HELPING BABIES BREATHE

There are moments in your life when you have an experience that you just know will be locked in your heart forever. You know that flashes of precious moments will drift into your mind again and again as your mind floods with memories of people, sights and sounds of a unique experience that left imprints on your heart. Traveling to Lesotho to participate in the Helping Babies Breathe training was one of those experiences.

 

Bruce and I had  recently had the opportunity to travel with an amazing team of specialist from the US to train a group of 50+ mid-wives in Lesotho. I had been anxious to attend one of these trainings ever since we served our first mission in Ukraine in 2007.  The Helping Babies Breathe training is one of LDS Charities Major Initiatives.

 

LDS Charities has a strong commitment to helping care for mothers and infants. Over the last 10 years, LDS Charities has worked in collaboration with other organizations to help babies survive by providing doctors, nurses, and midwives the knowledge, and equipment needed to resuscitate babies not breathing at birth".

 

Having worked as a Nurse in Maternal Newborn Care and later with children whose difficult delivery had affected their development, I was extremely interested in participating in this training.
I was thrilled when we were asked to drive the team to Lesotho and assist them with the training.

 

Doctor and Sister Madsen arrived on Friday and we spent the weekend helping them with the last minute details for the training.

On Sunday we were excited to bring them to Orange Farm. 

 

The rest of the team, Sheri Smith RN and Dr. George Groberg  arrived on Sunday afternoon.

 

We all piled into a van on Monday and headed for Lesotho. We were a bit apprehensive because our shipment of training materials had not arrived in Lesotho yet but we knew we were on the Lord's errand and we had faith that it would all work out.

 

It was a beautiful day

 

 

 We arrived at our hotel just as the sun was setting.

 

On day one of the training 

 

 

Sheri and George did an amazing job of training the 10 trainers.

 

I was so touched by this amazing group of dedicated mid-wives, even at the end of a very long day they were still anxious to learn more, nobody wanted to leave.

 

 

The second day of training

 

 

The rest of the 50 participants arrived

 

 

 Along with the training materials

We all breathed a sigh of relief and quickly unpacked boxes and distributed the training materials 

 That's when the fun began

 

I worked with Sister Madsen registering the participants the second day of the training

 but I kept feeling drawn to the tables where the small groups were gathered around a small plastic doll called NeoNatalie,

I watched as the women coached each other through the golden minute, which is  the critical moment after birth that the nurse has to get oxygen to the babies lungs.

I watched as Sheri went from table to table coaching and encouraging the participants

 

We had asked all the midwives to share their personal experiences with Neonatal Resuscitation prior to the training. I was particularly touched when I began to read some of the Personal Experiences With Newborn Resuscitation .

 

I read about one midwife who had to resuscitate a baby who had been delivered on the way to the hospital. The baby arrived, "floppy and unresponsive". She dried the baby, and removed the secretions with a piece of gauze. She reported that the baby was still non responsive, she could not find a bulb syringe to suction the mucus out of the babies mouth, so she used her own mouth "to suction the baby". I read about a midwife who had a 15 year old girl come into a rural health center in the mountains in active labor. It was winter and the electricity was out so the room was very cold. She normally would have started a fire but there was no time. The woman was ready to deliver. This amazing midwife delivered this baby in a dark, cold room, using her skills and expertise to resuscitate the baby for 10 minutes until she was breathing on her own. Over and over again I read remarkable stories of dedicated professionals who were working under extreme conditions. As I wandered from table to table I felt a deepened respect for these amazing women.

 

Sheri shared incredible stories that she heard as she sat and dined with the ladies. She learned that some of the women worked in hospitals that were 6 hours from their homes. These women worked for three weeks, living away from their families, returning to spend a week at home with their children. One women told Sheri that she brought her  8 year old with her to live at the hospital while her other children stayed at home with an older sibling. Sheri and I stayed up one night visiting with two very special ladies that neither of us will ever forget.

 

There were some light moments during the training. We laughed as the groups role played a delivery.

 We watched  as one of the women approached the table with a NeoNatalie tucked under her shirt  moaning and calling for someone to come help her deliver her baby.

 

These ladies were excellent actors, as they wobbled into the room, panting and holding their bellies

 

You could tell they had first hand experience with laboring mothers

 None of us will ever forget the morning song

when all the participants got up and danced around the room singing a song in their native tongue.

You couldn't help but smile and clap along.

 

The final day of the training, three of the ladies joined us when we sang,

"I am a child of God"

 

 Sheri and Sister Howden and I taking a break to do a little shopping

 

The team with the representatives from the Department of Ministry and Unicef

 

By the final day of training my heart was full. I had come to love and respect these amazing women, (and one man) who have dedicated their lives to delivering healthy babies. As I watched Nurse Sheri and Doctors Groberg and  Madsen use their skills and training to educate and prepare these midwives to go back into their community better prepared to save lives I was proud to be a Nurse. I was grateful to be a member of this church whose members donate money that make this wonderful training possible all over the world. I was grateful that we could pack and distribute over 50 duffle bags with  items the midwives could use to continue this training in their facilities.

