The past 7 weeks have been quite full and it's hard to pick out the details to share. I was able to spend a wonderful week in Bugnay near the end of October. It was fun, relaxing, and a good break from the norm. I always look forward to my time spent there. The weekend I got home all the staff and volunteers at the clinic had the opportunity to do a shoulder dystocia (a complication in birth resulting from the baby's shoulders getting stuck somewhere in the pelvis) workshop with Gail Tully (www.spinningbabies.com). Gail is a very respected midwife who specializes in "spinning" babies into optimal positions for birth, as well as techniques to resolve shoulder dystocias. We first watched a workshop video, in which our hearts all stopped as it showed a dystocia that was over 6 minutes, and then had a Skype call with Gail the next evening to ask any questions. It was such a great learning experiences and we were all thankful that Gail was so willing to share her wisdom with us.
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| Shock, awe, and nervous laughter while watching a VERY long dystocia. |
Life continues to be filled with amazing moms, adorable babies, and jamming my brain full of as much information as possible. I honestly feel like the more I learn, the less I know. My great friend and now certified midwife, Aisling, says that's a great place to be - that it keeps us humble as midwives. I sure hope she's right ;) I do find though, that the more I see and learn, the more hungry I am to continue learning. I'm pretty thankful for that fact.
Besides all the learning, I'd have to be honest and say that I've been struggling quite a bit. I don't say that to evoke pity from anyone, instead I just ask for your prayers. I LOVE my life here and have nothing to complain about, at all! However, that hasn't changed the fact that I have been feeling so emotionally exhausted. I'm sure you can all relate to that feeling. I've come to the place more than a few times where I feel like I have nothing to give, no words to say, and no energy to put into anyone or anything. I've felt empty and unable to refill. Thankfully, I serve and am loved by a great God who does that refilling for me and is right there in the midst of any struggle. I am in a place where I want to be able to pour God's love into the awesome women I am around, and your prayers that I would continually be able to do that would be so appreciated!
And to add something really important to that prayer list...
Meet MJ!
My amazing continuity patient delivered this adorable little guy last week. Before I tell you more about him, let me just brag for a minute about his mom. MJ decided to make is appearance a little bit "late" so we were in the position of needing to try a bunch of techniques to get labor progressing. His mom was amazing! Her and I had quite the fun time walking up and down stairs, and up and down again, and again... Not gonna lie - my legs were sore!
In the wee hours of the morning, we welcomed MJ to the world. He was born with a complete cleft lip and palate. As you can imagine, this poses some breast feeding challenges. While he is able to breastfeed a little bit, he is not able to get as much milk as he needs from the breast on his own. Amazingly, Georgia had a connection to a clinic in Manila who had just received some donations. Included in those donations was a special bottle made for babies with clefts. This clinic sent up the bottle as well as a breast pump for MJs mom to keep. The picture is MJ trying the bottle for the first time. He did so well!! His mom and I were very proud. I'm so thrilled to report that MJ is now gaining weight and so far has been a very healthy little guy. I'd love it if you could keep him and his mom in your prayers. Please pray that she would feel loved and supported as she faces these special challenges, and that MJ would continue to gain weight and remain healthy!
The past week has blessed me with two other adorable babies born to awesome Momma's! :)
It's hard not to love what you do when you are surrounded by these little ones...
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| RJ |
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| Chad Beau |
That's all for tonight! Thanks for reading :)
Oh, and to my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving!!
Much love,
A
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