Baby Boy

At 1:53am on April 6th a baby boy was born at MamaBaby Haiti.

It was a very long day.

Santo woke me and Marie up at 7am Tuesday, I woke Susan up and we went downstairs to welcome mama. Today was prenatal day so Susan spent the day doing that while I labor sat. Mom was definitely in labor, but things were progressing slowly. After dinner Susan joined us and we started brainstorming ways to get things moving, thinking that possibly the baby was in a less than ideal position.

We tried homeopathics, lunges, position changes, herbs and acupuncture. I'm not sure what really worked in the end, but while I went to take a nap around midnight things shifted. I was woken up around 1:15 am and mom was pushing. Her beautiful baby boy emerged vigorous and healthy.

It was difficult for Susan and I at times because things are managed differently that we would do it at home. We realized that trying to change things would be unrealistic and we just tried to step aside and let Marie do things the way she is trained, while still supporting her.

After the birth the mama's mom and sister came in to greet the baby with big smiles. The sister is pregnant with her 4th baby, but her 2 year old died just a few months ago. She was seen in prenatals today and was dealing with grief around that. She was also given some rice because she has no food and hadn't been eating. When she walked in the room she was so full of joy and love. She took the baby and swung him around and laughed. It was so sweet. I notice the people of Haiti don't smile often and don't show much emotion, so this was a surprise. She was happy to have this little boy in her life.

Now I realize I must get some sleep. The troups in this house will be waking up in just a few hours and tomorrow we have a village clinic and prenatals!