3RD birthroom shift - from 10pm to 6am

It's becoming real.
Last night was INsane. When my shift started there were 4 beds occupied..and another jUST coming in. (we have six beds in the labour room, and 3 more in recovery) SO, we were taking vitals and assessing things with the woman who'd JUSt come in, when ANOTHER girl came in hEAving, and in lOAds of pain. Ate May (my supervisor) asked the first woman if she could get UP so that the new girl could lie down (there weren't any other beds made up yet) No kidding, after 2 minutes, Ate May said 'Jenna, you PORbably don't want to be standing there' (i was at the end of the bed) as this shiny, grey 'bubble' starting coming out of her puerta.. SROM (spontaneous rupture of membranes, her water broke) and WITH it slid a precious (and disgustingly grey) pre-mature girl. Weighing less than 5 lbs. Ate May ordered for the baby to be transported to DMC immediately. Normally, we do not deliver pre-mature babies, but in THIS case, we had no choice! MEANwhile, Carmen, another midwife, was coaxing another, quite vocal, woman to push. This lady was 26 and had never given birth..so the baby came out sUPEr slow.. I was 'observing' and as the baby crowned, then turned to the side (as they normally do when coming out) I felt like I was watching something out of a scary movie!...PRObably NOT the best description, but it's true. I've never seen one come out that sLOW before! and THEN Sarah, another midwife, calls out 'ahh, guys, mine's coming out aswell!', but EVERYone was bUSy so I went to her rescue! haha, she BASically delivered it all by herself, but I helped, following vERY specific instructions! :S It went fast, this girl had three children already.
I was somewhat discouraged as all the new moms sEEMed to be very passive about the whole situation, whereas i'm like 'CONGRATulations! WICKed! You have a new BABY!' ...they weren't even looking at their newborns, and it was difficult to even get them to hold the child up on their stomach while we waited for the placenta!...but i gUEss i really have NO idea about what they just went through, and in time, they came to life and were excited about what they had just brought into the world. But the last woman (26, 3 kids), cOUldn't think of a name! [Here in the Philippines, they're quite partial to naming their children after famous people, and royalty. There are lots of "princess something or other" and "prince charles"...names like that. (it's really funny!)] but THIS couple asked ME what MY name was. and ya, i WISH i could blog that they named it after ME, but i wouldn't let them...instead I suggested 'Vennice' (pronounced VennIECE, going along with their accents here) and she LIKEd it! I almost cried. I NAMED A BABY! That's INsane. That baby will walk around with the name I suggested! EVen though it is FAIRly common here to have a nickname. I couldn't believe it.
Later on I got to bathe Vennice, and also give her the eye meds we give all babies here, basically just squeezing some goop in their eyes, AND i got to give her the vit.k shot we give every baby (in her little newborn thigh!) I lOVE talking with the new moms, trying to get into their heads, and understand what they're thinking through broken english. The people here are just indescribingly KIND.

jUSt to let eveyone know...october has 300 mothers scheduled to give birth. Normally, numbers don't usually go over 150/month, so this is everyday life for me now. And I'm lOVing it!