient is one that a midwife will choose to follow through her prenatal care, labor and delivery as well as postpartum even if they come in when the midwife is not on shift. I don’t often take patients like this because I am so busy, but I took Novelyn. During her pregnancy we were able to get to know each other and I had the opportunity to pray for her often. She was nervous about her delivery, which was normal, especially because her two previous deliveries had been difficult.
Novelyn came into the clinic in labor early one afternoon in April. My missionary Alex was helping me monitor her and everything was going well. After a few hours Novelyn’s labor started to get more intense and her bag of waters broke. The first thing a midwife does when the bag of waters breaks is to check the baby’s heartbeat to make sure that he/she is handling it well. We checked the heartbeat immediately and noticed that it was extremely low! I checked and felt that the baby’s cord had slipped over its head and was being compressed during the contraction. This is an obstetrical emergency call “cord prolapse” and the only course of action is to hold the baby’s head up off of the cord until an emergency C-section can be performed.
This is exactly what we did! I held up that baby’s head while Alex and some other staff carried Novelyn to the emergency vehicle and our emergency driver took us to the hospital 10 minutes away. Alex and I were praying out loud for the baby the whole way to the hospital. So that you know how amazing the next part of the story is, you have to know something about the hospitals in Tabuk. Even though we went to the private hospital where the care is considerably better than the public hospital – the hospitals are not staffed 24/7 with doctors and anesthesiologists. The operating rooms are not always ready to go in case of emergencies. Sometimes you will have to wait hours for a doctor to arrive or for the appropriate staff to be found. On some occasions we have had to pick up the staff ourselves at their homes.
We arrived at the hospital 10 minutes later and alerted the ER staff of the situation. They informed us that the doctor was just finishing up a C-section in the operating room and we would be taken in right after! We waited less than 30 minutes for the C-section and we were able to stay with Novelyn and I held the baby’s head off of the cord. We prayed for both of them the entire time. When we were wheeled in the OR it was only a matter of minutes before Novelyn was prepped and the doctor started the C-section. I got a close-up view of the operation as I was still holding the baby’s head! I kept my hand on the baby’s head right until I felt the doctor’s hands pull the baby out. She lifted out the baby and he gave a big cry and the whole OR staff cheered! We were all so happy! Usually if there has been a cord prolapse the baby doesn’t make it, so the staff were all so excited to see a healthy baby born!
I went to visit Novelyn and her baby at home two days later. We talked about what had happened and I explained exactly what was done and how much of a miracle it was that her baby was fine. She knew it already. She told me that the last thing she remembered in the OR as the anesthesia took effect was Alex right beside her, praying for her.
I am so thankful that we work for such a mighty and gracious God … and that he lets me be a part of amazing stories like this!

Double take? That is Alex, not me, with baby Kade the day after he was born.