Call the Midwife

Generally, it's the sound of my twin sons waking during the night that stirs me from my sleep. This one night it was different, it was a gentle buzzing and then a small crash. I realised it was my phone. It was on silent and the vibrate setting had caused it to jump off the shelf where it was being charged. I tried to move quickly - but I had to extricate myself from the grasps of my sons and it had stopped by the time I got to it. It was Raintree? - our remote clinic, I saw a huge number of messages that I had missed due to the silent mode and also being asleep. I scanned through them and hurriedly tried to call them back - no answer. I scrolled through my messenger account and found someone else who was awake at the clinic - and was about to press call, when that person called me. They had been called to a village some distance away to a woman having difficulty giving birth to her 8th baby. So, in the late-night early morning 2 of our faithful students climbed aboard the motorbike and roared off on the jungle path in the rain to the woman in need. They arrived and assessed their patient. Naw Zu Zae Nar (Year 4, Physician Assistant student) is a wonderful person to have at your side when giving birth, she is knowledgeable and fundamentally kind. She took in the situation and realised that there were many potential implications that necessitated being in the clinic rather than the home. So, while she encouraged the mama, she ordered the husband to find manly men who could carry his wife to the clinic right now.

They arrived at the clinic at 1am and this was when they tried to contact me. Over the course of a few discussions we looked at the options available to us. It was the peak of the rainy season and the roads were broken - to get to a referral centre was going to be difficult and take many hours. It was a costly decision if we made the wrong one. The reality is that a woman having difficulty with her 8th baby usually points to a significant problem- they had attempted to solve the problem in the village employing painful old methods to no avail. After weighing up the options we decided to start at the very beginning and look at the simple things we could do - while making a plan to run if we had to. If needed our guys would have moved heaven and earth to make it happen.

It is so gratifying to be a sounding board at that hour of the morning and to hear the rapid outcome of decisions. The next phone call came through 45 mins later in a hurry to say - Theramu - we think she is about to give birth; she wants to push, and we think we just saw the baby's head. 2 hours later a very tired leader at the clinic called to give an update, those simple things had reset the clock and very quickly helped the woman regain good contractions and the urge to push. A sassy and chunky little lady of 3.9kgs presented herself to a tired but delighted mama. There was some banter back and forth over the name! I felt that Naw Zuzaenar was fitting, however she recommended something else and Mama said how about little Miss Trouble!

The delight I feel when I see our students and staff taking on what they have learnt and applying is epic. This woman received quality and dignified care with our team, and the outcome was a thing of beauty. A happy healthy mama and baby. They are just getting started but these guys are already changing the face of maternal infant care in their area into something positive and respectful.

Monica Parker
Midwife Program Director

This story originally appeared on EMA’s Facebook page.

Monica Parker is from New South Wales, Australia and is a registered nurse and midwife. She has been living and working in Thailand and Myanmar since 2009 and is the Co-ordinator of SPM’s Maternal Health Program. She is seconded to work with Earth Mission Asia’s Physician Assistant program based in Kyaukkyi, Myanmar. It is Monica’s dream to train a strong core of professional midwives to serve the Karen people in the remote areas of Karen State. She also wants to help set professional standards in maternal health care. This includes identification and appropriate management of high-risk pregnancy and birth.

Mon is based in Kayaukkyi, Myanmar. She is married to Saw Eh Hsu and, they have two precious twin boys.