La tercera semana/The third week Part II

Saturday, June 19
I entered Saturday with the feeling that there would be two to three births during my shift. I shared this with one of the other students who felt this, as well. Not only were there two births and a woman in labor, but also lots of citas! We filled up almost an entire page of prenatal, postpartum, and initial citas, which made for a busy day indeed. I did two prenatal citas and my first initial ever. I had been avoiding initials because I was scared of speaking Spanish for two to three hours straight and giving a bad impression of Maternidad to a newcomer. One of the students encouraged me to take the initial, though, and told me that I would have to get over my fears at some point. Fortunately, the couple spoke both Spanish and English and said we could speak in English. I was so thankful! An initial is full of questions about family medical history, pregnancy history, use of birth control, and other personal information and my main fear was not understanding information that is important for Maternidad to know. The initial took a pretty long time - 3 hours or so - after also doing the woman's first prenatal cita and drawing her blood (I have to get a student to do this) and I was pretty drained afterward. I took another prenatal cita after the initial and was thankful that one of the students was looking out for me and told me she would take the next prenatal after that so that I could take a break. I was so grateful and appreciated the level of awareness students have of one another. I learned how to write up lab work and spin the blood to separate the blood and plasma while I was back at the midwives' table and finished looking through the women's charts. Overall, I was getting more and more accurate readings of blood pressure and fetal heart tones that matched up with the midwife checking the citas. I was still having some trouble with fundal height (measurement from the pelvic bone to the highest point of la matriz - uterus), though, and find that palpating and measuring the belly takes a great deal of practice and experience.

During the afternoon and early evening, I helped translate at a postpartum cita and clean up the clinic before it was time to make dinner and have some down time. There was some nice calm before the storm in the evening and all of the students and I sat in the sala talking about relationships and the transformation journey of being a student at MLL. One of the students said that time here was 50% midwifery studies and 50% inner journey. This mirrored many of my sentiments. A woman came in at 9:30pm for a labor check and would return two hours later to labor and give birth. I was up to be shadow primary with one of the students and had only been lying down for thirty minutes when it was time for me to meet the woman and begin labor sitting. Little did I know I was about to provide and experience a level of labor support I never had before. This was to be the woman's eighth child, but she told me this (el trabajo de parto) was her least favorite part of having children. One of her daughters was with us the entire time sleeping on the bed in the rose room. The woman was active throughout the process and wanted to stand up, sit in the rocking chair, lie in a semi-sitting position on the bed, and walk around a lot. Her husband did not arrive until two hours later and I served as her main source of labor support. At first, I applied counterpressure to her lower back, along with a hot compress, but as the active stage of her labor progressed and we became more comfortable with one another, the level of support heightened. As I stood behind her, she rested her head on my shoulder and we were cheek to cheek. We swayed through the contractions together as she held my left hand and I wrapped my right arm around the front of her shoulders. As she moved into a position on the bed, she rested her feet on the other student's knees and I sat next to her holding her hand. She kept rubbing my hand in a downwards motion on her belly and silently told me she wanted me to massage her belly through the contractions. With the lights low and Mexican music playing, the level of intimacy and trust was palpable. When her husband arrived, he joined the support team and we left them for a few minutes to have some time together. It wasn't long after we returned that she gave birth (she knew exactly when to switch from the rocking chair back to her semi-sitting position on the bed) extremely fast. Once my right leg was baptized (more MLL lingo for when water breaks on you), the head began emerging and I barely had time to call birth team and get the licensed midwife before the baby was born at 3:32am. The woman was relieved and happy and her daughter woke up immediately to meet her new sister. Can't say she enjoyed seeing the placenta, though! Because it's so crucial for the woman to eat after giving birth and before she gets up to use the bathroom (so she doesn't faint from the blood loss), her husband offered to buy everyone Whataburger (Texas hamburger chain that's open 24 hours). I had been craving a hamburger and was pumped! It's strange the kinds of cravings you get being up for 24 hours. Once vitals were checked and we removed some of the new laundry to be done, we began filling out some paperwork before checking in on her again.

Her husband returned pretty fast with the Whataburger and I was salivating. Another woman was in labor in the purple room and soon after I had placed the delicious smelling hamburgers and fries (and huge Cokes) on the midwives' table, another woman was outside doubled over on the stairs looking like she was about to give birth right then and there. I immediately got the midwife again and she and another student brought her into the front cita area as quickly as possible. I prepared the peach room with the student who had been at the birth with me and when we returned in just a few minutes, she had already given birth. The baby looked a bit blue and had to be resuscitated, but he ended up being just fine. This woman was a sixth timer and had five girls before having this boy. By this point, the laundry was piling up and I needed to treat some of it outside. All I wanted was my Whataburger and I was surprised how unaffected I was cleaning off blood and poop stains and then eating inside. It was about 5:30am now and my stomach wasn't too pleased with all the greasy food I had put on it. I continued checking in on the woman who's birth I had attended with the other student and we went through paperwork, making the patitas (footprints), and the newborn screening (I held the baby as her foot was pricked for blood samples that are sent off to check for 26 diseases/infections). Everyone was sleeping but the woman, but she looked pretty exhausted. We were in and out for the rest of the shift and I did not leave the center until 9:30am. I had never been up for the entire night on a shift and was definitely feeling tired and emotional.

Sunday, June 20
No matter how many shifts I do, it's always hard to transition from the birth center to the casita again. Especially during a shift full of so many experiences, insights, and emotions, it's hard (at least for me) to come back to the casita and not have someone outside of the experience with whom I can process the day. I was, therefore, extremely happy when my friend arrived and we were able to enjoy the day and following morning together. We went to Mercado Mayapan for licuados, burritos, and tostadas, looked around at the exhibits on the history of the Chicana/o movement in El Paso and the maquiladoras (factories), the birth center and school (she understood what I meant about the energy there), downtown El Paso, and the scenic overlook where I took the pictures you have seen on this page. We enjoyed a beer together outside the casita, which was the perfect preparation for an early bedtime. We spent a leisurely morning enjoying fried eggs, toast, and fruit before heading to Kinley's Coffee Shop (local place) for a little while. I had to leave for my First Stage of Labor class at 1pm but was thankful for her presence and realized how much better I do living with another person. While living alone has impelled me to do so much more for myself and learn how to balance that with work, I have realized that I enjoy living in partnership more and that this allows me to respond to the communicative, sharing part of myself. The next time I write I'll be back in Charlotte for the week in between the June and July sessions. Thank you all again for your continued support through cards, emails, packages, and phone calls. I am so grateful and couldn't do it without you!