The Midwives of the Shiphrah Bahay Paanakan (Shiphrah Birthing Home)

Here at the Paanakan everyone is a valuable part of the community and no one is left out. Everyone at the Paanakan has welcomed me and helped me so much in getting used to life here. Each family is open to having us students come into their family and community circles. They share their food, their family time, and their energy, all of which are extremely valuable! Each midwife is amazing at what they do, I will not be able to describe adequetely each one and how dedicated and loyal they are to the women at the Paanakan. They are incredible at being mothers, friends, and care givers. Each one of the midwives love to joke and laugh! they are all a vital part of the community at the birthing home. They all work extremely hard and diligently throughout the day and the night. They are ready to serve these women at anytime, even when it takes away from their personal lives. I am blessed beyond measure to be accepted by them and to be learning from them!!!

Ate Lyds is an amazing teacher! She's great at taking the time to explain things to me. She really allows me to be her shadow and involves me as much as possible in whatever she is doing with each patient. She is AMAZING at suturing! Lyd's really gets me in there and helps me get a lot of hands on experience! Lyd's husband, Effrain goes way above and beyond to take care of his family and to look out for others. He is always cooking, cleaning and helping out. One time I was trying to make lunch and I dropped a glass jar of jelly! Immediately he started cleaning it up with me and told me to go ahead and eat my lunch! Another thing I really appreciate about Effrain is that he speaks to me in tagalog despite the fact that he knows I don't understand it. It makes me feel really accepted.

Lyds and her beautiful family, Effrain and Rainlyds

Beautiful Rainlyds

Lyds talking with a family the day after their birth


Ate Bhel (pronounced Belle) is a very calming and gentle presence at births and in the Paanakan in general. She also knows how to joke and have fun; she has a great laugh! She has two beautiful baby girls who she sings to all the time. They are finally warming up to me a little bit! Her older daughter, Maybell is so adorable! She has such a cute little voice and contagious laugh! She also very fiery and determined, both characteristics remind me of my little sister when she was that age :) Maybell is really attached to the midwives, they are her aunties and she wants to be with them more than anything else! Marielle is a such a gorgeous girl! She is very shy of english speaking caucasians (understandable considering she has not been taken care of by any). I am still working to let her feel comfortable with me but she is letting me hold her sometimes now which is really exciting! I think her favorite people in the world are Mommy and Ate Dina. The only reason she's smiling in this picture is because Dina is the one behind the camara ;)

Ate Bhel and her youngest daughter, Marielle

Bhel's oldest, Maybell


Bhel also has a really sweet ya ya (nanny), Gladys who has very kindly translated for me during part of a late-night birth. She is a great ya ya and really loves Bhel's girls.

Ate Dina (pronounced Deena) is all of the kids favorite Ate (big sister)! She is very personal, loving and individual with all of the babies and kids. When they are upset she knows just how to calm each one of them down and to make them laugh. She is always holding and loving on Marielle and Maybell runs to her Ate Dina whenever she's upset. Dina is a great midwife, she's awesome at being assertive when she needs to. If a women's family is disruptive she won't hesitate to ask them to step out! The women really respect and listen to her. She is great at getting women into helpful positions. She knows how to teach women and husbands to work together during labor and to try different movements to bring the baby down. If a position isn't working quite right Dina immediately has another one for her to try.

Dina and Marielle

Grace is hilarious, very relatable and very sweet! Many times as soon as a baby is born she shouts "Thank you Lord Jesus!" or "Welcome baby!" Grace is really fun to work with! She gives you responsibility but is also right there to help. She is great at communicating and making things clear. She throws me right into the thick of a situation and helps me think things through while getting hands on experience. Grace has two beautiful kids, Roanne and Ryle. Her mom is also here at the Paanakan to help with baby Ryle. Roanne is very independent. She is also really spirited and friendly, you can tell she is a natural born leader. All the other little girls follow her around. Joy just beams out of her cute little face! Ryle is just about the cutest baby boy in Manila! Anyone can make him laugh; he's very giggly and sweet! Whenever I get to hold him it is an absolute treat!

Ate Grace, her daughter Roanne and her son Ryle

Adorable Ryle

Ryle and his Lola

Roanne and her huge personality!

Maybell and her Ate Roanne


Lornie is very reassuring and calm as a midwife, nothing seems to phase her. She also often brings humor into the birth experience in a tactful and helpful way. She's very steady and comforting for women in labor. One time she monitored a labor all night only to have it go into the next day and the next night! She never stopped working with the woman and trying to help her labor progress. Lornie is great at talking with women and their families! She, Grace, and Bell all are great at taking a step back and allowing us students to step up and accept some responsibility for these births. In this way, I am able to be involved and make a connection. Her sweet and beautiful daughter is named Johanna.

Lornie and her husband Joey at a school pageant where Johanna won many awards.

Lornie

Johanna

Although Helen is technically the house keeper at the Paanakan, she rises way above and beyond this role. She is basically the manager of the entire place, she keeps the whole thing going! She helps teach seminars, leads the exercises for the women in the mornings and organizes many of the details surrounding the Paanakan. Keeping this place clean and organized with so many people coming in and out is a huge task! She is always a smiling, joking face around here and knows almost everything about the Paanakan and how things are run. She is in charge of records and she knows just about as much about maternity care as a midwife does. She also has a beautiful daughter named Michelle.

Michelle at Johanna's 7th birthday party

Jorge is a great and very personable presence at the birthing home. He is the mission's driver which is a huge and extremely vital task. He is the one (along with Darren) who gets women to the hospital in an emergency. He is really a big part of the birthing home community and is great friends with all the midwives, their kids and their families. He's also really welcoming and accepting of me, Lauren, and Kim. He teaches us how to be more Filipino and welcomes us to eat with him all the time. He is a really fun teaser, he's very genuine and really ready to help in anyway. He's a huge jokester but very loving at the same time.

A week with Omari and his mommy!

On Friday morning Deborah went to do a home birth in Makati. Even though I had met the mother once before at the Paanakan, I had no idea that she had gone into labor until Darren came over to the children's home in the afternoon and asked if I wanted to go and experience the home birth environment. I rode up to Makati with Jorge since he was going up to take Deborah an oxygen tank. Upon arrival we discovered that the baby had already been born but that the mom was needing help for some days after the birth. Deborah suggested to us (the mother and I) that I live with her this week and help her get the baby breast feeding. Because the baby was born at 37 weeks and had some trauma at birth, he's had some trouble feeding. We (the mother and I) have been working together to get him to feed more. It's been a blessing to me to be able to support her and to see this tiny little baby begin to eat more, I think he's grown already! How blessed am I to be able to spend this precious time with this new mommy and baby!? While it is sometimes difficult to have friends around at this time and family is far away, I am allowed to be right here, to wake up for middle of the night feedings with her, to hold the baby while she showers, to help them rest, to change him and answer questions that she has. This has been awesome! Helping mommies and babies connect, building relationships, and being able to hold someone so little and new is really wonderful! It's been an exhausting yet great experience to be able to support and care for this sweet mom as she learns to care for her new little life! I have fallen more and more in love with this little guy everyday! She has carefully contemplated what his name should be and today decided on Omari Yousef. He is adorable!

Mommy and baby





Sunbathing

Naptime



It's going to be really hard for me to separate from this little guy and his mommy when I go back to the Paanakan tomorrow!

until next time...

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.