 

As we said goodbye to these two sweet ladies. I turned away with a tear in my eye and I knew that this would be one of those experiences that would leave an imprint on my heart forever.

 

 

Time is passing so quickly

 

Time is passing so quickly, so much has happened in the last few weeks that I haven't had time to write about all the fun things we did in May.

 

We had a fun Mother's Day celebration at Orange Farm.

Elder and Sister Taylor, who serve in the Temple, ride to church with us each week.

The Taylor's have been assigned to work with the Young Single Adults (YSA'S). Sister Taylor had asked the YSA's if they would like to do something special for the women in our branch for Mother's Day. They voted to make Mother's Day cards for all the Sisters in our branch. Sister Taylor also made beautiful sugar cookies. I didn't know she was making sugar cookies, so I made chocolate chip cookies. After Sacrament meeting the Young Single Adults handed out the handmade cards and the cookies to all the mothers in the branch.

It was so fun to see their smiling faces as they received their mother's day gifts.

 

 

Right after church we walked over to the branch presidents house to see Owen, who had just turned 8 be baptized. It was a wonderful day.

 

I love Orange Farm branch. It feels like one big happy family.

 

Bruce and I accompanied the Helping Babies Breathe Team to Lesotho for a training the following week. (I will write about that in another post).

 

A few weeks later we, along with the Taylor's planned a Movie Day at Orange Farm. While we were returning from Lesotho Sister Taylor popped popcorn and bought frozen treats. 

Saturday morning the four of us headed to Orange Farm.

We arrived a little early so I suggested we go to the home of President Nyama (our Branch President) to get the key to the building. When we turned onto his street I could see that there were about 10 children playing in the street. There were 4 or 5 children who I recognized playing hopscotch in front of President Nyama's house. Hopscotch just happened to be one of my favorite pastime as a child. 

 I quickly went inside to get the key and found President Nyama, our branch President, in the kitchen with the Young Men's President. I didn't stick around long enough to see what they were doing. I wanted to get the key to Bruce and join my little friends outside as quickly as possible. I nearly tripped over baby Musa,  exploring the living room floor, President Nyama's son, Pardon was nearby keeping a close watch on Musa. I ran past, offered a quick hello to Pardon and Musa and instructed Bruce and the Taylor's to go on to the Chapel without me. I told them I would join them later.

 

Pardon and Musa

 I had a hopscotch game to join.

 I wish I would have taken a photo of my little friends in the middle of the street jumping in and out of the hopscotch squares, stopping to pick up a squished tin can while balancing on one foot,  just as I had done so many years ago.

There was something about that moment that I wanted to hold in my heart forever. I wanted to capture the snapshot of my little friends and their life in Orange Farm.

 As I looked down the street I could see a woman walking towards us. Providence explained that was her mother coming back from visiting her Auntie. There was a small group of boys wrestling on the lawn of one of the homes, and two women standing in front of a small home talking. I found myself wishing that time would stand still. I wished I had all afternoon to stay with my little friends and play hopscotch and then sit and sip a cold drink as we sat in the warm African sun.

 

I remembered a few months back that Sister Ellen had asked me to come visit her, so I decided I would ask the children to take me to her home so I could stop and say hello. We walked past two or three houses to Sister Ellen's back door and boy do I think she was surprised to hear my voice as we all walked into her kitchen and I called out " Sister Ellen". She came out of her bedroom with a very confused look on her face and gave me a great big hug. We told Sister Ellen that we were showing a movie at the branch and it would be starting soon. She thanked us for reminding her and said she would join us there. As we hurried down the street toward the branch building, I began to feel like the Pied Piper as more and more children came out of their homes to join us. We were greeted by the younger missionaries who told us that the children were so excited and that they had been asking all week what time the movie would start. 

The children quickly entered the building and found their seats in the little portable building sitting on the Orange Farm Primary School grounds, that had become our makeshift movie theater.




(This was not taken on the day we showed the movie, but it is a good photo of our chapel)

The windows were covered with blankets, and sheets were laid out of the floor for those who wanted to sit up close. Within 10 minutes there were probably 25 children sitting on the floor. Bruce and the Taylor's passed out small bags of popcorn, and we all settled in to watch FROZEN.

 

It didn't take long for the children to quiet down.

Within a few minutes they were laughing and giggling and singing along.

 

 I was sitting in the front of the room and was surprised to look back and see that the whole chapel filled with not only children but adults too. President Nyama later told me after the movie that we had over 100 people there.

 

It was such a fun day. A day I know I will always remember. 

This will be one of those days that will be forever imprinted on my heart.

 

I will always remember

 

the sights, and  sounds

 

of those few moments in Orange Farm

with my little friends, playing hopscotch, and holding my hands as we walked down the street to visit Sister Ellen.