Nursie!

After days of a quiet labour ward, all those women holding out finally popped. We had a full ward with 9 labouring mamas, and the other volunteers humbly swapped shifts so we had the delivery room all to ourselves. During the mornings lecture on suctioning (babies should cough so we know we’re in the trachea and not the oesophagus what?!) I snuck into the delivery room in time to see a bub fly out. Three midwives were in the room, yet no oxytocin was drawn up and no kangas were ready for the baby, Tanzanian time prevails. The repair of the mamas second degree tear was scarily warped, plus they don’t believe in top ups of local anaesthetic.

2 more babies were born in quick succession: one a tiny 2.5kg girl who caused a huge tear and the other a 4kg sumo girl whose mum was perfectly intact. If I’ve learned anything in my time here, it’s identifying signs of neonatal resus and acting quickly. When the 4kg bub came out stunned, I had already assembled the equipment and Anika was suctioning before the midwife even considered the need to stimulate the baby. She perked up beautifully by the way ☺

Mum and Bub in bed of delivery :)

We scrubbed the delivery down, changed dirty sheets and received such satisfaction from wrapping delivery packs using the new scissors and sterile drapes Anika’s aunt donated. We were sitting down when we heard the familiar “Nursie!” and midwife Hawa waved us over to one of the 15 patient beds. “Deliver” she said smiling, and toddled off to bring a flimsy privacy screen. Grabbing a delivery bundle and snapping on some gloves, I delivered her baby onto her bed in front of the entire ward. Anika and I made the perfect team and without even instructing each other we pulled out all the stops for the healthy baby girls arrival. So proud of us!

On such a high, Anika noticed the lady in the bed next door was in fact Glory, the school teacher from Errat who we had taken to the Snake Park the day before! We had just been discussing maternity gifts for her and there she was cradling her tiny 2.5kg baby girl. Unfortunate that when she complained of a stomach ache the day before the 3 midwifery students didn’t connect the dots, but she did go over a month and a half early! We sneakily bought her baby a pink beanie in celebration, so lovely to finally share a personal connection with a patient. We bypassed the usual tourist lunch spot to eat locally today before collecting gas for the new stove which took 5 people to figure out how to connect!

In the afternoon we were kindly invited to one of our favourite midwife’s house for afternoon tea. On numerous occasions she had warned us that her house required “improvements," but she wore gold jewellery every day and I envisioned a modest cottage. A motorbike carried us through the barren dessert clustered with the cinderblock boxes they call home until we reached Digna’s. She proudly took our bags inside and settled us in the loungeroom before bringing out a feast of fruit, beef stew, chips, fried bananas and rice. The house consisted of a kitchen, lounge and bedroom, a few pieces of furniture and no running water or electricity. Out the back she showed us her prized chicken coup – “we have chicken once a month!” 

We had our last meal at Mamas tonight – Wednesday Night fish heads and cabbage which we washed down with drinks at Sakina Bar. The waitress who is also our new maid during the day mocked me for ordering soda instead of beer. Good night.