New Baby!

Bet the title made you want to read this!

Recently Nicole had the opportunity to go with another missionary wife to take a Kenyan woman, Christine, to the hospital to deliver her baby. The private hospital where Christine was going to deliver her baby was quite impressive. It looked and smelled very clean. There was a waiting room and two exam rooms. After being checked, the nurse midwife said that Christine had placenta previa and could not deliver at that place. So we had to take her to a public hospital.

We parked at the public hospital and had to walk Momma to the furthest building which was the maternity building. When we walked up to the building there were 8 Babas (fathers) waiting outside (in Kenya no one is allowed to be with the Mommas while they are giving birth, not even the fathers). Walking inside there was a small corridor with glass windows as the far wall looking into the big rooms. The rooms the corridor looked into were big because they were common rooms with beds tightly lined up on each wall (about 15-20 beds in each room). There were pregnant women in all of the beds and some women had to share beds (one bed was shared by three women nursing their babies). The corridor was also packed with pregnant women waiting to be examined and waiting for beds. This public hospital smelled a bit like a toilet and looked very dirty.

Momma was taken into a small exam room (about the size of a large closet) to be examined and then she laid on the floor until we made a big fuss and she was given a bed. Christine’s husband Edwin had to wait outside the whole time she was in labor and was only told that the baby was born around 11:30. He was not told anything about the well being of Momma and baby. Edwin was not allowed to see his wife or new baby until the morning after the baby was born. Brandi is the baby’s name, she was a little over 2 Kilos (about 4 pounds) and momma took her home from the hospital the day after she was born. They were in the hospital about 16 hours. The total cost of the hospital stay and delivery was 2,300 Ksh (about 30 US Dollars). Here is a picture of the new big sister playing with our kids (actually enjoying hot chocolate during a break).