One week down!

I just finished my first week at Shalom for all prenatal clinics (Tues, Wed, Fri). It's a whirlwind! We see about 110+ preggos in about 5 hours... The incredibly efficient, organized, and competent American nurse who normally keeps things on track is gone for the summer so that role has defaulted to me. It's been a bit of baptism by fire...I've learned what works, what doesn't work, and to BE ASSERTIVE.

We get Filipino nursing students who are at the clinic for their maternal health rotation...they are usually quite young and definitely still teenagers. The first day I felt badly telling them to stop doing something or to let me do it instead. No more. After mass chaos in pulling the patient records for their appointment, I simply took over the task. There's too much to screen the patients for to risk letting them do it.

We also had an Emmy award worthy mom come in (the Filipina midwife's words...not mine). I had finished checking the women in (which takes place outside) and had moved inside the one room clinic to help speed things along when all of the sudden this huge commotion starts outside.

Screams, yells, and gasps fill the air.

Suddenly one of the 2 Filipina midwives on duty cries out, "There's a mom in the driveway who's baby's head is out!" The other midwife took off out the door and after fumbling around to make the delivery table ready (we use it for prenatal check-ups when no one is delivering), this poor lady is carried in by two men, one presumably her husband. Her hand is between her legs, holding what I thought was the head. They maneuver her onto the lithotomy table, pull the curtains shut, and get ready to deliver the rest of the baby.

Suddenly the midwife bursts out laughing, "She's only 1cm! This lady needs an Emmy Award!"

We all laughed and sent the mom outside to walk around for a bit while we finished prenatals. Turns out this lady is having her 5th, but her last baby was 11 years ago. Maybe she's forgotten how things work? In any case, it was a good adrenaline rush for all of us.

My ear is a bit better, though it's still partially clogged. I'll take any improvement, though! Thanks for praying for that. :)