Baby on the Go...

Another new day in the Antenatal Ward, another day full of surprises.


My Danish friend and I are at the examination table to check women’s dilation.




As per usual, the ward is packed, many to a bed, and the bodies have overflowed to the floor and inbetween beds.


There is a large woman with a scrunched up face, obviously in some degree of pain. The intern doctor points innocently and says, let’s check her.

We find her card, and she hasn’t been checked since 1 am last night, and she was 2 cm dilated. It is 9 in the morning now.... so it’s been 8 hours since she was looked at.
We get her off the floor, up onto an examination table and find out that she is fully dilated now.

!!
A quickness begins in our steps and we get her bag to get over to the Labour Ward as soon as possible so she can deliver. When you’re fully dialated, nothing is stopping the baby from coming at any moment.

She gets off the table, takes two steps, and then her knees give way....down she goes to the floor.
No no no no! Don’t sit down!

On her way down, I turn around and see the baby shoot out like a waterslide!


Right onto the dirty hospital floor!

The baby, still in its complete little sac, is in slow motion as it slides in its bubble across the floor. Then there’s kind of a bungee cord retraction effect as the cord reaches its end and then rebounds back towards mom.
We all freeze there for a split-second, as time stands still.


Then, I snap out of my shock as I hear,
“Khanga! Get a clean khanga for the baby!...”
I only have examination gloves on, but the nurse is holding the baby up by one leg, so I grab a khanga and quickly let the baby rest in my arms.

Somehow, a birth-kit from the labour room arrives, and we finish the delivery on the floor. Melisa, who is conducting the delivery, tries not to bend down too far with her long skirt touching the ground, awkwardly dodging the amniotic fluid pooling around her feet.

Cord is cut, and I’m standing over mum, holding baby and getting him all clean and warm.

There is a hush over the ward; I look up at all the labouring mamas.

Their little faces are peeking out from their place on the beds or on their pieces of floor, looking on with wide eyes and anticipation.
Valiantly, I hold up baby and show him to the on-looking crowd of mamas, and smile.
The tense silence is broken by laughter.
Their furrowed brows relax into a grin.
Joy is in the house.

The mom is flat on her back, -- on the bare tile floor laced with footprints and dirt and who knows what else -- happy and exhausted.
We clean her up, mop the patch of floor where she was,
and then carry on with the rest of the morning.

Wow.




What a way to start the day.



A little go-getter baby who’s on the move and can’t wait to come into the world!