Here's One for my Resume!

Sunday night was a first for me. I got to help deliver a baby. She was even born in my bedroom. I'll spare you most of the details- unless you want to know then you can email me;). But I did get a little bloody. The mom is our housekeeper and neighbor, Eliman. She has had 7 kids already although 2 have died. Her 5 living kids are all boys so she was really hoping and planning on a little girl, which is what she got. But she hasn't yet decided on a name. The baby was born just before 6 pm and we all 3 spent the night in my room. She cried a lot.

It was a definite learning experience. It was easy enough for her, being her 8th baby. But I think I have watched too many American TV shows. The way they do things in Haiti and the way we do things in the US vary considerably. They didn't want to breast feed right off but waited a while. They said the baby wouldn't know how. But after a little bit I got the baby breast feeding just like I would a little calf or foal. It wasn't all that different really. Then she was asleep so I let her lay down on her mom's tummy. The Haitian ladies didn't agree with that and immediately plucked her up. Apparently here bonding with your baby isn't too big of a deal. Eliman just thought I should keep holding the baby so she could take a nap. There were lots of funny little things that they wanted to do like rubbing the babies head to get it in a better shape and so forth. I didn't want to say anything having never had a baby myself but I knew some of the things they did were kinda silly. Anyway, it was a good experience, although I am glad that both mom and baby headed home tonight so I will get my first good sleep in 3 nights.