The most important part

These past two weeks have been really wonderful. The first one was spent at the birthing home, seeing my 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th births! During the 11th one I actually got to help catch the baby! He was so warm and slippery! Now that I've seen my 10th birth I am able to assist the midwives and be a lot more hands on. Although catching the baby was amazing, I feel that sometimes it is believed to be the most important role, which I really don't think is true. Someone can walk in and catch the baby and walk out again. The most important thing during a birth is the woman, what she needs and how "we" as midwives can support her. I thought after my first time of catching a baby that I would look at birth completely differently. That the one moment of catching the baby would be totally climatic and would then become (in my mind) the best and most important moment. But now that I have actually experienced it, and seen that, yes, it is incredibly special and wonderful, but even more special and important is to care for the woman throughout the whole process, to support her whether she is dialated only one centimeter or if she is all the way up to ten. For me, the part of midwifery that I am truly passionate about isn't the mechanics of it, or the moment of catching the baby, it's about nurturing and caring for the woman at all times. My relationship with her, her family and the baby, is the best part of the whole experience! Of course holding the baby is also incredible and really gives me joy as well. Here's the beautiful Mommy and baby girl from my ninth birth

Most of this blog will probably consist of pictures because I just can't adequately or completely describe the community and activity of the birthing home. Here's Burnadette and Lauren testing out the fetoscope

Rainlids, one of my best and earliest friends at the birthing home

Ate Bell and some of the girlies, between all the midwives' kids there is only one boy

Here are some pictures of Makati, on our way to and from church, the park, and the sunday market









It was really amazing to spend time at the childrens home last week. Instead of running errands or doing some midwifery studying I would spend an hour or so in the afternoon being over there. The time I spend over there is always really joyful, refreshing, and encouraging to me! It was awesome to actully see the babies who I have read so much about and who are doing so well, really being loved on and flourishing under tlc's care.
Here is Vanessa, she is an expert at the baby stare! She's really tiny and sweet and as you can see has some amazing hair!



This is Cindy, I remember reading about her six months ago and her situation when she came to tlc. Reading her story I was just longing to be able to hold her! well now I can! It's great to see her really being loved on and cared for here! She especially loves reading books and gets really excited when you show her the pages! Cindy's amazing story is at http://www.helpintl.org/blog.html you will have to scroll down to find the right blog post.

This is Leonardo, to read his story check out Darren's blog, http://gustafson-family.blogspot.com/ you'll have to scroll down a bit to find his blog post too. He is the sweetest little guy and probably the longest baby I have ever seen! He was super cuddily and even fell asleep on me when I got to hold him this past weekend.