What a day! I saw 2 babies being born...

Today was the first time I got to attend our local government Maternity Hospital as a volunteer doula - I had tried before but didn't have all the relevant authorisation to get through the red tape and was turned away.

Well today was like a mad house there. Wow. They are seriously B.U.S.Y there! I wonder if the great Cape Town storm has anything to do with that - for some reason babies chose to come at times like these...

Anyway there are something like 7000 babies delivered a year there and if you do the maths that's over 550 per month and nearly 20 PER DAY!

Well today there were ladies in full-on labour in the waiting room, the admissions ward was full and the labour ward was over flowing - to the point that when a women had birthed she had to move to a chair to sit and wait until a bed became available in the recovery wards. Crazy I tell you! Honestly I am not sure how the staff cope. It was really hard to leave when there were still so many women needing help...

I assisted 3 women through their labours, and was with 2 of them for the birth of their babies. (I suspect the third had a Caesarean, as she was tiny with really narrow hips and was already trying to push at only 5cm dilated... I left before she delivered though).

Wow, it was an awesome experience, but also very draining, as all three were in full active and intensive labour and at the point needing the most support.

It is heartbreaking that these ladies who need to MOST support, have the least. They have little or no resources and education and family support (all 3 were alone there, and so was almost everyone else I saw, only the odd few had a partner), many didn't really know what is happening in labour and birth and are at the complete mercy of the system. They also think the nurses, are going to come and do it for them, and I found I had to explain to them that it was them and the baby who was doing all the work, the nurse would come as the baby was being born.

Interestingly all the babies I saw today were delivered by nurse/midwives and the doctors seem to stay in the theaters and only do the Caesarean cases.

It was awesome to be with 2 women and watch them go from tearful writhing groaning mases on the bed, to strong able women as they listened to their bodies and birthed their babies in the world. They now have no doubt that THEY did it.

What an amazing thing to be a part of!

And the last lady made it all that much more worthwhile by saying, 'Ohhh susie, you helped me So much!'. When all I had really done is hold her hand, rub her arm and tell her she was doing great.

This was full on, graphic, no holds barred, no niceties stuff. VERY different to the private hospital experience. But I know I'll be back for more...