Patience
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Irene
28 December 2016 | Oeganda, Masaka
I forgot to tell you that last Saturday at 6.15am we were woken up by a really loud bass sound. I could feel it when I was lying in bed. We heard music, so got up and looked outside. What we saw was a little truck with at least 10 big speakers playing: We wish you a Merry Christmas. It was so strange to celebrate Christmas in the sun. It didn't really feel like Christmas, but we made the best of it. On Saturday evening we gave the gifts to eachother that we brought from home. And on Sunday we enjoyed the sun, relaxed and actually did some work for school. The weekend went by very fast, but it was nice to be off.
Monday at 8am it was time to start working again. When we arrived at the hospital it was very quiet and there was nothing to do for us. The staff from the night shift told us that the staff from the day shift would be later, probably because of it being the day after Christmas.
There was a really small baby in the labour room (on the table where they put the baby after being born), born via c section at only 28 weeks. The baby was getting oxygen and glucose. I asked a student midwife if she thought the baby would survive and she told me he was stable and would survive. I really hoped so too, but thought the chances are small. I was very happy to see that the baby was doing well and was with his mom the next day.
We went back to the house to do some work for school and went back to the hospital around 10am. We went with the doctor and midwives to do the rounds. Eline went with a c section, so baby number 6 was born. Another boy, we named him Feliz. Lisanne was helping a woman in labour. Here in Uganda it is a lot of waiting. Waiting is part of your job as a midwife, but we are used to go a bit faster. At one point Lisanne and I agreed that if we would be in the Netherlands we would start pushing. But no, midwife Florence told us just wait until you see the head coming. After a very long wait the baby was finally delivered by Lisanne and the first girl was born, we named her Geertje. Around 2pm we were finished and we were off for the rest of the day.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we were back at it at 8am. There were three woman in labour, so we all managed one woman. I was helping a woman who spoke English well, so I could talk to her without a translator. During this day I had to use a lot of my patience. Like I told you before there is a lot of waiting. It came down to a very slow progress: 5 hours of waiting, only 1 contraction every 10 minutes and no change in the dilatation. I was thinking what would I do when this happened in the Netherlands. I realised that would make no difference, so I just had to wait. I just asked the midwife what her plan was and (for me finally) she said we should start an iv with oxytocin. I prepared it and explained the woman why she would get it. Then another 2 hours of waiting started, but the contractions were coming. They were coming more often, stronger and longer. The midwife checked the dilatation and it was just 1 cm further, the midwife told me we are going to wait and sees what happens. As it was already 4.30pm I decided my job for the day was done, so I will see how the delivery ended tomorrow. While I was doing a lot of observing and waiting, Eline delivered a beautiful girl. Baby number 8 and we gave her the name Hannah. The mother was very young and didn't really listen well to the instruction from Eline and the midwife, so it was a hard delivery. I observed and Lisanne helped Eline. It was a stressfull delivery, but Eline did very well.
This morning was hectic and emotional. Before we arrived a woman who had delivered at home was brought to hospital because of complications, but she died on the way here. When we walked in at 8am the midwife told us another woman came in at term with a big complication and there was no fetal heartbeat. Lisanne and I went with the c section, without going into details, it was one of the strangest and most difficult things to witness. Eline took care of another baby with severe respiratory distress syndrome, he looked more dead than alive. There was also a manual removal of the placenta without analgesia. To finish the morning with some hope, together with midwife student Hilda, I delivered a beautiful baby boy (baby number 9) in great condition. This all happened within 3 hours. There is still a lot of adrenaline in my body and don't know what to think of everything that happened. Writing this all down feels like an outlet. I am trying to stay positive and look on the bright side of life.
For now I am just going to relax and process everything that I saw this morning.
Lots of love from Uganda!
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28 December 2016 - 15:03
Annelou Izeren:
Pfoe hé. Wat een verhaal. Trots op je en op je kunde.
Hoop dat je ooit nog wat van die kindjes die je op de wereld hebt gezet kunt ontmoeten. Kijken wat er van ze terecht is gekomen.
Je wordt gemist! Door mij. Loveya -
28 December 2016 - 22:40
Carla:
Ha reentje heftig hoor wat je daar allemaal mee maakt , wat een verschil met hoe het hier alle,aal reilt en zeilt . Nog veel succes de komende weekjes
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