Caity and I decided to work our last day doing the morning
shift together and it was the longest slowest day EVER. No babies, and hardly any
admissions. We bantered one last time with the Nurses and Doctors, Nursing students and medical studnets who we’ve
become so fond of. I said my goodbyes to the security guard who I befriended
over the last few weeks. I helped some
moms with breastfeeding and said my last goodbyes to some of the moms who have
been on the Maternity ward for the past few weeks.
As I’ve said I got what I came for, I grew and expanded my
confidence in my skills. However, I
totally wish I had another breech birth under my belt. It became a joke today
that we’ve missed all the vaginal breech deliveries because it either happened
fast or the Midwives were unaware of our request to be called. Regardless they all happened when we weren’t
on shift so it just wasn’t meant to be.
Today there was a mother who was stuck at about 4cm with a footling
breech. Basically this baby was trying to walk out and it just wasn’t going to
happen. Caity checked her and felt
little baby toes grab her fingers. (I so wanted to check her but couldn’t make
this Mom go through another exam after all she had been through so far) We helped get her ready for a C-section and
that was the last birth that occurred while we were on our shift.
The day before I caught my last baby as a Midwifery student.
This 4th time mom was hardly contracting and hanging out at 7cm for
hours. We finally broke her water and still not much was happening so we did as
they do here and gave her an enema. She
went for a walk. Came back almost two hours later and I checked her and she was
still 7 so we gave her a tiny tiny bit of oxytocin in her IV and within 10 min
she wanted to push. I checked her again and she was STILL 7cm but this time her
baby was MUCH lower. We helped her breath, I set up for the birth, put my
gloves on just in time to turn around and see the head almost out. 1.5 pushes and her first baby boy was
earthside. It was a great last birth I
did everything with ease and sutured without anyone over my shoulder, and after
I was done the midwife happily approved of my work. (PHEW)
It’s so weird to develop relationships with people and work
with them every day for a month and know that you most likely won’t see them
again. There are a few midwives that would love to venture out of St. Lucia and
I hope one day to have them come visit and see how we do things on our
end. The hospital is also planning on
moving to a new location in the next year and attempts are being made to do
things a bit differently so I’d love to come back in a few years with some
bright eyed students to see these amazing women again.
4 more days in St. Lucia and hopefully a little bit more fun
before we leave.
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