Jean and Donna

Today I went to immigration to extend my visa. Sadly immigration was closed because today is a holiday, Bonafacio Day. Jean was there, she works as a security guard at immigration. I delivered Jean's 3rd baby in November 2003. I enjoy seeing Jean every couple of months when I am at immigration.

Since today is a holiday and nobody there was working, Jean had her daughter there with her. Today was the first time I have seen Donna since she was a week old. She just celebrated her 4th birthday! Jean is one of just a couple women that I have video footage of during the birth. Jean had not seen it since the birth so I went home and grabbed my computer and went back to immigration to show Jean and her daughter Donna the birth video.

It was really special watching the video with them, and for Donna to get to see what her mother looked like still pregnant with her, and to see herself as a baby. Jean was explaining the video to Donna. Jean laughed a lot and said she was ugly, I assured her she wasn't. These pictures here are images I took off the video footage of the birth. Jean was very sweet. I met her when she came into the clinic in labor and asked her if she would mind if I took video, she said no prob.

Donna is a very outgoing little girl. She wasn't afraid of me. She seemed very intrigued by me. This was very special for me to see her at 4 years old. It makes me think of all of the other little 4 yr olds running around that I caught and what they are like.

Baby Andrew

This last weekend I had a special guest! Baby Andrew from Living Stones Orphanage came and stayed with me for the night. I had a couple days off of work and thought it would be a fun thing to do. Last year having babies in the house was a more common thing to do. We had a baby named Moses stay in our house for almost his first month. He was born at Mercy and we kind of adopted him as our house babe.

Andrew is about 2 months old. Right now at living stones they have 3 little babies and 5 or 6 others that are around 1 yr, then there are some older kids that have been there since they were born. I chose Andrew cause he was the oldest of the smaller babies. I wanted to take a baby that could smile, and he definitely can! We left the orphanage and took a trip to Gaisano Mall to pick up some formula. As a foreigner her you get lots of attention but get used to it over time. When you as a foreigner are carrying around a little Filipino baby you are recognized even more. Then to have people think he is mine and I have a Filipino husband.

It's kind of interesting. We survived the trip to the mall with flying colors. Andrew is a very good baby. At home he slept most the afternoon and evening. I was ready to be up all night with him since he had slept a big chunk of the evening, but he slept most of the night also. I made him a hammock over my bed out of a malong. A malong is a traditional bed sheet that is sewn into a tube. I tied it between the bars on the windows. It worked very well. Sunday afternoon I took him back to his home. Hopefully I will be able to see him again soon!

Pukie Walnut Brazilia Jojo

A little while back this beautiful baby girl was born at Mercy. Her mother lost a lot of blood at the birth and was transported to the hospital for a blood transfusion. Usually when a mother is transported after the birth the baby stays at the clinic and us midwives take care of the baby until a family member can come get him/her.This little girl was really upset. The only thing I could do to consul her was to let her suck on my finger, which she did very strongly for quite some time. We decided to give her a name while she was under our care.

We came up with Pukie Walnut Brazilia Jojo. Pukie was the nickname I originally came up with. Since she was a big baby we decided to give her a name of a big nut. That is where walnut and brazilia (Brazilian) came from. Then her midwife was named Josephine, and I am Jonna, so that is how she got her last name. One of our midwives who is lactating took Pukie home for the night, until her family came for her.

4 Ladies

I would like to introduce you to 4 amazing women who I help give birth this last month. To the left we have Len Len. She came into the clinic in labor with her second baby. After I checked her in I asked her what the name of her husband was cause I wanted to go get him. I couldn't understand what she said so I looked in her chart and to my surprise his name was Julius Cesar. I had to laugh, then walked out of he clinic and shouted for him. He was out by his jeepney. He is a jeepney driver. She did great and gave birth to a baby boy just as the sun was setting. Len's first baby was also a boy. They were so excited for him to finally be there. They named him Julian Cesar. While I was waiting for the placenta, I looked up and out the window I saw this older man standing on something out the window and peering in watching with a big grin on his face. I was shocked to see someone out the window that was at least 8 or 9 feet off the ground. I motioned for him to get down. Later I found out that the guy was the father of Julius, grandfather of Julian. He as standing on the Jeepney. I had to laugh when I found out the circumstance. I thought is was some wacko watching. Len has faithfully come to all of her baby checks thus far. Her last one will be in the second week of December.

