A heavily pregnant lady walked slowly down the road that runs through our compound and out toward her village. She had been to the clinic that morning and been sent home with some materials to help with a safe delivery: a pair of gloves, 2 pieces of string to clamp the umbilical cord, and a clean razor blade to cut it. Can you imagine ladies?
We don’t know how long she had been in labor - maybe since that morning when she had gone to the clinic - but a few meters down the road outside our back gate, she realized the baby was coming, squatted down, and delivered him into the hands of her friend who was walking with her. These events caused great excitement on our compound of course! Within a few minutes all of the missionary women as well as our 3 compound cooks were surrounding the ladies sitting on the side of the road with the new baby. Karina and I also went out.
When we got close enough to see what was happening, I honestly couldn’t tell which of the ladies had just given birth! One was holding the baby, so I assumed she was the mother. She was wearing one of the surgical gloves. I found out a few minutes later that she was actually the “catcher” and the woman sitting beside her was the mother! Unbelievable! I looked at her closely—she was showing fewer signs of physical excursion than I do just sitting in a chair on a hot day in Sudan! She looked completely un-phased by the fact that she had just delivered a baby by the side of the road, as though she does this every day. I was amazed!
It soon became apparent that the lady’s friends were trying to figure out how to clamp the umbilical cord. They were all young mothers themselves and not the older ladies more experienced in attending births in the village. Lori, one of my teammates who speaks their language fluently, told me that they didn’t know how to do it and asked if I did. Oh dear! I’m not a midwife nor am I a labor and delivery nurse. The only experience I had was seeing my midwife clamp Karina’s cord and Nate cut it! All I knew was that it would have to be tied tightly in 2 places and then cut in between. I passed Karina to another lady and reached down to help. The ladies had very loosely tied the cord in 2 places and before I could make the adjustment, one of them picked up the old-fashioned razor blade and snipped it. Wooops! I quickly tied the string closest to the baby as tightly as I could and suggested that they trim the cord shorter now. No, they wanted to leave it long. OK—I just prayed that it would be alright.
They sat on the side of the road with the baby covered in cloths to keep him warm and waited for our compound truck to return and take them back to their village. I returned to the compound and found a sleeper that Karina had outgrown for the baby to wear. It’s pink and purple with ballerina slipper feet! Out here baby’s clothes are not gender specific so I’m sure they are delighted with it for this baby boy. Most babies don’t have any clothes at all.
Astonishingly, we later learned that the mother and her friends got tired of waiting for the truck and got up and walked the 45 minutes to their village. Lori walked with them and said that the mother was able to walk at a normal pace with the others! This was her 4th child. Can you believe it ladies?! Lori reported the next day that they planned to name the baby “Esayim" (S.I.M) in English because he had been born outside the mission compound!
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