you should've seen your face! classic!

today at the hosptial we got some serious hands on experience. we arrive in the labor ward on time, waited around for the doc for about 30 minutes and when he finally arrived it was the same boring rounds. I heard screeming coming from the other side of the ward so i wandered over just in time to see a laboring mother give birth. the baby's head was crowning as i walked up and it was only a few minutes before the baby was delivered and the nurse was delivering the placenta. as we're standing there, watching the protocol for delivery (which doesn't consist of much) amy and i turn around because we hear moaning from the bed behind us. there an unattended mother is grimacing in pain and, yes, we can see the head of the baby crowning. luckily dr. ishmael, a visiting doctor we had just met, was there and he tells us to put on gloves. we do as we're told, but amy's glove breaks so she can only stand and watch as I proceed to deliver this baby with his verbal guidance. it was... awesome! the delivery went very smooth. we'd wait for contraction then tell her to push "sukuma!!" and soon the head was cleared, shortly after the body, and then, the third stage of delivery, i delivered the placenta. all went well except for a small tear which dr. ishmael was going to have us repair but decided to do himself because he had never repaired an episiotomy before. come again? yes, he says, i am only an intern and i never did an ob/gyn rotation. so basically some medical intern just talked me through a delivery that i did solo and he, himself, didn't have much idea what he was doing... wow. it gets better too but i dont have time to blog about it now. it is a different world here! wait until you hear thu's stories about the cesarian sections!! miss you all!