The excitement this afternoon

Some of us were done with our babies for the afternoon and some of us were still enjoying time with our little ones. I had just finished feeding my baby her bottle when the Haitian administrator came running into the house talking loudly in Kreyol. I really did not know what she was saying so I went outside and asked her driver who is bi-lingual. He said one of their nannies was walking home from work and she delivered her baby along the side of the road. Turns out the few people at the orphanage who knew she was expecting her fifth baby did not know that she was far enough along to be due.

So the Haitian administrator (who is also a nurse), Linda W., Susan (a peds nurse here from Scotland) and myself were driven up the road by her driver. When we got there the nanny had already delivered her baby. We wrapped the baby and the placenta in a towel and Susan took care of drying the baby off and I put a hemastat on the cord. Another one of GLA's nurses was also there and she tied off the cord with betadine soaked gauze. I had no idea how they did it here--there were no cord clamps! I massaged the mom's belly every few minutes and then we got the mom and the baby into GLA's truck and brought them back to the orphanage. Susan brought the baby up to the nursery and I drew up the vitamin K shot and Susan put drops in the baby's eyes. Then she diapered, dressed and wrapped up the baby to bring her to the mom to nurse.

The baby was a girl, weighed almost 7 pounds and both mother and baby seem to be doing well.

What a hard life the people here in Haiti have. Please keep them in your prayers as we really have no idea what kind of hardships they face on a daily basis. Thankfully this mom has a job but so many others do not.

Cheryl