Ruth Hersey continues her story... read on it is good...
Hi everybody,
I just got back a bit ago from visiting Odanie and overall I am happy with how things are going. The baby is doing well and Odanie is much better. The baby is in her bed with her (she was up in a chair while I was there but she'll be sleeping with the baby tonight). He apparently has no infection and unless something else develops he will stay with her. The reason he and she both need to be there still is that they are both still getting antibiotics intravenously. Both have their last dose tomorrow and she is hopeful that she will be able to go home tomorrow. It depends on whether her blood pressure stays down. TWO women have had seizures in the room where she is since she has been there! Eclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal death here. They are being very careful with her blood pressure - it was extremely high before she gave birth and that is why she was induced. She is on the third floor and they are steep stairs, so she is going to need some help to get down them, I'm guessing. No elevators. She went up on a stretcher so I guess that is an option to go down.
The room where she is staying has 49 beds in it and nearly all are full. The women who have lost babies and are in for D&Cs are in the same room with the women with newborns. At the end of the room there is a row of bassinets which is for the abandoned babies. There were three or four there but I didn't even go over and look - sorry, too emotionally overloaded already! All the other babies are in bed with their moms.
This morning Odanie begged to go down to where Beni was and the nurse (or doctor, not sure exactly who this was) said no, but s/he would go get the baby. So that happened, and they have been together ever since. He is 5 lbs 1 oz (that is birthweight, not sure if he has been weighed since). While I was there he nursed several times.
This morning they told Odanie that the baby had an infection and that he would have to be sent to General Hospital. There was more of the same panic that we had yesterday, except that this time we knew there really weren't other good options. We didn't want to cart him all around again to various hospitals only to be turned away. I was really struggling with it but called John Ackerman and he confirmed to me that if they were doing this in-house it would probably be OK. They had called ahead and there was a place for the baby. Apparently there was an infection in the amniotic fluid and he really needed antibiotics. By the time I got back home, though, after going to meet friends this morning, the doctors were saying that he had no infection. I'm not sure what happened exactly but we were very happy that he wasn't going to be taken away again.
There was one woman with twins and she was all by herself. She was trying to care for both of them and inevitably one was crying while she cared for the other. She did try to nurse them both at the same time but it was awkward. At one point she had one nursing and the other on her legs. I went over and offered to hold one and I got to do that for a while until he went to sleep. Later I went and held the girl for her. She has two other children at home already and if her visitor quotient is anything to go by, things are going to be rough for her.
It struck me that nobody had a book or a magazine. Of course there's no TV. Everybody was just sitting or sleeping. Lots of gorgeous babies. You could see the ocean through the door at the end of the ward.
It was such an honor to be there and hold Beni and talk with Odanie. She is her usual self, giving God glory. She says that God had his hand on her the whole time. She told me that at one point during labor she closed her eyes and saw three doctors coming towards her. When she opened her eyes she saw they weren't there, but she immediately thought of the three persons of the Trinity and knew that God was her doctor.
Thank you to everyone for your encouraging emails. I don't know that I'll get to answer them all personally, but please know that your prayers mean so much to me and to Odanie, too. Please pray that her blood pressure will stay down and that nothing else will develop with Beni and that they will both be able to come home soon.
