Backwards baby

I have been hoping that I would be able to catch a breech baby while I am here. Georgia is ok with doing breech births here at the clinic as long as it isn't the woman's first baby; and in fact, since I have been here we've done four breech births. I observed for one breech birth back in November and it was beautiful!! And again in March I assisted for a breech birth that didn't go so well. So, I'd seen a great on and a not so great one. Talk about extremes!! 

Last week we had a woman come in for her first prenatal. By her dates she was 34 weeks and 5 days with the baby in a suspected breech position. They sent her for an ultrasound which she brought in two days later confirming that the baby was indeed breech, and with a gestational age of 38 weeks and 4 days. Georgia said because this was her fourth baby that she would be allowed to deliver here at the clinic. I was secretly hoping that I would get to be the one, but because I was about 3rd down on the rotation I had my doubts. Each time the clinic phone would ring I'd pray that it wouldn't be the breech patient, and each time it wasn't. Finally, I was second up, but there was already a labor who was 8cm and I began to change my prayers..."please let my labor be the breech. I really want the experience while I am here, with people more experienced than me to help should the need arise." 

I went to bed that night and slept very well. A little before 7am Chel came and said my labor was here..."and it's the breech." REALLY?!?! I quickly changed into my scrubs and ran downstairs. I noted that she was having good contractions as I checked all her vitals. When I did an IE she was 6cm dilated, intact bag of waters and with the bum indeed presenting. 

She labored very well, laying down for most of her labor. At 10:30 she was getting rather active and was bearing down a little bit with contractions. I did another IE to check her progress, and she was 8cm. Because the bum was well applied, we had get up and exercise a bit, sitting on the birth ball. However, she was having a very difficult time breathing through her contractions, and was bearing down quite a bit. 

Now, let take a moment and explain a bit about breech births. When the baby is coming backwards it is important that the mother not push until she is completely dilated and the baby is born until the umbilicus. This is because the body of the baby is more moldable than the head and could be born before the cervix is completely dilated thus causing the head to become trapped behind the cervix. This is a VERY dangerous situation and should NEVER happen!! 

Now, on with the story...I had her lay down on the bed again to take the pressure of the baby off her cervix, thus allowing her to breath through her contractions. At 11:30 my supervisor had me do another IE. She was still about the same as before with her bag of waters (BOW) REALLY bulging. We discussed breaking her BOW with her to ensure that the cervix didn't begin to close again after SROM (spontaneous rupture of membranes), and she decided yes, this would be ok. So, I broke the BOW and the bum came further down the birth canal. We had her continue to breath for as long as possible. With each contraction I could see the baby's bum just inside and he began to poop. This is quite normal for a breech baby due to the fact that they are really getting squeezed. The other thing we noticed was that his little boy parts were being quite smashed. We all kind of chuckled, but felt sorry for the little guy.

She continued breathing for about 45 minutes at which point the bum was about 4 cm visible so we moved her to the edge of the bed, so that the baby's body would hang as it came out, helping the head to flex for a *hopefully* easy birth. She continued breathing well, with bearing down only at the height of a contraction. As he began to emerge from his mother, I wrapped a towel around and began to support him a little, but still allowing him to hang a bit so as to keep his head flexed while Georgia did supra pubic pressure with the same intention. I slipped my hand under his face (which was facing his mama's back) and helped to guide his head out, after which we placed him on his mama's tummy, rubbed him down and he began to cry almost immediately. We were all ready to resuscitate if needed, and everyone was happy that it wasn't needed. :) 

It was such a BEAUTIFUL breech birth and I felt so honored to have caught a healthy little boy. I know that not all breech births go as smoothly (like I said, I've seen one that was pretty traumatic), and am very thankful that this one went so well. And to top it off, the mama asked me to name her son. I gave her a few suggestions that started with A (she wanted an A name because the baby was born in April), one of which was Alvin, the name of my grandpa. She ended up deciding upon the name Alvin James. He's a super cute little guy with a perfectly round head!! :) He weighed 3.09 kilos (6lbs 8 oz) and had Apgar scores of 9 and 10!!

He looks like he's trying to eat the little duck on his shirt. :)

He looks a bit worried in this picture...but he's still SUPER cute!! :)

Tianne caught a little boy that same day. Oh! We do love our job!! :)

What do you do when you catch a lizzard?

I was sitting in my room when I heard the dogs barking. This isn't really strange though, since they bark at EVERYTHING!! But they were barking pretty incessantly, so I thought I should go see if there was a patient here. When I looked out from the balcony I saw that they were barking at some men in the rice field. It was clear that they were hunting something, though I wasn't sure what. As I continued to watch, the man holding a 2x4 quickly whacked at something among the rice. He bent down and lifted up a big old lizard!!  I grabbed my camera from my room, hollered at Tianne to come downstairs and ran out the door. 

They had tied his feet together and laughed when I asked if I could pick it up.

I asked him what he was going to do with it...was he going to cook it? He said they'd make adobo (a Filipino dish) out of it. I asked if I could try a bit when it was finished and he laughed as he said yes. Maybe he didn't think an American would ever want to eat lizard. :)

I few hours later they said it was finished so we went over and picked up a bowl of lizard adobo.
The Filipino girls were horrified that they'd left the skin on the lizard! It was kinda funny. :)

Tianne and I were pretty excited about trying it though!! :)

It tasted kinda like a gamey chicken...but with the texture of greasy pork.

We're not quite sure what this was...any guesses?

Tianne thought she'd give the skin a try...it was pretty chewy!

All in all, trying lizard adobo was a pretty fun experience!! :)

1000th baby

I'd like to introduce you to Prince Charleson. This handsome little greeted his 9 brothers and sisters on April 11, 2012. While he is pretty special himself, the fact the he was the 1000th catch at Abundant Grace of God adds to it! :)

 

Happy Holi!!

