UNder 1 roof.

For the first time in history, Newlifes fall'06 classmates will be living together in the orange house..just TWO doors down from the clinic. It's a crazy time right now, as old students are leaving, interns are coming and going, and sOme of us go home for a holiday. BUT, sept'07 will see a new batch of students to start this program. At that point I believe EIGHTEEN girls will all be living at the orange house. It should be interesting! The beautiful picture you see above are my classmates: Charity, me, Lois, Tiffany, Jenny, and Laura (from left to right).

renovations started late last week. The birthroom needed a paint job and it was decided that while we had a vacant house two doors down (the new orange house that we will move into on SATURDAY!), we'd make the main floor of the orange house Mercy's birthroom until the paint was complete and fumes had had a chance to dissipate.

so THIS is the very first picture of our new house, only the birthroom is in full swing at this point. I had the priviledge of attending the first birth in this house. YOu can see the make-shift cubicles set up. IT's been and inSANE week! (with an average of 4-5 births a day). I've got dayshift friday morning at which point we'll put Mercy's birthroom back in order. The MOVING TRUCK is coming saturday morning at 8am!

..ready...stEAdy..

Our IV in-service, a class some have been dreading since the fall, was yesterday afternoon. We had a week to complete the assignment, and learn what to do (and what NOt to do) when inserting an intravenous line into somebody's vein.




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Yesterday was the practical exam - and we got as many tries as your partner could stand to successfully insert the cannula. oH my. I have a big bruise on my hand as I type this, thankfully my partner, Jenny, only needed one poke! [hey Laura, can you feel the pressure with all of us staring down your needle there?!]














Yeahh, they say i have "great veins" (some were eyeing them up before the class..). i actually WATChed jenny put this needle into my hand. I let Tiff practice on me a while ago also. I truly do have an appreciation for our women who don't even flinch as we stick'em with these needles. The whole contraction bit might be somewhat of a distraction, but i do believe the filipinas have a super high pain tolerance.

I was one of the last to go, because I was on shift at the time and busy down in the birthroom but I was sUPerr nervous. Even though I've successfully inserted a handful of IVs prior to this class, THIS time was on my dear friend, Jenny (the nerves also could have been from tiff's comment "jenna, you better get this in on the first try because i've heard you're a pro..)(hmm. i don't think "pros" shake as much as i was poking jenny) But I got it in, first try, thank the Lord.



Group shot. My class, with our fearless teachers (they'd probably be able to insert IVs in their OWN hands)

cross channel swim -

if you have a world map handy, go to the southern-most island of the philippines (Mindanao) and look for Davao City (just left of the top of the inlet at the bottom of the island). You should also see another, much smaller, island named Samal.
This morning I, along with a bunch of people I didn't know, swam across the channel to the island of Samal. Laura knew a girl that was planning on going and gave me her contact information. She picked me up this morning at 5:30 am and we were in the water by 6:30 (it always takes pretty long to get organized here). You can see in this first picture, as Joan and I start the swim, our final destination in the background.
I think it's approximately 2km...but maybe that was just someone throwing that out there. Maybe it was 2 miles. It wasn't that far. and only took about 35 minutes. It was pretty easy actually, I barely had to kick - i guess i'm used to sinking in fresh water..swimming across Sunset Bay

FALL '06 SILVER anniversary!

It's official: we've all caught 25 babies (or more) and have helped to bring Mercy Maternity Center's count up past 11500! We decided as a class that once we all reached 25 handles, we'd go out to celebrate. so YESterday we went and got a class photo taken at the mall, then went to the Crocodile farm/zoo and hung out there until heading across town to a sweet japanese restaurant for dinner. After our amazing dinner we all came back here for a sleepover.

We held a PYTHon that was as long as both Laura and I combined (we measured by lying beside it..) and little crocodiles. It was kinda funny because the staff working there were nUts. They'd just shove an animal into the hands of anyone willing to take it, and of course, tons of pictures would follow. I guess there were something like over 300 crocodiles living there, and they were breeding them also. This zoo also had monkeys, and orangutangs, turtles, tigers, bunnies, birds, etc.

