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!