july 14th

so...the last few days have been interesting...i just got home from doing a birth with marthonie, of a lady who it was her 12th time giving birth. she had a huge belly, and we weren't sure if she didn't have twins. marthonie and i stayed late to do her birth. i had talked with her yesterday and she was telling me that she had 5 living children. the other 6 had all died at various ages--3 months to 2 years. her pushing stage took ashile because she had this huge swollen anterior lip (of the cervix) but she wouldn't let us push it back. she was praying and singing the whole time...along with another woman in labor who was also singing (the women here sing and hum alot in labor) and who was going to get a cesarean after laboring all day with the same dilation (6cms) with a face presentation, which wasn't applying good pressure to the cervix. i was in a cesarean today too, because there was this lady in active labor, not progressing well, with thick mec, and i came in in case the bb needed to be resusitated. he didn't, all was fine. there was a baby born the other night who was about 29 weeks gestation, and is making it. we are tube feeding him colostrum. he weighs 1 kilo (less than 2 1/2 pounds). there is another baby who is 1.2 kilos, who is a little premature but mostly growth restricted, as the mom had pre eclampsia and probably has chronic hypertension. this baby is BF well, because he is able to suck. the other baby can't suck yet. it's interesting how this little 29 week old baby is vigorous and doesn't need oxygen and just needs help eating, whereas we see 33 week old babies that die.
just a little update...
reina