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.