Just the facts, ma'am.

Whew... Katie gave me permission to cut out the wit as long as I convey the facts, so here you go! (What a relief!) Work has been going well. On my second day I delivered a baby. Pretty much on my own, although the nurse was right there next to me. The word "deliver" doesn't apply quite as much here, "catch baby" would really be a more accurate term from what I've seen so far. The women pretty much do it all on their own too. There's no coaching like at home with "ok now push for 10 seconds..." or "good job, almost there!"... it's just the women doing their own thing and then when a head pops out, you pull a little bit if needed and cut the cord. Like I said before there aren't any family allowed in the deliver room either, so they really are totally alone. I really wish I knew more Swahili so I could be more supportive, so far I've learned "push", "almost there", "sorry", and "beautiful baby".

There are definitely lots of expected differences/surprising similarities that I've noticed so far: (sorry if some of them are technical, but at least Dad and Hilary will appreciate it!)
- Difference: I knew the women wouldn't have any epidurals, but I'm really impressed by how well they deal with the pain. You can tell they are feeling it by their facial expressions, but there is a minimum of screaming and complaining. I've definitely seen women back home with an epidural make more a fuss than most of the women here.
- Difference: No local anesthesia for repair of tears. Yikes... it seems like that might be worse than the birth itself.
- Difference: I also got to scrub two elective C-sections yesterday, and by scrub I mean 1st assist/scrub nurse. For each case they only have two sterile gowns, so no more than that can fully scrub in. There was a nurse that put sterile gloves on and helped a little bit, but mostly it was just the two of us. Figuring out what in the world the doctor wanted me to hand him with his super thick accent and limited English was quick challenging, but I was pretty good by the end of the second case. Next time I see a surgeon freak out when the scrub nurse doesn't anticipate his every more, I want to say "There are surgeons in Africa who operate without a scrub nurse at all!" (he hem... Dad..... :-) Ok, ok so they aren't doing any open hearts I suppose)
- Similarity: I am surprised at the basic things they do have. I brought a lot of my own gloves/hats/masks because I was told they might not have them, but at least at my hospital they have plenty of gloves, including sterile ones. For the OR they have everything you need, the only difference is everything is cloth instead of paper disposible. So I was fully decked out in scrubs, white rubber boots you're required to wear, a platic apron, cloth hat, mask, and sterile gown and gloves for the OR.

Ok, I'm running out of internet time and my thoughts are rambling (I totally forgot what else I was going to write about, I think I need to start making notes of what I want to say) so I'll bid farewell.

Hope to write again soon!