dingmussofula.!

{ November 7, 2011 @ 9:22 pm } · { Uncategorized }

Apparently, it is baby season in Senegal.  Once one of the sage femmes told me that all of the babies are born around this time because the men do not work in hot season which was about 9 months ago and have a lot of energy at night…

Anyways, the point is, that my toxoma, or my namesake was absolutely humongous and the two other pregnant women in her house (who were much smaller) had given birth, so we started to become slightly concerned about the situation going on up in her womb. Tabaski, which is basically like Muslim Christmas in Senegal in that nothing is open and everyone goes home and spends it with their families, was today, so very few midwives, nurses or doctors were around.  Marielle, my friend who lives in Nafadji right now decided it would probably be a good idea if Mbamoussa went to Saraya to wait it out because if she went into labor with no healthcare workers present, things could take a quick turn for the worse.

The minute she arrives in Saraya the midwife on duty takes one look at her and says, that lady is probably having twins, probably will need a C section and we should send her to Kedougou, OH and she has malaria on top of that one. Talk about high risk pregnancies.  So I gather my things and we head to Kedougou in the ambulance.

Seeing a rural hospital in the developing world can be tough, seeing a rural hospital in the developing world during the holiday season is pretty horrifying.   They could not be sure if she was really past her due date or if she for sure was carrying twins without a sonogram, but the sonogram reader would not be in until after the holiday.  The surgeon was the only doctor on duty, but the anesthesiologist was gone for the holiday so even if they decided she needed a c section they would still have to send her four hours away to Tamba. So for the time being the goal was to focus on treating her for the malaria with an IV and hope that nothing dangerous would happen until after Tuesday.  Once she was set up she went into the maternity room which was hot, smelly and two to a bed.  And two to a bed was two huge and often sick pregnant women to a hospital bed while hooked up on IVs.

Another way that hospitals differ from western hospital besides the lack of a sterile environment is that they have a BYO everything policy.  This includes food, sheets, soap, meds (from the private pharmacy which was not in the hospital), and people.  I, along with one of the best old women in Nafadji were there to help.  One of Mbamoussa’s older brothers also lives in Kedougou who was kind enough to bring all of her meals, which is good because I probably would have brought her mayonnaise sandwiches three times a day…

The next day was more of a waiting game.  The midwife on duty the morning before mentioned that she would be put on another IV at 1pm, when I returned at 5pm there was still no IV, they forgot.  I wondered what happened to other women who did not have an obnoxious westerner with them to bother the midwife on duty.  That night, more women were discharged so she had her own bed, what luck!  That night there were some fun women there to chat and share snacks with.  Meera and I made peanut butter cookies to share with everyone which were a big hit.

Today, the holiday, there were even fewer people at the hospital.  They picked the one Christian midwife to be on duty for those 24 hours so she was overworked to say the least.   I brought over the movie the Triplettes of Belleville to watch on my laptop because the day before had been absolutely boring.  Everyone thought the movie was very strange but entertaining at least (had to pick one without words as no Malinke dubbed movies exist to my knowledge).   Then Mbamoussa sent me to go eat the holiday meal with her brother at their house in Kedougou.  I was at the house for about 20 min when midwife called me and told me to go buy meds because Mbamoussa had a stomach ache.  I was slightly annoyed that I had to leave the house for what did not seem like such a big deal, but when I arrived she seemed like she was in great pain, more for just needing a little pain medication.

I called over the apathetic midwife, and in five minutes Mbamoussa was in the next room and the skilled birth attendant was pushing on her stomach to make her water break.  I was standing behind the curtain and I heard a splash, there we go.

I sat by her head and literally five minutes later there was a head.  This after all the stories I hear in the states about labors that last 36 hours, and this one, oh maybe five minutes, no drugs. Badass.  The midwife took the baby away and put her on the table and went right back to work.  I sat with this darling healthy baby girl while they had to maneuver the second one to avoid a breach delivery.  Then the second one was out.  This one was a lot smaller and I did not hear any crying right away, then the midwife was in the room with that one for a while and I got nervous but then she brought the second one out, which was a bit tiny but then there were two healthy baby girls!  All of the sudden, we think we are going to have to bring her to Tamba and nervous because malaria and pregnancy is so dangerous, and we have two little munchkins that I may need to steal and bring home with me.  Aissata, the older woman with me and I did a little dance- dingmusso fula! two baby girls!

There was still a lot of bleeding after and mommy needs rest but for now things look pretty good considering the situation.  These two are her 7^th and 8^th children (she is 30 years old) and her second set of twins.  And she was talkin like it aint no thing.  All of the women were telling me I am next, I tell them that pregnancy things looks painful, they tell me you just push.  And because African babies are so light when they first come out, all the women told me that they could be mine too.  I tell them I would just love to but I still act like a child myself and they would much better be in the hands of a real mother.

Photos to come! They refuse to give the babies a real bath until they can put kola nuts in the water (a Malinke tradition) so I will spare you the pre-bath photos for now!