Meow, Meow

I saw her walking towards me, a little girl about 9 yrs old with an orange and white baby cat in her hands. Aww how cute, was my first thought.  As I was pointing out the cute kitten to my preceptor wondering where the girl was taking it, Gerlene nonchalantly explained to me that the girl was taking the wide-eyed meowing kitten to the garbage pile we just walked by...actually, the same garbage pile I saw the other kitten struggling for life in last week that I so desperately wanted to save. What!? Why would she do that!? Well, apparently it is common for animals especially kittens and puppies to be discarded like a piece of trash once they are done nursing on their mothers and start scavenging for food; food that can feed a famished child instead of that starving animal. Sadly, there is no such thing as a humane society or pound, its hard enough to acquire human rights here, animal rights definitely do not exist. Did you know that there are over half a million stray animals in the Philippines! Some would argue that I am caring too much about a kitten who did not belong to anyone. But, I believe all animals deserve respect, and this was very saddening for me to witness. I am thinking that once 1 woman every minute of every day stops dying preventable deaths in childbirth here, I just might start trying to save those poor kittens.

This lil kitten was just crawling around through the garbage, the lil guy looked almost dead

Speaking of human rights...Maribel(the baby twins mother) was rushed to the ER last night, apparently she was having extreme pain in the lower right quadrant of her abdomen. Since the family has no money, the only thing the Dr. did was tell her what her problem might be. Maybe gallstones in her gallbladder, or even appendicitis, but she needed to pay for and get certain lab tests to confirm what was really going on. He handed Maribel the prescription/list of the tests she needed to undergo, like a CBC, urinalysis, ultrasound ect. then handed her a prescription for pain medicine and sent her with instructions to return when she has money. Yeah, you read that right, they would not let her stay, despite the fact that she could have a life threatening condition ending her life and leaving 10 orphans behind. One of Maribels children ran here to the clinic handing me all of the lab tests/prescriptions including the medical supplies the family would need to purchase. Yes, here one actually has to purchase their own medical supplies and bring it with them to the hospital; like IV’s, Syringes and needles, blood(in case a transfusion is needed) anesthia ect... I was very appalled by the fact that the Dr. was allowed to just send Maribel home. I told the little girl to tell her mother she needs to go back to the hospital right away and then gave them enough money to cover the lab tests including the ultrasound (only about $25 US dollars!) Its really hard to comprehend how people can be so poor that they can't even come up with $25 to save their own or a loved ones life. Now I am just waiting for them to come back bringing the results and plan of action. As long as I have the means, I am going to help this mother as much as possible. If her life ended, it would end the lives of an entire family including 2 newborn babies, and that is not ok with me. This is an amazing song that reminds me, we need to care...

Gerlene and I are still keeping pretty busy here at the clinic. When we are not delivering a baby or doing prenatal checkups, we go around house to house and check on the moms and newborns. We are looking foward to midwife Eva getting back to have an extra set off hands again.

Here are some pics of the moms and babies we delivered this last month...

This mom came to the clinic in an ambulance! It scarred me so bad when I answered the door to a bunch of freaked out paramedics and an ambulance, but then realized nothing was wrong, there was just a woman pushing out her baby...The paramedics had no intention of delivering that baby. They quickly carried her into the delivery room, and then left when I put on my gloves...  

Gerlene and I doing post-partum checkups...Believe it or not this baby was 10lbs when he was born!! Biggest baby ever born at this clinic! It was a crazy birth with just Gerlene and I. He was another shoulder dystocia (5 minutes) and his mom hemorrhaged, but we were able to handle it and now mom and baby are doing great!  

Ooops, preceptor didn't make it to this birth...at least God was with me :)

P.S. Just realized that for those of you reading my blog through e-mail, you can not see/listen to the song I was talking about unless you come to my actual blog site...