Back in Manilla one of my ministries was assisting at a pregnancy clinic walking distance from where my squad and I were staying. After a busy morning taking vitals on mothers or soon to be mothers it was safe to say I was a little tired. After things calmed down my team leader, Taryl and I went to the check up room to see if Faith (the Dr.) needed us to help her with anything else before we left for lunch. As we were talking a woman rushed in with her toddler and was speaking frantically to Faith in Tagalog. Not understanding their conversation Taryl and I waited anxiously as they shortly wrapped it up. Not long after the woman left the room and another woman entered the room visibly struggling and holding her stomach. She was pregnant. We quickly rushed to help her to the nearby bed and got her situated before asking Faith what was wrong.I thought she was having issues with her pregnancy. But Faith briefly explained that she was going to have her baby right then. “Wait…what?” Probably went through my head about five times before I was thrown into the situation…I was wide awake by now. Before I knew it Mel (the midwife) was instructing me to put on gloves to assist with the delivery. I have no experience with delivering a baby whatsoever, I remember praying for God to help me with this one. Everything happened so fast, we didn’t have time to get the mother to the actual birthing room because she was fully dilated by the time she got to the clinic and the baby was on its way. We grabbed the necessary equipment to prepare for the baby and got ready. Mel instructed Taryl saying,”okay so you catch the baby.”And I’m thinking, “catch the baby?” Because I was told to stand at the end of the bed and hold the mother’s feet in place as she prepared to push. They weren’t kidding when the said, “catch” because within ten minutes of effort Taryl had a baby in her hands! Taryl and Mel cut the umbilical cord and Faith rushed to take care of the precious little one, as we took care of the mother. After we got both the mother and her new little girl taken care of we left the room to let them rest.
You know how having a baby is supposed to be a happy moment? Or that you’re surrounded by friends and family crying tears of joy for a new life? This wasn’t that scene, it was the complete opposite. When we left I was observing the mother and she almost seemed upset about her newborn, which took me by surprise. It seemed like we were more excited than she was. We later found out that the woman with the toddler that I mentioned was her neighbor and the mother went to her for help to get to the clinic because her husband was drunk and was in no state to care for his wife. This baby was also her fourth baby, she already had three little ones at home. And at full term she only weighed 4lbs 7oz.
After the mother had been resting for a while Taryl and I had the honor to pray over the mother and her precious baby. Toward the end of our time there with them, the mother seemed to become more joyful as she saw our excitement for her and her new child. We reminded her that she wasn’t alone in this and that we were there for her and for her little girl. After leaving her to spend time with her newborn, Taryl and I went out for lunch considering we missed our scheduled lunch. But it was definitely worth it. During our lunch out we stopped at store to get a little gift for the newborn girl. We found a stuffed animal shop full from floor to ceiling with different sizes of all different kinds of animals. I picked out a little pink teddy bear with a pink bow. After our lunch and the teddy bear purchased we headed back to the clinic and were delighted to see the mother and her baby still there. We decided to let her rest a little more and we helped with Mel with some laundry. I had my first experience of hand washing laundry. A bucket, some water, and soap is all it takes to make it work. Mel was explaining to us that it had been a month since they last did laundry because she had a c-section two months prior, which made Taryl and I even more than happy to do it for her. After the laundry was washed, rinsed, twisted dry to the best of our ability, and hung up outside we made our way over the the mother’s room. This time we entered the mother gave us a smile and her baby girl was resting next to her side. We gave her the little gift we picked up and she loved it and was grateful.
We unfortunately had to head back home but we were both thankful to see the mother smiling with her baby girl. This day was so memorable and precious. Witnessing the miracle of life is precious.
9/22/14
