Our last day in Haiti was one of my favorites. We spent the morning at the maternity hospital, where we got to spend some time observing in different areas of the hospital. Because I want to eventually be a midwife, I asked to observe in the delivery room. One woman was in the delivery room and was about to deliver when I got in there. The poor woman had about 15 faces, including mine, staring at her as she delivered because there were quite a few Haitian nursing students also observing. Let me tell you, it was incredible. That was the first birth I had seen and, even though I knew exactly what would happen, it still brought tears to my eyes when the healthy baby boy let our a wail and was placed on Mom's abdomen. He weighed 2.57kg, or about 5 1/2lbs. They tied off the umbilical cord almost immediately and cut the cord using a "sterile" needle. I placed sterile in quotes because their sterile technique was nothing like ours. The gory details I could go into would have most people gagging but it was pretty awesome to see how everything was handled. I got a few pictures of the baby and one picture of the mom and baby. I saw them again in the general recovery room as I was leaving to meet the rest of the group. She gave me a big smile and Aramis told me how to tell her in Creole that her baby is beautiful.
I got to speak to a Haitian midwife who spoke pretty good English. She explained the training she went through and I got to see her check the progress of a couple other women in labor. Aramis was a trooper volunteering to be my translator in the delivery room. He stayed behind the curtain but heard everything that was going on. I feel bad for his future wife because he will be a nervous wreck when she is pregnant!
This afternoon was nice and relaxing. We went to a nearby beach and hung out for a few hours. The water was really warm and clear but I only put my feet in. Redgi got Johnny and I each a Prestige, the local beer. I wasn't expecting much but it was good! Pretty similar to Yuengling lager.
Time to pack up and call it a week. We head home tomorrow afternoon. Au revoir!
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