THis guy was my favourite. He'd make smacking sounds with his incredibly huge lips...and he was so smart. AND he could do the splits with ease.


THis restaurant we ate at is now my favourite. Tsuri, I think it's called. There are 2 tables that surround a grill, and we were fortunate enough to claim one. So our chef made all of our meals right in front of us...it was amazing. We have all been keeping track of our numbers in birth books, and we brought them to recount "best ofs..", "how manys..", "biggest EBLs..", and so on.

better is one day in His courts, than thOUsandsss elsewhere.

my whole life.
anywhere and everywhere i go.
they're always there.

girls.

or, should I say, WOMEN of God who encourage, strengthen, laugh with me.. I truly can't do anything on my own, and i'm not good at abiding in the Lord daily, and He knows this! And always provides extra support, through amazing females, to help me along the way. tonITE was no exception. Tiff and Laura and I had such a good chat/prayer time. totally spontaneous. yet completely orchestrated. I don't ever say much of "this sort of thing" on this blog...too personal? don't want to offend? or be rejected? but whatever. this is what's on my heart. and it's overFLOWinggg and needs to spill out soMEWhere.

we are MOVING!
YEE!! To the big orange mAnsIOn two doors down from the clinic.. although, it might not fEEl like such a mansion with 17 other girls living there but. it should be fun none the less. We get use of the building july 1st, but want to paint the birthroom. thErEfore, we will use the main floor of that big empty house as our birthroom for the first week of july while the clinic gets a fresh coat of paint. We get to move in aftEr that...quite POSSibly with the smell of amniotic fluid lingering in the study. i'm one for change. my mother can attest to this, as I've lived in every possible room of our house back home and was CONstantly changing the room I did have around. I'd lock myself in my room for an evening, make the switch, and then surprise her with the finished product. I cannot wAIt for a change of scenery. and this house has an amazing balcony that would accomodate a hammock quIte nicely!

Afghanistan has the second highest maternal death rate at 1900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births ~

For the past 2 weeks we, as a student body, have had the priviledge of hosting Sharon - a previous intern at Mercy Maternity Clinic who now lives and works in Afghanistan. This link will take you to her blog [http://www.xanga.com/moshdeh] where you can read her thoughts on her trip to the Philippines, as well as more of what she does with life. After 2 grueling student groups (haha, they weren't ALL that bad) Matt, our director, had us raising hands to show interest in pioneering a new clinic starting up on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Together, with Sharon in the lead, my school Newlife wants to send 4 or 5 midwives there :| Matt is going to start a new sending agency for the missionaries/students he has here to be able to send them out into the world to do good work.

oh MY.

He keeps saying, you've gotta go where God is working...Sharon is an incredible individual who has been a missionary in Afghanistan for quite sometime, working in the hospital there, heading up divisions of the hospital not yet established, etc. I can't ever imagine being so strong as to do something like that. [good thing God uses the weak and disabled..] ANYways. this is what has been filling my thoughts lately. Afghanistan is in serious need of caring midwives. Please pray for this whole situation. They're setting up a little exploratory excursion on oct/nov. to acutally go into the country, be submersed in the culture, and pick a spot for the clinic. They want it to be up and running by Sept.'08 (how conVENient...i'll have jUSt graduated!) I most likely will not be going this fall - money doesn't seem to grow on palm trees quite the same as thoses maples back home. But it's fun to daydream!

three nightshifts..

my supervisor, Mayflor, is sick in the hospital with something, and as such, they needed to switch some shifts around. I ended up with nightshift sunday night/tuesday night/thursday night...mer. Sunday night I delivered Lovely's son (detailed in the previous post), tuesday night I was lucky enough to have a continuity, Analyn Aninon, give birth to her first son. [And tonight's the last of my shifts for this week...3 for 3?]

I took Analyn on as a continuity because early in her pregnancy, last october, she had an ultrasound done saying she had partial placenta previa. This is when the placenta implants itself over the opening of the uterus (the cervix). [just let me know when these stories become too involved]. "Partial" obviously means it was only part way over the cervix, and because it was so early in the pregnancy, it has a good chance of moving as the uterus grows. I wanted to follow the case, hoping to get to do or see or learn something.

