160612, A baby is born

This morning around 5am I woke up from someone knocking on my caravan window.  My friendly night security guard was there to tell me that I have a visitor.  I wondered if someone was going mad but it turned out to be the husband of one of my Xhosa friends.  He walked all the way from their house on White Clay side, looking for me because I promised his wife that I would take her to the hospital when it was time for her baby to come. It was time.

(It’s very hard for the people round here to get to the hospital, taxis normally charge R500 to Zithulele, 50km away – a lot of money if you don’t have any and in the night time it’s practically impossible to find a taxi)

I got up, hurriedly got dressed and off we went.  We were almost at their house when we got a call saying that she had just given birth to the baby.  We arrived there and it was still pitch dark outside, and on the footpath I could hardly see where I was going. 

Inside the house it was dark except for a lone candle standing on the edge of the bed.  I walked past two mamas but couldn’t recognise them in the dark.  Only later did I see that I knew one of them, one of the bead mamas.   My friend was sitting, hunched up on a blanket on the floor, covered only by a blanket hanging over her shoulders. She was still very much in pain.  The little baby was lying on the floor between her legs.

Now I’ve never given birth or witnessed anything apart from our Pekingese dog giving birth many years ago and really have no idea what’s supposed to happen.  It was difficult for me with my limited Xhosa skills, to figure out if the other people around me knew anything more than I did.   Except that they've probably all had babies before.  But there seemed to be a slight serious mood around that could’ve been worry or uncertainty, it was hard to tell.  My beautiful brave friend looked exhausted sitting there on the hard floor with the baby boy covered in blood, just lying there. 

I reckoned something needed to happen but not sure what so I phoned my dear nursing friend Ester in Cape Town and woke her too from her early sleep.  She shed some light about the situation of the after-birth that needed to come out and the basics about how to handle the situation. The mamas disinfected a blade in some boiling water and cut the umbilical chord and wrapped the baby in a towel.

I didn’t want to impose too much on the mamas and still didn’t know if they actually knew what was supposed to happen next, but eventually got my friend to lie down on some blankets on the floor, trying to push out the after-birth.

She was still a bit tense though and after a while said that we should rather go to the clinic.  So, painfully she wrapped herself in some blankets and we helped her walk very slowly to the car.  One of the mamas came with and after the first clinic was closed, we continued to the second.  I tried my best to miss as many potholes as possible.

On arrival there was no-one to be found in the clinic so we had to get the security guard try and get hold of someone.  Eventually two very sweet nurses came out from somewhere, still in their pajamas. In the meantime the after-birth had come out and from there on it was all under control and the nurses did their job. 

It was almost 10 when we left the clinic and for the rest of the day everything felt a bit surreal.  I’m glad all worked out relatively smooth and that mom and baby is okay.  I hope they got some good sleep the rest of the day!   I know I am going to sleep well tonight.