Kaya na nimo!

This has been my mantra as of late. Not only do I say this about a bajillion times to my mamas when I'm laboring with them, but to myself as well. Life is crazy lately. I caught 5! babies last week alone! That means I've had multiple postpartum checks almost every day, A&P and microbiology classes with assignments, I am teaching an A&P class on Monday, birth room shifts and prenatal outreaches, just plain ole living in a house with 12 people...life is a blur.

Thank the good Lord for making one day a week where He commands us to rest and do nothing. I will gladly take Him up on that offer and living here I purposely arrange my schedule so that I can have one true sabbath day per week.
Thankfully the babies have cooperated thus far!

"Kaya na nimo!"
Translation: "You can do it!"

I had the privilege of laboring with and catching this sweet Badjao mama's babe. Here she is, tired but victorious, along with a lola from the village. Outside waiting for the new baby and sleeping on the benches was a whole caravan of people from Isla Verde. It was pretty cool.

I bought a pair of, what is known around here as, "Badjao Pants" from one of the Badjao girls.
The younger girls are always wearing these cute pants with funky prints with all these little details like laced edges and tiny bows with cute pockets. They make these pants themselves.
I have this half-baked idea that I will somehow start a micro-business for a group of girls in Isla Verde and set it up so that these sea gypsies can sell these pants in Portland when I get home. C'mon, you KNOW they would be super popular in Portland with all the hipster girls who ride bikes. Some funky socks underneath?...I can totally see it.
I'm gonna make it happen.

Another mama named Margie...she was really quiet and just TOTALLY didn't need me to be in her cubicle laboring with her, and kind of made that clear. I came in to check her babies heart tones and she started pushing. Out came the baby!
Love it.Afterward during postpartum:
Me: "Akong Bisaya gamay lang!..you sure wala'y English?"
Margie: *shakes her head no*
Me: "Sure ka?"
Margie: *smiles, shakes her head yes*
Me: *sigh* "ok lang."

During her 2 day baby check she answered each one of my questions in perfect English, even when I asked them in Bisayan. :)
Oy vey...language, and the barriers it creates, continue to be the bane of my midwifery existence.

Jo! Her and her bana were hilarious. This was her 5th baby and the second baby she has had at MMC. During her labor both her and her bana told me that they "love to have their babies at MMC" because "they feel like people here." And, that "they feel cared for."
LOVE it.
Joe birthed her baby like a pro, cause, well she is, and WOW come to find out her baby was tambuk! This sweet little girl weighed almost 10 pounds! Practically unheard of for a Filippino babe. The parents seemed unphased. Joe said "I eat alot of gulay (vegetables)."
:)

Here they are at their 2 day baby check. Her bana is a really sweet guy and after I teased him about trying to look like a bad-ass (he refused to smile for a pic) he just started giggling. CUTE KAAYO!And because she is so cute, here's another pic: the 4 day checkThen, on Friday, I had 2 conts go into labor about 7 hours apart! So yeah...I got done with one and was just about to go home...in came another mama for me almost fully and getting pushy!
This equaled a 16 hour shift in the birth room for me, starting at 2:45am.
Kapoy ang midwife! I was exhausted, but to be honest I was totally energized and deeply joyful at the end of that day.

Interestingly, as I was going to bed that night I heard that still, small voice inside say: "Em is going into labor tonight."
"Okay!" said I.
At 2:30am I wake up.
I was just about to nod off again when I feel someone shaking my shoulder, and it's my classmate Hannah waking me up because, you guessed it, Em is in labor.
Jump out of my bunk and throw on some scrubs! Run next door (with a big mug of instant coffee)...
Kaya na nimo Em!...

And she did :) her little baby Bea Cristina was born at 6:40am.
I was SO proud of her. She didn't want to lay down and just chose to squat. At one point I held her in a supported squat and she squatted super low to the ground over the towel that was under her...bam. Baby out! We both looked at each other and scooped up the babe. Afterward she said, "Thanks so much for all the embrace!"
LOVE it.
At her 2 day postpartum check she kept calling me her baby's "Pangalawang ina."
I found out that it means "Second-mother" in Tagalog.
:)
So I got Em all tucked in to the postpartum area and in comes Mon! She is super cute and all smiles, shyly covering her mouth with her hand like she always does. She was so smiley in fact, that I thought, "no WAY is she in active labor."

I was wrong. 2 hours later her incredibly awesome bana comes in (this man was like a doula! No joke. He was amazing. Oh if only all our mamas had such supportive banas!) and in no time flat their sweet baby boy was in her arms.
Here they are at their 2 day check. And they brought me a giant fruit basket to say thank you! So sweet ;)If anyone wants to be so kind, this kapoy midwife would LOVE some Starbucks VIA instant coffee packets and some dark chocolate! Address is on the sidebar
Salamat Kaayo ;)