Analyn, 27, texted me around 5:30 am tuesday morning. The text said, "Jenna gud a.m ngsakit n ang tiyan nagawasan nko dugo pero gamay lng.analyn aninon" which means, "Good morning, Jenna. There's a pain in my abdomen and blood has come out of me, but a little only.." I texted her back saying that it would be best if she could wait until prenatals (because she was scheduled to come to the clinic at 8 am for a prenatal check-up anyways). She said she could wait, and that contractions were only 1/2 hr. apart.

She came to prenatals and I got to visit with her briefly (there were 60-something woman out that day needing prenatal care). I sent her home with a smile after explaining to her in detail all the signs and symptoms she would experience inthe near future, and when she should come back to the clinic. At 8:42 pm that night she texted me again, "Gen, gudpm wer are you? im going 2 mercy bcoz its very pain." I was at student group at the time, but had planned on going to the clinic afterward anyhow because my shift started at 10pm.

I met her at Mercy, and checked her in. Everything was basically normal except for the blood. Obviously, there is going to be some blood in the last stages of labour, and that's normal, but there was more than what I am used to seeing at that point, and I was extra sensitive because of the partial placenta previa (even though she had another ultrasound at 36 wks saying it had moved and was fine, to which I was slIGHtly disappointed (that's bad, I know) but it was turning out to be yet another normal delivery)...She gave birth at 11:56pm, and everything went so well. Analyn did SO great, and I worried for nothing, or so I thought.

When it came time for the placenta to come out, it wouldn't. We intervened a little, but the placenta still only came partially out, the rest was still attached to the uterus, which is not good, because she'll keep bleeding. We were forced to transport her to the hospital. I went and saw her yesterday, she is doing well, but hasn't had a chance to hang out with her baby yet.

Bia Diamond Gajudo

This is a pretty cool birth story.
Last May 23, 18 year old Bia Diamond (nickname: Lovely) came to the clinic to have her baby. I sent her home that day because she was experiencing false labor pains. It sucks when that happens because I get all hyped up about delivering someone's baby and then have to send them home with only wishes and prayers of a good labor. Because I'm not at the clinic ALL the time, I never know who'll be having a baby on my shift.
Last night I was on nightshift, and was changing into my scrubs as I listened to the another midwife show a woman (just arriving) to a cubicle. Upon reviewing her chart, I realized I had sent her home and got really excited that she was back on MY shift. I went into the cubicle she was waiting in and said..."LOVEly, do you remember me?" and she gives me this huge smile and goes "Yes, ma'am Jenna".

YEE! So fun. Unfortunately, she had a urinary tract infection AND blood pressure of 150/90 which causes my supervisor to want to transport her to the hospital. Neither Lovely nor I wanted this. I was taking her vitals and she goes "I'm so, so nervous" [i'd say...I couldn't even imagine having a baby at 18]. I asked if she wanted her boyfriend to come in but she said no because he was more scared than she was! haha. Blood pressure can go up if the woman is anxious about something.

I tried my best to divert her attention away from the impending labour, set up camp beside her, and just starting talking to her, about her life, how she got to this point, etc. It was amazing. I found out she met her HUSBAND (not boyfriend) in college, four hours from Davao, got pregnant after knowing him for 3 months, and moved here to his hometown to marry and start a life together. So, this poor girl has to move away from home, halfway through her pregnancy, to share quarters with a strange family, with no friends (no WONder she had high bp). She did say, though, that his mother-in-law was kind :)

Oh, another thing, she was Muslim. I'm not quite sure what that all means, but decided it was ok to pray with her - ask God for a good labor and delivery, and to help lower her bp so that she could stay at our clinic instead of being transported to the hospital. SO then, i recheck her bp and it was only 120/70. whoa. sweet eh.

So, she laboured all night, her husband came in and ended up being SUCh a big support for her. I think he massaged her lower back for 2 hours straight (after I showed him how)! We were all so tired. But, she was strong and ended up delivering a beauitful baby boy at 5:15am this morning. I just can't describe how perfect it all played out. It was amazing.