Volleyball Court Baby

I reached down with my bare hands and grabbed the woman’s fabric to embrace the child that had just been born. She lay there on her mother’s fabric in the sand volleyball court as her mother kneeled in her hands and knees, placenta cord still attached. Right as I touched the baby she let out a cry. Fewf. I love it when they cry. She must have just been born.

I had been awoken by Ruth’s soft voice talking to Volonte. “Let femme”. She is talking something about a woman. I asked her if a woman was in labor. “Yes, the one we sent home today”.

A woman had arrived in our campus during breakfast. I helped with her intake. She was only 2 cm. We checked an hour later. The same. We told her we would go to church and come back. She was still the same. 2 cm. We sent her home and went to the boys futbol game in the city.

It was 12:30 when we had been awoken.  As we reached the bottom of the small hill from the Pink House [staff housing located at the top of the property], Volunte started to run. The man that had brought the women had said something to Volonte. It must have been that the baby had been born. As Volonte ran to the clinic, I began to follow her but quickly turned around. I needed to make sure baby was breathing. But I didn’t have gloves. Oh well. I’ll use her fabric.

An hour later after we had washed the baby, delivered the placenta and got the mom settled in her bed, I double checked her uterus to make sure it was firm like a rock. Nope. It was a bit boggy. What do I do? Should we uterus sit and make sure the uterus stays firm?

Volonte thought it was fine. I insisted we at least tell the mom to try to pee in a little bit and to feel her uterus to make sure it is hard. And then we left. I was a bit unsettled. I lay in my bed thinking of all the things that could happen to this mom and her boggy uterus. A still quiet voice told me “it’s okay Whitney, I’ve got her in my hands”.

For years I just wanted to be on the mission field. For years I didn’t understand why I was in Hawaii, although I loved my family there and the ministry I was apart of. I knew that God was teaching me things along the way.

It dawned on me as I lay in my top bunk under my mosquito net. All those years at STN, learning to hear the voice of God as I navigated through life. It was preparation for this. To deliver babies and to deliver the good news.