Bring Your Own Nurse

I saw birth!!!  I went to the hospital with Claudine (my midwife mom here) for her 24 hours off to spend the night and hopefully see a birth, and I saw 3!!!!

Baby #1!  Boy, Garcon, Lehilahy (8 lbs)

The first one was a tiny girl who was 16 and it was her first baby, so it was hard, and it's taboo in madagascar to cry or shout or basically show any facial expression at all, because birthing is a woman's job and you should be able to do it without complaining. Claudine had to give her oxytocin to accelerate the birth, but it still seemed to take longer than the other two births I saw. This girl was so young though that she cried out a little bit but her mom and Claudine just told her to be quite and push, no hand holding or forehead wiping or anything.  The baby was so big (boy, about 8 lbs) that she needed sutures to repair a rip between her vaginal and rectal cavity afterwards, which was done without any prior cleaning or anesthetisizing of the area.  The whole time after the birth she was super cold and shivering during the sutures, and they didn't get her a blanket until after Claudine had finished the sutures.  The mother and baby were both lying in different places in the room (her on a hard metal table and the baby under a heat lamp across the room) and she didn't even get to hold him for at least 20 minutes afterwards. It's a bring your own nurse situation, and because it is taboo to have men in the room, you have to bring female friends or family members.

Baby #2!  Girl, Fille, Vehivavy (7 lbs)

The next birth was a 35 year old woman who was having her 7th child (!) so she was a pro, and you could barely tell when she was having a contraction, she was so calm and stoic.  She didn't need any stitching, and her friends/relatives seemed way more helpful but maybe that was because she had more of them and they weren't telling her to be quiet because she was already completely silent.  She gave birth to a girl that was 7 lbs around 7:00 at night (right after dinner).  

Baby #3!  Boy, Garcon, Lehilahy (8 lbs)

The last birth was a 19 year old girl who was having her second baby, and it happened at 3 in the morning but luckily Claudine had promised to wake me up.  She was kind of in the middle in terms of crying out, but she had some helpful women family members there too to help her out so her baby boy (8 lbs) was cleaned up and wrapped up fairly quickly.   
I also saw an abortion, or the aftermath of one anyways.  Because abortions are illegal, people induce abortions at home (presumably with a rusty coathanger or something equally dangerous) and then come to the hospital when they start bleeding out.  This woman was in pretty bad shape, but Claudine said she would live, and I saw the fetus that had come out.  She was 3-ish months along, so it was definitely a human baby, but only about the size of my fist.  Claudine said that she could see that it was a boy though, which made her think that the woman might have been a little farther along than she said she was.  Evidently there are plenty of illegal abortions all the time in Ft Dauphin, and the ones that put the woman in terrible danger end up in the hospital.  


All of the other monthers and babies were perfectly fine and healthy and everything though, which was fantastic.  Just as I was leaving, 2 more women were coming in to give birth!!!!!