A labor of love.

three days until Christmas----- hello from Mali!

So after some much-needed Mali-hating, I have regained perspective.


I got to see my first woman in labor. Woo--- oh Africa with such craziness in it! So every Tuesday is V-day (vagina day) at the CSCOM... and this week a girl (about 17) came in already having contractions. It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed. Scarier than half my face not working, scarier than a thief running off with our oreos and underwear.... scarier than the LSAT. First off, the girl was exhausted and nothing had actually happened yet. A tiny portion of the babys head was out, but that was it. So there I am... in this tiny room with the two midwives and this poor girl on the hard, tile floor with nothing to push against; the irony of which being that they actually have one of those pregnancy-helper tables with the stirrups, but they dont really know how to use them. So yeah... i find that I am silently praying for this girl to find the strength to get the baby out.... and then the head pops out just far enough so that we all can see the umbilical cord is wrapped around the babys neck. This is where Michele goes into panic-mode. I step up the praying a bit.... you can see that the baby is not breathing, not moving, and is a freakishly ghostly shade of blue. Then Minata, the head midwife, grabs the baby by the head and neck and pulls him out. (horrifying) Then she unwraps the cord and starts pounding on the babys chest.... and I am freaking out... is this okay? Will it not hurt the baby worse than he is clearly already hurting? Then she grabs a bottle of bleach and starts rubbing it on the baby... why? I have no idea. Then she sucks out all the stuff in the babys mouth and nose and still----- no breathing. Inside I am panicing. What if the baby doesnt live? The young mother is way too exhausted to move... then minata grabs the baby by the arm and pulls him up onto the table she should have given birth on. (horrifying) Then, thank GOD, the baby starts making some faint sounds.... and minata starts pounding on his chest again.... he cries and breathes.
The mother eventually gets up, washes off, and walks to a room where she will be for another hour or so, and then she will walk home. Oh---- in Mali.... they also keep their placenta and bury it so that nothing bad will happen to the baby.

OK---- I love you guys. Merry Christmas!