Friday, March 28th was our first day in Tonj. We arrived late morning, greeted at the airstrip by In Deed and Truth’s Andrew. We got all of our trunks and boxes to the compound and started unpacking in our room, ate lunch, toured the whole compound (living quarters, radio tower, and clinic), greeted EV’s short-term survey team when they arrived back at the compound, and then started in on a meeting of encouragement and prayer for the radio team.
Shortly after the radio meeting was finished, one of the nurse-midwives with IDAT sent for us ladies (two on the short-term team and myself) so that we could come watch a birth in the clinic. I knew that I wanted to see one, but I prayed that the first birth I saw wouldn’t be difficult or complicated (aka traumatic for me at 5 months pregnant).
Annie, CNM, invited us all the way into the delivery room so that we could watch from the foot-end of the bed. At that point, I was committed, no matter the outcome. The mother labored almost silently except for a whimper or two, and I quietly joked to Christina and Janene that people will hear me when I’m in labor!
Only a few minutes after our arrival, the baby was crowning. I heard Annie say that there was meconium staining, and from all of my reading, I knew that was not good. In such a short time, the baby’s head was out and her body followed quickly. Just like that, Baby Girl slipped into the world! I was completely awed at the miracle of birth, and as Baby Girl cried out, tears filled my eyes.
What a beautiful thing to get to witness!!
Y’all, watching in those moments made me so excited and thankful. I am thankful that I got to see how amazing women’s bodies are…God designed them with such perfection and it was incredible to watch. I am also so thankful for my own gift of life that I’m carrying and am filled with anticipation to meet him!
It was the moments following that made me realize how fragile life is.
Annie clamped and cut the cord, Baby Girl cried out once, and as they were moving her to the scales, she stopped breathing. She was covered in meconium and completely limp. Christina is a doctor, so she, along with Sham, also a nurse-midwife, immediately went to work on the baby. They were trying to stimulate her to take breaths, and quickly listened to her chest. At first, it seemed that she was gasping and I overheard them say her lungs had fluid in them and her heartbeat was slowing. It all happened so quickly, but suddenly they had moved her and were suctioning out her nose and throat, trying hard to get the fluid out.
The mother seemed quite out of it (I later heard that she had a fever and probably malaria), but she just laid on the bed watching the team of medical staff working on her brand new daughter. At one point she half-whispered, “Baby?”
I didn’t know what else to do, so I went to the mother and held her hand. I knew that’s what I would want, and while Dinka women rarely show fear or sadness, I knew she had to be terrified. I didn’t want to tell her that the baby would be fine, because we didn’t know, so I started praying with her. I looked over, and Janene was standing near the baby praying over her. The two of us warred in prayer for what felt like an eternity as they tried so hard to take the baby back from the clutches of death.
Very soon, the mother delivered the placenta and it was quickly evident from the way Annie was responding to her that something was wrong. I asked if she was bleeding too much, and Annie told me she was. She started her on oxytocin and was trying different things to get the bleeding to stop. So I started praying for the mother, begging God to stop the bleeding and spare her life, too.
I kept looking over at the baby, and I saw that they had started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I heard Christina saying that the heartbeat kept slowing, and they were begging her to breathe on her own. I kept thinking, “We cannot watch a baby die today!”
We just kept praying.
After what felt like an eternity, Baby Girl started crying. It was in short bursts at first, but soon she was gaining volume and breathing on her own. Annie also informed me that the mother’s bleeding had slowed significantly and that she would be just fine. I helped the mother to sit up so that she could FINALLY hold her new baby girl. Almost immediately, Baby Girl started to nurse. I think everyone in that room let out a cheer!
We three ladies left the room and prayed some more, as well as let out all of the emotions we had been holding in during that tense time. Both of the ladies were quite worried about me and how I was handling what I saw, but amazingly God used it to show me His power.
In that small room with virtually no medical equipment, that newborn baby girl lived! It was a miracle of life, twice over! I realized that where we tend to rely on medical equipment and all of our knowledge and skills, it’s really always up to God. That gives me great comfort for my own Little Man.
This was the only picture I snagged, just before we realized how critical Baby Friday’s condition was. They had just laid her on the scales to weigh her in…
