More babies...

So far this month there have been five boys born at the clinic and two girls. On Sunday we were at the clinic waiting for a baby to be born when Keith called and said some twins that had just been born were on the way to the clinic also. So he and Candace came too, as we were thinking the baby would be born any minute. So... The lady in labor delivers a healthy nine pound girl and before we were finished with her the twins were there too. They each weighed a little over three pounds. They were both crying when they came in but it was obvious they had just been born also. They were about two months early. The mom didn't come, two uncles just brought the babies. They were partly dressed and wrapped in one blanket each but they were still too cold. The one didn't have good color at all but the other one was nice and pink. We washed them up a little then dressed them and wrapped them together in several blankets. When we were washing the one whose coloring wasn't good he had something strange all over him. We asked what it was and they said they had rubbed him with mayi moule ( grits) because he didn't want to breathe. They were identical boys, down to each of them having a small extra digit on each hand. We didn't do anything with the extra fingers now, we can later if they live. I don't think the one will make it but the other seemed strong so far.

We sent them back home with instructions to put them skin to skin on mom's chest, no clothes between and get them warmed up. Then try to get them to nurse later that evening. In United States those babies would have went straight to an intensive care unit... And we sent them back home... But there are no neonatal intensive care units near here.
    Last week on Wednesday we sent a patient down to Port. I rode with in the back of the ambulance with her because we wanted to keep her on IVF's. Two family members went with also. For those of you who don't know, the back of the ambulance does not provide a smooth ride at all! By the time we were 20 minutes down the road one of the ladies was sweating already and feeling quite car sick so I handed her a trash bag. I had warned them that they might get sick, and that I might too. I did okay, just every time after I spent a minute or two changing a bag of IVF's or checking her oxygen saturations I  would have to look out the front window and concentrate pretty hard on not being sick. The poor family member though, she threw up off and on all the way down the mountain. We were taking the lady down because she had had a baby at about eight o'clock that morning and had come to the clinic at 1215 because the placenta was never born. The baby had died. Well, by that time, everything was happening as it should and I just couldn't get my fingers in far enough to get a hold of the placenta. The more I tried it kept breaking into pieces so we took her down for a d & c.
   The little girl with the burned arm is finished with her dressing changes. I am very pleased with how well it healed.

   On Friday morning a lady came into the clinic with abdominal pain. She was seven months pregnant. This was her first pregnancy so she didn't know if she was in labor or not. I checked her and yes the baby was going to be born soon. I was unable to find a fetal heart rate though and the mom said the baby had stopped moving that morning. Shortly after she delivered a little girl, still born, no heart rate at all and bad coloring. I don't know what happened for sure but for one thing the mom had a bad infection.
   After hours that night another lady came in in labor. She had eight children already and really made quick work of the whole deal. I think we were at the clinic a total of one hour. April came with me to that delivery, she is turning into a nurse very nicely... And quickly.
   One other thing that happened last week,  a little boy had come in with some kind of an abdominal infection. We put him on antibiotics and it was looking much better, until that morning when the mom brought him in. I guess she wanted it to heal faster or something, anyway, she put some kind of leaves on it. Now it was infected worse than ever, and there were even a couple of openings in his skin. Zach was taking the ambulance down that day so we sent this boy and his mom down with him. The mom didn't have a cell phone. Several days later this boys dad came to the house very worried. He had been down to Port and couldn't find his wife and son. They weren't at the hospital where Zach  had dropped them off and the dad couldn't find them. It took several days to work that one out, but they were found at another hospital.
   That's all for tonight...