First Catch in Vanuatu!

This morning when we arrived at the hospital, a woman was laboring in the hall. Not quite two hours later, we were in the labor ward with one of the midwives, intending to observe. "You really wanna observe this one? You can do it?" After a brief exchange, I stepped forward and just a few minutes later, there was a baby in my hands. The birth happened just in time for the newborn room to be occupied by a veritable mob of other mamas and babies waiting to be discharged or back for weight rechecks, and this mom was (unusually) game for cuddling and nursing her unwashed baby, so we settled in for a just-slightly more American-midwifery postpartum.

Less than two hours later, with that mama/baby pair still across the hall (although washed up and about ready to move into the main ward), T caught her first Vanuatu baby.

Maybe tomorrow I'll see if the woman whose baby I caught was up for photos. For now, me logging my first Vanuatu birth in the big-book-of-births:



We settled postpartum women, rewashed labor rooms and redid beds, and left about 15 minutes before the shift officially ended. Tonight, beer and pizza by the pool, and early to bed.