NISM'08 Graduation Ceremonies ~

"Midwives sila gyud!", "Midwives na sila!", "Ha-happy GRADuation" - have been just a few phrases floating around these past couples of days. We're DONE SCHOOL!! Yea-hey. I'm not so sure I believe it yet but, dO feel like if in a situation on a plane where some unsuspecting woman were to go into labour, I could boldly and proudly say "Don't worry, I'm a midwife!" ;p (we miss you sw). In addition to receiving my diploma, I also was awarded Excellence in Attitude and Service (thanks to mishewah for making that possible ;p). The ceremony was soencouraging, Matthew gave the commencement speech, there was singing, swimming, eating, and fellowship.
CONGRATULATION GIRLS - we did it!!

and we aLL PASSED!!!

Krys texted us saturday night, during our "grad getaway" saying "would it help the grad party if you knew you ALL PASSED?!?" We had been swimming and upon drying off and checking our phones a whole nother celebration erUPTEd!! my goodness...the weekend was awesome. Just such a good time hanging out, solidifying memories and relationships, eating and eating, and i think we even managed to not burn ourselves to a crisp! Reddened faces wasn't such an appealing thought for grad photos! THe ceremony is toNIGHT!~ more to come..

The FINAL EXAM - is OVERRR!

We'll get our mARKs back on Monday :D - AFTer the bEACh! ;p

OUr last week as students!!

Ok, ok so THIS pic isn't a pic of my classmates here at Newlife, BUt it IS just one of the many things i've been uP to recently...

LIFE has been inSANEly busy these past couple of weeks, as you've probably noticed by the lack of updated blogs...THIS Friday, June 27 marks our absolute final exam - testing EVERYthing et al. of what we've learned these past 2 years. And, it's been a tRIP - let me tell you that. NOT only have I acquired an amazing hands-on education, i've come to know 5 other amazing women along with it. The girls in my class blESS me dAILY, as in (which, is THIS country means "to the highest level!").

I've been hanging out with these amazing fils a lot lately...1st birthday parties (the biggest celebration in this country), going out to eat, going to the park, hanging out, getting to know each other's cultures and families, etc. It has blEssed my heart in more ways than onE!

And, i'm SOMEhow (covering shifts and whatnot) working EVERY DAY this week - which rEALLy cuts into studying time, but I'm confident the exam Friday will go well (you could pray for that, though!) AND THEN, the girls and I have a huge beach weekend planned...sleeping out under the stars, we've already started food preparations, Lois has a big check list going, and plans for celebrating our graduation. The actual graduation ceremony will take place the following Monday, June 30th - to which we'll all be sun-kissed and refreshed from the beach!

SPEAKing of celebrating Grad, my mother and FAther sent a package to help commemorate the event! It was so unexpected and incredible to receive!! [thank you both very very much!]. I'll be posting pics of all of this commotion soon!

[at long last!] our DIAMOND anniversary~

My graduating class of 2008 celebrated reaching 75+ handles yesterday. The original plan was to have ultrasounds done on our uterus' (because we make our girls get'em, we thought we should try it also!), but weren't able to coordinate that with our consulting physician. SO, we went to the mALL and got halo-halo (the one and only true filipino dessert). We were playing president in the food court and enjoying our halo-halo until a security guard came up and told us management prohibits gambling (aka any type of cards) in public places... yIKES! hahaa, we quickly put the cards away and got OUTTA there!

AND then, we went to a cheap bowling alley (yes, each player can bowl a round for $0.25)...which is aLways a good time just before dinner! After which we crammed into a jeepney with maybe 10 other people we didn't know and got a ride to another part of town to try out a new Indian restaurant.

Lois (the indian cuisine EXpert) chose what we'd share for dinner and it was inCREDible! The owner is an Afghan who was born in Indian and raised in CANADA! That's right, Toronto actually! He graduated from McGill with a business administration degree and married a filipino a while back. It was SO nice to hear him talk of home - Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Shaw festival, and peaches, and whatnot...oh goodness, I asked him to stop so that I wouldn't start to crY!

....meet Jhuliana, just another cUTe baby i had the privilege of delivering.