Two years ago around this time I was in India throwing powder color all over my friends. This is how Holi, the festival of colors, is celebrated in India.
There are various legends entwined within this festival. However, the most common is this...

There was once a demon king named Hiranyakashyap who declared that everyone in his kingdom should worship only him. However, his own son, Prahlad was an ardent devotee of Naarayana (Lord Vishnu) and refused to worship his father. Hiranyakashyap became enraged and swore to kill the boy. He made several attempts but each one failed. Finally, he went to his sister to enlist her help. Holika had received a boon and was believed to be indestructible by fire. However, instead of the boy being burned up it was Holika herself who was devoured by the fire. Lord Vishnu protected Prahlad and later destroyed Hiranyakashyap.

Holi is thus a celebration of the victory of good over evil and the triumph of devotion.

Now, you may be wondering where the color has come from...Lord Kirshna was rather flirtatious as a young man. In the spring time He enjoyed throwing color on his beloved Radha and other gopis (a cow-herd girl). This flirtatious play became popular with the people and became associated with the Holi festival.

So, in celebration of Holi...here's some pictures from the other year!! ENJOY!!

The day before they celebrate with color the women come to the bonfire site and offer puja...worship

The women wrap string around the pier to hold all the evil in when it is burned.

One day this mother will be teaching her child to pray to Jesus

This was Suzy and I when we were leaving our house with clean faces...soon to be covered in color!

This is my friend Joti. She is on my language route and took me to get my nose pierced.

This is Joti's son...handsome young man, isn't he?

Getting colored is rather fun!!

I captured this one as we were going up the hill and they were coming down. He was about to smother my cheeks in color

Even the dogs get in on the fun!!

Sometimes I wonder if the kids have more fun during these festivals...

But then I see men like Kishan, our shoe maker...and think, nope it's an equal enjoyment

Notice the woman with all the color as well?

Just look at that joy on her face!

Oh yeah. And they throw water too, so all the color blends together into a nice black paste that when dry resembles stiff leather

We Need YOU to Become a Midwife - Kendra Adkisson

   
This is so awesome!!! Sorry if some find it a bit inappropriate...but if you know midwives or are a midwife, you will understand. :) 

Happy Birthday....

Guess what? My birthday is in just 31 days!!! March 25 to be exact. And I'll be celebrating with two of my classmates, one of the Filipino midwives, and Emmaus (Georgia's oldest boy) who all have birthdays in March. It's gonna be a pretty fun birthday with all those people to share it with!!

This brings me to my birthday request...I would love to have an overflowing mailbox for my birthday!! Letters and cards and packages, oh my!! Would you help to make my birthday wonderful by sending a letter, card or package? A letter/card cost approximately 98 ¢. With packages, it's best to send one of the Priority Mail flat rate boxes. We've never had a problem getting them and they are usually cheaper than if you pack just a random box. As far as filling out the customs form...the less you put the better. Any edible things should just be listed as "confections".

Now, how about some suggestions for packages...

• COFFEE!!! Beans or ground...regular or flavored...
• Chocolate...dark...with almonds....with cherries....toffee... hey, chocolate is  chocolate
• Dried fruits....especially blueberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, raspberries...
•  Reece's Pieces/cups
• Nuts...pecans, almonds, walnuts, macaroons, cashews....
• Beef (or deer works too!!) jerky
• Pepperoni
• Twin bings (for those who live in the Sioux City area)
• Fun baking things...we will be needing to make a FABULOUS cake since we've got so many people with birthdays!! 

These are just a few ideas, feel free to use you imagination. Now for the address...

Sara Zellmer
c/o Abundant Grace of God Maternity Center
Magsaysay, Tabuk City, Kalinga 3800
PHILIPPINES

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement while I've been here learning how to be a midwife!!
~sara~

Worry

Anxiety has been my natural posture, my default stiffness. The way I curl my toes up, tight retreat. How I angle my jaw, braced, chisel the brow with the lines of distrust. How I don't fold my hands in prayer...weld them into tight fists of control. Always control--pseudopower from the pit. How I refuse to relinquish worry, babe a mother won't forsake, an identity. Do I hold worry close as this ruse of control, this pretense that I'm the one who will determine the course of events as I stir and churn and ruminate? Worry is the facade of taking action when prayer really is. And stressed, this pitched word that punctuates every conversation, is it really my attempt to prove how indispensable I am? Or is it more? Maybe disguising my deep fears as stress seems braver somehow. 


As I read One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp this morning I was struck by this paragraph. My friend teases me that I don't worry. But that's not true. She doesn't see it because I just do it internally, not externally. I think that if I keep all my worry on the inside...put up a facade of control, that everything will be ok. And then when things blow up I feel like a complete failure. I beat myself up on the inside, letting the enemy taking advantage of it...telling me how worthless I am because I couldn't get everything done.

This morning I read in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 


God has given me all that I need to acomplish each days tasks. By myself, I can do nothing. My giant to-do list will always remain just that, giant. Unless I stop worrying, and give it to God. I almost skipped my quiet time today, thinking I've got too much to do today...maybe tonight I'll read my Bible. But I'm so glad I didn't.

My to-do list is still just as big as it was before, and it still seems daunting...I don't know how I'm going to get all that I still have to do done...but you know what? Worrying will not do anything to that list!! God has made me adequate to start knocking things off that list one by one.

So, today when I begin to worry I will open my tight fists of control, take the hand of God and pray. I will tell Him of my worries, let Him take them onto His shoulders. Because really, His are stronger than mine. He has the strength to carry them...not me.

What helps you when you feel that you can't go on any more? When all you want to do is give up? When your life seems to be imploding around you? How do you open your tight fists of control?