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!

Ofelia Delivered!

Early Sunday morning Ofelia delivered a perfect little boy. She did amazing! And luckily for me she came in when i was already working. After the birth She just glowed. Her first baby was a is a girl, so having a boy was a real treat for her. Her mother accompanied her for the birth. This morning she came back to the clinic for her first day baby check. She was doing really well. Her baby was also doing great. He is very alert for a newborn. I didn't realize how tall I am compared to filipinos untill I saw this picture (above) of Ofelia and me.

Food Give-away

A couple weeks ago the staff here at Mercy decided to put together a fund and buy food to give out at the clinic to out patients. We have done this before in the past. Last time at Christmas. The past couple weeks we have been under great warfare. The Department of Health have threatened to shut us down by not renewing our licsense. We have had to change many things about how the clinic is run to comply with what that are asking of us. Today the DOH came to our clinic for a final inspection and thank God they renewed our licsense! We are not out of the clear yet though. The investigating doctor has taken issue with us foreingers being here. There are still things that we need to comply with and figure out before we are out in the clear. To cut out the foreingers would shut down the clinic. Please be praying for us here and the ministry God has intrusted us too. Giving out food is part of the way we are fighting the battle. We want to glorify God and bless abundantely the women we serve. This week we are giving out a bag of food to each women who come in for a prenatal checkup. The bags include rice, beans, noodles, soy sauce, and sardines. We put together +350 bags to give out.

# 10

(this is a clue in an amazing race that we are holding in davao for our volunteers here)

Go down to the shoe Ukay-Ukay dual sa Gaisano mall. Find Ramil and buy a pair of shoes from him for p50 or less. He will give you your next clue after you purchase his shoes. The pair of shoes you buy will have to be worn by a team member at the end of the race.

be sure to buy your shoes from Ramil since he is the one who will have your next clue.

God's Blessings

Ofelia and her family are an extra special blessing from God. She is the sister of one of my former patients' Mildred. Mildred delivered at mercy at the end of 2006. I saw Mildred in the clinic a couple weeks ago. She was accompanying one of her friends in labor. God really used Mildred's birth to bless me. I have written about her before. Her mother prayed over me as I was delivering her grand baby. That was so powerful to be prayed over while delivering a baby. Since her birth their family has always been special to me. When I saw Mildred a couple weeks ago she asked me if her sister could have her baby here at Mercy. She was already late in her pregnancy and couldn't deliver at Mercy unless I decided to take her as my own patient. Well I did of course, and God has blessed the situation. Ofelia and her family have just moved back to Davao from Bohol. Well this last weekend when I was in the clinic with another one of my patients, I saw Ofelia's mother there. She was there with her grand daughter in labor. This was her first great grandchild to be born. So Mildred was also there. Her granddaughter had an amazing birth. Many prayers and tears. This birth made me even more excited to get to deliver Ofelia's baby. She is due at the end of September. I saw Ofelia for a prenatal this last wednesday. She was such a blessing. After I finished praying for her, she prayed for our clinic and for the Filipinos in Davao, that they would come to know Jesus and be touched when they come to Mercy. When we were finished praying be both opened our eyes and said thank you! Please pray for this special family.