My First Birth!!

After a horrible nights sleep due to jet lag and an adventure with a bird, tonight I saw my first birth!

I was just sat on the sofa trying to wake myself up when I saw something moving out the corner of my eye…turns out a BIRD had managed to get into our room and was flying around!! It took me a while but I was eventually able to swat this bird out with an old pizza box after trying (with no success) with a broom and my hands and I was all alone in our flat. At this point there was a very loud thunderstorm going on outside, lots of rain and lightning which (thankfully) woke me up, so there was a bit of drama to start the day.

After coming back from dinner, there were three women in labour so I decided to get my scrubs on and come and wait downstairs to see if I would witness my first birth! After some waiting, one of the women came into the delivery room ready to push. I was amazed by how quiet all the women were during all stages of labour – such a contrast to the noisy units back in the UK! As this was the woman’s first birth, we weren’t sure how long she’d be pushing for, can be very short or very long – although nothing is certain in childbirth. This particular woman was pushing for about half an hour but her waters had to be broken by the midwife. As soon as she started pushing we could see the baby’s hair and in the Philippines they get first time mothers to sit in a particular position, with their feet together over their stomach and legs wide open. Once the baby’s head was about to come out, the mother kept pushing despite the midwives trying to tell her to stop and because of this she got a tear which was sewn up after the birth. It amazed me how something as big as a baby’s head can come out of such a small area!! The baby born was a little boy, and I was able to clamp and cut the cord which felt so bizarre.
However, once the birth was over I was so overheated due to there being about 5/6 of us in this tiny room with no fan at over 25 degrees that I fainted!! It also didn’t help that I had been stood for a long time with locked legs and tight gloves and scrubs and hadn’t drank enough water today…lesson learned.

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