Babies!

We have had two babies born in the past week! Babies seem to come in clusters with sometimes weeks between without us helping with deliveries.

The babies this week were both big, slow moving boys and petite mothers. As a rule, the women do not come to us for delivery unless they are having trouble. The most common reason they come to us is when they have labored for a day or two (or five) at home (sometimes alone, sometimes with a family member, sometimes with a traditional birth attendant) and the baby still hasn't come. I'm amazed at home many babies are born healthy in harsh home conditions and the mother delivering alone. Would you believe they cut the cord with a piece of sharp grass!?!? I said grass, not glass.

In the clinic during long days and nights of attending birthing mothers I'm learning:

1. Every delivery is different,
2. Mabaan women are incredibly stoic through pain,
3. Don't make assumptions,
4. Small women with poor nutrition can have very large babies,
5. To Pray and Encourage!

Yaya

Tonight I was called to the clinic for Yaya, a woman in her 30s who had just been beaten by her inebriated soldier husband. She has a two inch puncture wound on her back near her spine and bruised internal organs. The weapon he used is called a buang. It has a blunt end and a sharp end. He used the blunt end on her abdomen and the sharp end on her back. Fortunately it just missed her spine and her abdomen, though tender, did not show signs of internal bleeding.

When I received the emergency call I did not know what I would face and I prayed for wisdom and for God's love to show through me. I had a greater calm when assessing and treating Yaya than I usually have when working with emergency patients. I totally give God the credit for that.


When I had cleaned her wound, put on a dressing, given her pain medication and a tetanus vaccination I counseled her a bit and prayed with her. She was accompanied by the chief of the nearby large village of Bunj. He stayed quiet but was very attentive to what I did with her and what I told her. From his clothing, a typical jalabia, I believe he is of the Islamic faith.

I'm told that people go to jail for life if they kill someone--from the unspokens I sensed that they felt it was attempted murder.


Edited 11/5/10 Yaya returned to the clinic this week due to continued pain at the trauma site. I'm concerned that she will always experience pain there since it has been a month since the injury and further healing doesn't seem likely. There is a small amount of swelling. She looks well and like her spirit is much lighter than the other times I cared for her. The translators were busy so I didn't question her at length about how things are going at home. I pray that her husband has had a change of heart. Since she did not die he was released from jail and returned home. My heart aches for so many families suffering due to the husbands turning to alcohol to dull their pain. The Mabaan people have deep emotional wounds following the decades of war and devastation. Drinking homemade "local wine" is a favorite sedative from the pain, especially for soldiers who I suspect have many self inflicted emotional wounds to go with those forced upon them by the war events.