Early Morning Delivery

Our early am visitor with her little brother

Is this a dream?  I am slowly pulled from sleep by a small voice, very close telling me to wake up. Any parent has had the experience of being woken in the dark by their child. But this wasn’t my child. With a bit of a shock, I realize it’s our 6 year old neighbor girl standing at the foot of the bed asking me to get up and come downstairs.  “Is this a dream? How did she even get in here?” I wonder. (There is a back stairwell that leads downstairs to our neighbors’ house.  It’s usually locked and barricaded…)

It isn’t a dream.  A little island girl is standing at the end of the bed telling me to come.  “I’m coming,” I say. She waits for me to wrap something around myself and we go down together. On the floor of their entryway is her 9-month pregnant mother (Twamaya), legs splayed. A grandmother is rubbing her tummy. No other adults are around. Quickly the situation is clear—she is about to give birth.  She was supposed to go to the clinic (which is literally less than a block away), but she’s not going to make it. She needs me to call and wake up the doctor so he can come. Per usual, she doesn’t have any phone credit.

I find my phone and go to the top of the stairs where there is reception. The phone rings for awhile before a sleepy doctor answers. Twamaya tells me what to say, “Tell him, the child is at the door. I can’t come. He must come here. Hurry.” I get the message to the doctor. He’s coming. By the time I get to the bottom of the stairs, the head is crowning. I’m not sure if the grandmother is a proper midwife, but she’s taking charge. There are no clean cloths prepared. The floor under Twamaya isn’t clean. This was not a planned home-birth. I get some pillows for her back, but Twamaya immediately tells me to call the doctor back and tell him the baby is already coming out. By this point the head is out.

I don’t know if there is much point calling again, but I do. At least I can make sure the urgency of the case is clear. As I hang up, I hear a splash. The baby is out. I’m at the bottom of the stairs in a second. The baby is on the floor and the grandmother can’t get a grip on the slippery newcomer, so I grab the baby and hold her to her mother’s belly. After a brief moment, the baby starts crying and Twamaya mutters the traditional words of thanks to God.

Megan with new baby (minutes old)

The doctor arrives quickly with a look of chagrin on his face that seems to say “Couldn’t she have made it the 200ft to my clinic?” I hold the baby as he cuts the cord and wraps the baby in a clean medical blanket. I hold and quiet the baby while he sees to Twamaya. Someone asks if it’s a boy or a girl because even though the ultrasound had indicated a girl, no one has really checked. So I open up the wrapping and confirm, Twamaya has a new little girl.

Once the baby is weighed and cleaned a little, I’m told to dress the baby. I find the diaper bag packed for the hospital and the planned outfit. Twamaya still hasn’t delivered the placenta so I go upstairs with the little one and wipe the rest of the blood from her head. Finally 15-30 minutes post-birth, I hand the baby to her father and express my congratulations.

I go upstairs and wash my bare feet that had been in a puddle of afterbirth on the tile floor and decided I might as well try to get some more sleep. Who knows what the rest of the day will hold?

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We thank God that we could be there to support and assist Twamaya in the birth of her baby and that she has a healthy baby! Our colleague on the small island has a visa! He ended up going to Volcano Island to get it and we pray that he doesn’t have any more issues on the small island. Our middle son had a good week of school last week, but is still easily anxious about it. Keep praying. We had a safe overnight retreat with our team to a little islet off the tip of Clove Island— all the rain put a damper on things but it was a fun adventure and we saw God’s provision throughout. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
The month of fasting is set to begin this coming weekend— this is a month of increased religious focus for islanders and we haven’t have unique opportunities to share and good conversations. Pray for good interactions with our friends and neighbors and that we would be ready with good answers for the questions we will undoubtedly receive. Our older kids (9 & 7 yrs old) will begin end-of-year exams in local school in just a few days— they missed the first two trimesters of school so are a little behind. We don’t care much about their results, but pray that it would not be a stressful time for them and that we would be able to adequately support them so that the local school year ends well for them.