One night shift not so long ago Jane came to the clinic looking as if she was definitely in labor. I took her in the birthroom to start checking her vital signs and do my initial evaluations of her. I could tell that she would deliver sooner then later but I was surprised upon checking her to find that she was ready to push her baby out. Not to long after that Jane gave birth to a baby girl which she named Jane Rose. This was Jane's first baby. She was accompanied to the clinic by her sister which had previously delivered at Mercy, so she was in the know of what to do. I say Jane just this last week for a baby checkup.
She told me that she was planning on moving to the province to live with her mother. She is a single mother. She was planning on leaving just after the baby checkup. This picture I took of her at that time with her adorable little girl.


This is my continuity Flor. I met her during a prenatal visit. She asked my if I could be her midwife. I said yes. I didn't know if Flor would be able to deliver at the clinic due to problems she had during her pregnancy. One morning when I was in church I got this text from Flor saying that she had water coming out and her baby was going to come very soon! I immediately left church and headed to the clinic. I was expecting to get there and have her be ready to deliver or already delivered. When I arrived at the clinic she was all smiles. Not really having contractions yet. But once her contractions started that came fast and were very effective. Flor ended up delivering a couple hours after arriving at the clinic. She delivered a beautiful little girl named sophia. As you can see from her picture, Flor is all smiles. She makes me laugh every time I see her. I think to myself, "Are you for real?" She is just so funny :)
A couple days after her birth she was hospitalized for high blood pressure. She spent 4 days in the hospital. The pictures here I took of her 3 weeks after her baby was born. If Shane and Staci read this, the head band sophia is wearing is the one you gave to me :)



This lady here is Lolita. I met Tata when I came to the clinic one morning on shift. She was already at the clinic in labor, so was 3 other women who were close to giving birth. She was in labor with her first baby. This shift was very memorable to me. All of the husbands were frantically yelling, "Nurse!! Nurse!!!" As if there wives was about to die, and since 1 was doing it they all started doing it. I do understand where they are coming from, they are scared and don't know what to do. So Tata's husband was yelling for a nurse. I was busy with another birth but popped my head in to see what was going on. Tata felt like she was ready to push, so I sat with her, and sure enough the baby was coming. And she came very quickly. Both Tata and her husband we both very excited to have her. They have been married for years and were ready to have a baby. This is a photo I took of Tata at her 3 week baby checkup. She is doing very well.

These days since I am in a teaching position I normally do not catch babies so when I do it is very special.

We have had to implement many changes to our clinic, specifically the birthroom due to the new regulations from the department of health. One of our new requirements is that we have multiple sets of curtins, and that we change them daily. We just had a new set made by a couple from the states who came to visit for a few weeks. This last week they were put up for the first time. When I came on shift I was taken off guard by how white the birthroom was. I poked my head into a room that a lady was delivering in. My initial thought was, "It looks like heaven!" It was just so white! Another change that has taken place is we now have a separate area of the clinic specifically for women to stay after they have given birth. It is an open area with 5 beds. I think it is kind of fun for the ladies. They get to visit afterwards. The downside is that there is no privacy. A while back while I was on a night shift us midwives overheard the 2 husbands of are postpartum patients talking about the births together. It was hilarious hearing them talking about it from their perspective. It was one of the guy's first time to accompany his wife at the birth. And it was his 4th child. It is not often to hear the men express what they feel or thought about the whole thing. They didn't know we were listening.
This last month (October) we had almost 130 births at the clinic! This month it looks like we are going to have just as many.

This is a picture of Bethany doing a 3 day baby checkup in the postpartum area.

Home visit to Ai's

I went and visited Ai 2x recently. I had not seen her since before I went home for a break this summer. They moved but luckily their old neighbors knew where they had moved to and pointed me in the right direction. When I saw their new baby Mark James sleeping in the hammock I was shocked by his size! He's huge!! Last time I saw him was right after he was born, he weighed just under 6 lbs. Ai's been breastfeeding him. JB is doing well also. He was sleeping while I was there so I didn't really get to interact with him. It was such a joy to get to interact with them. They said JB is not really understanding them and can't sit up. I am encouraged though by how much they love him. Please continue to pray with me for this family. For JB that God will restore him.

This is JB. His was born November 19 2 years ago!