The day began as every other normal day. I woke up, checked the time on my phone it was past 6 in the morning and I wondered why I had slept for almost 12 hours and still felt sleepy. The previous day was a very hectic one but little did I know what the present day had in store.  I said my prayers, read my Bible and off I was to school. Like every medical student, I silently prayed for a fruitful day and by fruitful I mean plenty signatures in my booklets. No matter how much one learns in school, if you don’t have that proof of your presence in school- the doctors signature in your booklet, it’s regarded as the same as having stayed in your room.

I have always had a thing for Obstetrics and Gynecology. I love the specialty and so doing my intramural posting there was a blessings. On getting to labour ward, the Caeserian section I was rushing to meet had just ended. How frustrating could that be? I nevertheless remained optimistic that the day was going to be very fruitful.

While waiting for the theatre to be cleaned up and prepped for the next CS, one of my classmates brought the good news that a woman was about to deliver. I mean, what other news could be better? That meant a signature for we, medical student and a new born baby for the woman’s family. We all rushed to the delivery room and saw a woman lying pretty calmly on the couch. That obviously meant she wasn’t actively having contractions and that wasn’t good news for we the signature hunters. We needed the contractions so she could deliver and we get signed.

Little did we know that that was the least of the problems. She was originally carrying twins and had delivered the first twin in a maternity centre about fours before presenting at UCH a couple of hours earlier. The umbilical cord of the first twin was still dangling from her vagina while the chance of survival of the second twin quickly diminished. The doctors tried everything possible to stimulate contractions but they weren’t adequate, the retained twin which had a breech presentation had just refused to descend. The doctors finally settled for a caeserian section and I watched as the doctors brought out the cute baby girl. I remember some of my classmates saying she wasn’t alive and we all stood eagerly by the paediatrician as she resuscitated the baby. We all sighed and smiled when we heard her cry. The name, ‘Iyanuoluwa’ meaning ‘God’s wonder’ would be perfect.

The day kept getting ‘fruitful’ as shortly after another woman delivered a 4.4kg baby. We were all amazed and then when she told us the previous one was 4.8kg we were speechless. But then something unfortunate happened and this got me thinking. There was another CS, everything was going on smoothly until I saw the baby. It had an Ompalocele (umbilical henia), no genitals (hence the ‘it’), an imperforate anu, lung hypoplasia (underdeveloped lungs) and suspected tracheo-oesopageal fistula. All in a new born child, I was so sad and wondered how the parents might have felt even though the ultrasound scan done ealier had revealed some of the defects. This very sad occurrence together with another woman that had a dead foetus still in utero and another who was referred from another hospital on account of  a post parturm haemorrhage i.e. vaginal bleeding following delivery of a still birth all made me appreciate the gift of life.

If you are reading this article, it means your mother definitely gave birth to you as a life neonate who survived all the hardship life had to offer and is intelligent enough to comprehend what he or she is reading. The least you can do is be grateful to God and live a life pleasing unto Him.

(2013)

Emmanuela Mike-Bamiloye