Busy Monday

So many visits today - 8 of them! Odilia didn't go in the temascal with all of them so the prenatal visits went quickly, but it was still a lot of women to see. I did all of the physical prenatal controls (measuring, doppler, blood pressure, palpating). I wrote down little details in my journal so I wouldn't get everyone confused.
1. Maria Luisa - a 30-year-old due on 6/20/12, but Odilia thinks she will have it around June 4th (the full moon) or June 11th (quarter moon). Odilia gave her an injection of "liver extract"... packed with vitamin B!
2. Flori - a 26-year-old due on 7/18/12
3. Dilma - a 21-year-old prima due on 6/24/12, but Odilia thinks maybe she'll have it early and I'll still be here. Odilia and I got the truck stuck in the mud at this house and it took 4 people, rocks, and sawdust to get the truck out! 
4. Silvia - a 21-year-old prima due on 8/25/12
5. Irma - a 30-year-old due on 9/21/12
6. Albertina - a 35-year-old prima due on 7/31/12... baby is in the nalgas position (butt down instead of head down) so Odilia showed her some exercises to do for 15 minutes 3-4 times a week to turn it upside down
7. Petronila (who already had the baby) - they still haven't picked a name!! The excess umbilical cord fell off this morning. Petronila fainted when she got out of the temascal and I had to help carry her to the bed.
8. Claudia - I didn't write down her information, but I know she is young and it's her first baby. It was raining so hard at this point and she had a tin roof that I could barely listen to her blood pressure it was so loud! When I was palpating this baby, it started to move around and kick - so awesome!!


After all of the visits we came home and had lunch and Odilia helped me set up a clothes line to dry my clothes on. A woman who is very poor comes to the house every Monday to do laundry for Odilia's family to make a little money and have lunch, so she washed my clothes. I'm very thankful because I'm not sure I would be the best at washing my clothes in a stone sink with a bar of soap!
Later in the afternoon, Odilia and I set up a fake, practice birth - there are no dolls in the house so we made a fake baby out of a plastic juice bottle and put it in a sock. Odilia drew a picture of different sized circles and I had to determine how dilated each one was, in order to know for a real vaginal exam during a real labor. I also had to coach her through her fake labor and catch the "baby," then quickly suction out the mouth and nose and cut the umbilical cord. Hopefully we can do a couple more practice rounds before the next birth so I can take on more tasks during the real thing!