A good day to be born

Today is a holiday for the Kenyan staff so Paul is taking call as the ambulance driver. Early this morning he was notified that he may have to drive a laboring woman to the hospital. The clinician on call was checking the mom at the clinic and said she would send word. We walked down to the clinic to see if we could be of assistance to her and found her preparing to deliver the baby. The woman was fully dilated and wanting to push. Although she was a tiny little slip of a woman, she had delivered 4 other children so we knew there was not going to be much time to get everything ready. Paul had just managed to help the clinician slip in an IV when the woman started to push. Juliana ruptured the membranes and with the next push we saw that the baby was crowning. One more good push and he slipped into the world. He gave a lusty cry and was cleaned then wrapped in the mother’s own kganga which she wore to the clinic. Paul rubbed the baby to warm him and kept watch over his airway while Juliana delivered the placenta. I was just her “gopher” handing her whatever she needed.

Juliana has delivered babies since 1993 but this was just her second delivery since coming to Matoso about 3 years ago. The first delivery happened on the floor near the clinic door. We were relieved that Paul didn’t start to drive her to the hospital and have her deliver on the way.

A few hours later, Paul was called to drive the mother, baby and family members home. He drove across a dirt road until it turned into a narrow cow path and then across a large open savanna. From there the path became narrow again and closely bordered on both sides by tall vegetation that scraped the sides of the ambulance. It was lush, isolated and beautiful back in there. Finally, they arrived at a stream that looked impassable by vehicle. The husband tried to encourage Paul to drive through it but Paul’s many years of driving 4 wheel drive roads in the mountains of Colorado has made him an expert at assessing what’s passable and what’s not. This stream was not.

Paul lifted the mom out of the ambulance and with the help of some men from the area, the husband got her and the baby safely across the stream. Before Paul left he was asked what his name is and upon hearing it the father of the baby declared, “my son’s name is now Paul!”