Literally saving lives ...

So today was about as intense as it has been since I have been here. We had a woman show up in labour whom we had never met (meaning we have prenatal clinics, were woman plan to birth with us, and we have folks we just hear about us and decide to come only when they are in labour). This particular woman had 10 pregnancies, birthed 9 babies, has 5 alive and 3 who died under age 5. She had a long and slow labour, probably because her story is even sadder since she has only been able to keep one of her children and raise her herself (the others have been sent to live with relatives and friends). Before and after her birth, she offered me the only child she had at home, her 2 year old daughter.

She had a long and slow labour, probably as a result of some of her own fear about being able to provide for another baby. When she finally pushed her baby out, a large especially for Haitian standards 8lbs2oz, the shoulders (of course, for anyone who knows my history with shoulders!) got stuck. The midwife I was working with, Kelly, eventually got her by the shoulder and while she was a bit stunned by her birth, she came around easily. Her mother on the other hand, just let it all go. She bled, we estimated, 3litres, which is much more than anyone should EVER bleed. I know we all know theoretically how post partum hemmorhage is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality world wide. Here, in a tent in Haiti or a rural community far from a clinic or hospital, woman literally do die from hemmorhages. I did my first manual removal of a placenta, to try and stop the tap, but it still took a lot of herbs, drugs, manual massage, and prayers to get it under control. I am partially still in shock from the level of clinical skills I needed and from the truest sense of PPH I have ever encountered.

The irony of the day was this woman was married to the brother of another another women who birthed quickly and easily in the middle of the day, in a local taptap (truck/bus) on her way to the clinic. She came in to have her placenta delivered and burned (a method of detaching the baby from the placenta known for decreasing infections, infections that are all too common for small babies and is a common cause of neonatal mortality). She was at the clinic probably for about 2 hours, just getting a full check up and before we knew it, she was getting on the back of a motorbike (the most common form of transportation here, and literally all motos, as they are called, are taxis as well), with a pile of bananas behind her and her baby between her and her husband. The other woman has IVs and we are monitoring her around the clock.

In one family in Jacmel, a new baby boy and a new baby boy were born today, both extremely different births. I love remembering, that for me, my gift and joy in this life is one birth at a time I can be the change I want to be in this world (to borrow a bit from Mahamata Ghandi).