The commencement of our AGDAO Clinic -

This, the 5th day of the June, 2008, Krys, Jenny, Lois and I headed off to the Four Square Church in Agdao for the very 1st day of the prenatal clinic I'm starting in that community. We were there for 8am...the signs all said 8am start time...and we waited... =D - four very capable midwives (one highly experienced, and the Di-RECT-or of the largest lying-in clinic in all of the Philippines) - ready to POUNCe on the very first pregnant lady to walk through the door! hahaa, that miGHt be a little bit of an exaggeration but, I was nervous enough to actually feel that way!! I was pretty sure I had everything ready - we'd brought a bed and mattress in the day before, I had copies of forms, stethoscopes and bp cuff, a fetoscope, TK's Doppler, alcohol and cotton, lancets, capillary tubes, folders, and pens, etc, etc. Not that I had to go to great lengths to obtain ANY of this (Mercy clinic is our neighbour and is funding this little operation). But still. I think the first lady walked in around 8:30ish, followed closely behind by our second patient! They starting filling out forms and things picked up from there!


Krys was gracious enough to step back and watch us do our thing, while still willing to totally help out and answer any questions that faced us. Jenny and Lois were SUCh a big help (hahaa, even though we only actually did 5 prenatals- which is NOthing compared to our prenatal days at Mercy seeing 60+ women daily but - it's a start). Two of the five girls have already had an initial prenatal at Mercy, but would rather just have prenatals done closer to home, plus they don't have to wait with all the other women at Mercy.

ANother fun thing about the day was the eager pastor of the church, Pastora Nora, kept going outside and inviting people in, even if they weren't pregnant, EVEn if they weren't women, to have blood pressures checked and hematocrits taken! As such, here is a pic of me, serving this new prenatal clinic by giving these old men a check-UP! It was so fun. We were just able to hang out all morning, talk, and have merienda (snacks =D).
But THE COOLest event of the morning came with the patient pictured above. She walked in saying she didn't know if she was pregnant or not, but that she'd gone without a period for 3 months but had been bleeding heavily for about 7 days now. THEN she says, I had my son at Mercy last year. When we asked who her midwife had been she couldn't remember BUT then said that the midwife had NAMEd her son... BRY-den LIAM! I just sat there for a minute, to let it sink in! hahaha, IT WAS ME! I had been her midwife! After looking back, and reading what I wrote after her birth, I totally remember...the baby had come out in ROUGh shape, blue, limp - it was the most dead baby I'd ever seen, let alone delivered (it was only my 11th birth). We transported him right away, and I just sat there with the mother, watching her stare straight ahead after having her first born son whisked away from her. I focused on making her comfortable, if nothing more and we started talking..after which, she asked me to name her baby. SO BRY, this little boy is named after yOU! Cool eh, i can't believe we ran into her again! [As it turns out, she's MOSt likely just had a miscarriage, but didn't want a baby now anyhow, so is kinda ok with it - times are tough right now in the economy here, rice is at an all-time high price, etc].

ANYways, it went SO well. And I am SO excited to hang out there every thursday...these girls are now my continuities! Most are due in September but that's ok, because that gives us a while to get to know each other!

continuity - delma FELIX

Came in this morning at 3:20 and was 4cm at 3:45am...i was called out of bed. And it was a SUPER busy night shift (including transporting a breech), and the poor girl had to listen to 3 other women come in "fully" and ready to push and have their babies. Her husband kept counting as the babies kept poppin' out. SHe needed an IV because her blood pressure was borderline high. She was wanting to push around 8am but was only 8cm - the head still very high. I got her to walk stairs and do other exercises to help bring the head down the birth canal. THe flood gates opened at 9:32am as her bag of waters burst. At which point the head was visible and baby slid out at 9:39am. The baby boy, weighing 3.42 kgs (7lbs. 9oz.), was named John Paul F. Mamontayau - her second son (and she's ONly 19).

This week is SUPER SUPER busy. WIth one last review test before the final, AND the Agdao prenatal clinic is starting up THIS thursday. I'm heading up these prenatals, and all the girls will become my continuities...AKA from thIS thursday forth my life is not my own! Any second one of these girls could go into labour, or be having problems with their pregnancy, or postpartum and its my responsibility to be there as their MIDwife. This is the real deal... i think this is more of what it's like to practice as a midwife in Ontario (which might nOT be such so enticing anymore). But, we'll see. My prenatal clinic (run under supervision and with the HELP of MANY at Mercy, of course) will be every thursday at a church in the Agdao community. A lot of people i've talked to already are SO excited to get involved...it's really cool to see! I'll have pics next post of thursday morning..