Friday, October 20, 2006

anatomy&physiology

In childbirth, the caul (or veil) is seen as a shimmery coating of the head and face. The birth caul is a complete membrane covering the face of the child and the amniotic sac, or amnion, is another completely different kind of membrane that surrounds the child in the womb. The caul is harmless and is easily removed by the doctor, midwife, or person(s) attending the childbirth. Being born with or in a caul is rare, probably occurring in fewer than 1 in 1000 births [or so wikiPEDia says:P]...AND.I.SAW.ONE!
A few shifts ago I got to observe my supervisor, a filipina, the one and only, Ate MayFlor deliver a baby that was still in the caul! I didn't realize the significance of this until another midwife [a midwife for at least 20 years, one just visiting for a week, ya, I have the opportunity to meet a tON of cool women!] anyways, she said she's only ever seen this once before.
So, it basically looked like a 'bulging bow', with the head right under it, only no SROM ever occurs and the baby is born inside the sac! WhiLE it was coming out I just had the greatest urge to fEEl it! haha. i verbalized this and Ate May was like, "well, put a glove" So I gloved my hand and got to do 'head stimulation' on the baby AS it was coming OUT of her puerta! Nuts huh?! I was pretty pumped.

and THIS is what Lois and I found last weekend on our adventure...the COAST! hahah, actually, we're only like 15 minutes from the 'beach' but hardly ever make it over there. and when we DO, like here in this pic, the water isn't very inviting. Here, we stopped and were hanging out with a crowd that had gathered to watch some men throw their nets into the water in the hopes of catching some fish! (i think only 3 were caught, along with a bunch of leaves and garbage and stuff:S) Fun times though...at least for the bystanders!

2 comments:

lo said...

travis tritt... it's a great day guy... i can't remember your email... so this will have to do. thanks for the evening... was a ball

jenna and brianna konkle said...

hahah. thx lolo!