Caffeine And Even More Caffeine

After being threatened to being woken up by a bucket of cold water if I’m not up at a normal time, today I actually woke up before midday! Realised I’m pretty much just keeping on English time which really isn’t helping to get over jet lag so I’m forcing myself to stay awake with caffeine and no naps 🙁

Today I was downstairs by 10am which meant catching the last of the postnatal appointments. Here they check mother and baby’s vital signs and weigh the baby but as it was mostly in Tagalog and I only caught the end, I’m not sure what else was checked.

In the centre we have a premature baby who was born at 32 weeks about 3 weeks ago who needs 24/7 care and a constant supply of oxygen. Today I was looking after him while his mother went out. I sympathise for her as she has to stay in the same room all day and all night and has done for the last few weeks, and will probably need to continue for a couple more. ‘Looking after’ basically means making sure his oxygen levels are regulated – because he is so tiny, his oxygen tube often falls out! He is connected to a machine that continuously beeps and occasionally it stops, for example if he moves in his sleep, or it makes a loud noise – if he is in a deep sleep and his heart rate slows – and whenever this happened I think my heart literally stopped. It definitely kept me on edge and constantly looking at the machine!

I was also able to see another birth this morning! Heard Rebecca going “where’s Miri!? Somebody get Miri!” so I ran to the delivery room just in time to see a woman give birth. I helped to dry him off during ‘Golden Hour’ however there was a lot of blood because she tore. I’ve noticed this tend to happen quiet a lot but the thing I’ve found most bizarre is how silent some of the women are! When I say they make no noise, I mean NO noise but it is definitely a cultural thing! Another cultural thing I think is a very good idea is the dad or whoever has come with the mother is responsible for cleaning up any mess, e.g. if there’s blood on the floor then it’s their responsibility!

After some lunch and a couple hours of trying to not fall asleep, I went back downstairs and was able to see another birth! We had a lot of births today – 5 (so far) so was very busy. This baby was the first girl I’ve seen so so far I’ve seen 3 boys and 1 girl which is exactly like me and my brothers which is a funny coincidence! This is also the first birth I’ve seen where the head is born in one contraction and the body in another – was a very unusual image to just see the head before the body!

When I went downstairs last night I didn’t see any births, however I began to learn how to measure blood pressure, which is something that has always confused me!

I also found the guidelines on ‘Golden Hour’

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