Well, today was more interesting, I'll admit (but not so interesting that I wasn't aware of the fact that the Year Elevens in my school were currently taking Math and later Biology IGCSE exams and how badly I wanted to be there).
I arrived ten minutes late and again the man whose name I do not know, greeted me and showed me to the maternity ward (great, more pregnant women). Immediately I came in, I heard shouts from a woman in a corner of the ward. Nobody seemed to be paying her any mind. Most others were rolling around in pain, with the occasional moan or shout.
I was introduced to the midwives and nurses – there was not a doctor in sight – and they then immediately started rounds (I thank Grey’s Anatomy for giving me that vocabulary), which I thought pretty cool. Many of the women were uncomfortable, and the woman in the corner kept on shouting in Igbo. I did, however, notice that a woman in another corner was slowly sipping her tea, with a face that said “Thank God I’m not dealing with that.”
When I go to said woman, I realized why she had such as face. She had a new born on the bed, face up. The nurse told her to turn her over to the side, and I wondered why but assumed she wanted to do some testing. When she didn’t and I noticed that all newborns were on their side, I asked why. It turns out that babies often throw up things and if you were to lay them flat they would choke on it. (Finally, I learned something new.)
I made sure to ask a lot of questions. “Why can’t we give the mothers pain killers?” (Too much would affect the baby), “What’s that whitish stuff that the baby’s covered in?” (I can’t spell what they said).I got the chance to clean the said whitish stuff off the baby; you use extra virgin olive oil to. The baby seemed to enjoy it. The mother however, was still in pain. The first delivery I saw was extremely quick; the placenta came out only three minutes after the baby. The woman was the one shouting earlier, and once the baby was out she started signing (in Igbo). I then examined the placenta with a nurse. The whole thing was rather exciting.
There wasn’t much to do after that, so I went into what I feel is the break room for the nurses / midwives. It’s a small, relatively dark room with two hospital beds and a wardrobe. I stayed there a bit too long, and wasn’t called so I missed most of the circumcisions and only made it in time for two (the poor boys). The second delivery was after lunch. It was very sudden and I enjoyed the rush of it all, because at some point we were looking for the woman’s “delivery mat” and I scattered her bag looking for it.
The baby also gave her a cut as he came out, one the midwife had to sow. Boys. Trouble right from the beginning.
It was a relatively slow day. The nurses we met in the morning left around three pm, and by then I was just sitting in the ward, really bored and a bit tired. I felt their pity towards me, many of them saying our working day should be shorter. I then felt a bit of pity towards my classmates, many who were working to five or six, whereas I would close at four..
I arrived ten minutes late and again the man whose name I do not know, greeted me and showed me to the maternity ward (great, more pregnant women). Immediately I came in, I heard shouts from a woman in a corner of the ward. Nobody seemed to be paying her any mind. Most others were rolling around in pain, with the occasional moan or shout.
I was introduced to the midwives and nurses – there was not a doctor in sight – and they then immediately started rounds (I thank Grey’s Anatomy for giving me that vocabulary), which I thought pretty cool. Many of the women were uncomfortable, and the woman in the corner kept on shouting in Igbo. I did, however, notice that a woman in another corner was slowly sipping her tea, with a face that said “Thank God I’m not dealing with that.”
When I go to said woman, I realized why she had such as face. She had a new born on the bed, face up. The nurse told her to turn her over to the side, and I wondered why but assumed she wanted to do some testing. When she didn’t and I noticed that all newborns were on their side, I asked why. It turns out that babies often throw up things and if you were to lay them flat they would choke on it. (Finally, I learned something new.)
I made sure to ask a lot of questions. “Why can’t we give the mothers pain killers?” (Too much would affect the baby), “What’s that whitish stuff that the baby’s covered in?” (I can’t spell what they said).I got the chance to clean the said whitish stuff off the baby; you use extra virgin olive oil to. The baby seemed to enjoy it. The mother however, was still in pain. The first delivery I saw was extremely quick; the placenta came out only three minutes after the baby. The woman was the one shouting earlier, and once the baby was out she started signing (in Igbo). I then examined the placenta with a nurse. The whole thing was rather exciting.
There wasn’t much to do after that, so I went into what I feel is the break room for the nurses / midwives. It’s a small, relatively dark room with two hospital beds and a wardrobe. I stayed there a bit too long, and wasn’t called so I missed most of the circumcisions and only made it in time for two (the poor boys). The second delivery was after lunch. It was very sudden and I enjoyed the rush of it all, because at some point we were looking for the woman’s “delivery mat” and I scattered her bag looking for it.
The baby also gave her a cut as he came out, one the midwife had to sow. Boys. Trouble right from the beginning.
It was a relatively slow day. The nurses we met in the morning left around three pm, and by then I was just sitting in the ward, really bored and a bit tired. I felt their pity towards me, many of them saying our working day should be shorter. I then felt a bit of pity towards my classmates, many who were working to five or six, whereas I would close at four..
No comments:
Post a Comment