NEW EMAIL: sherinajoy@gmail.com

MY OLD EMAIL ADDRESS: sherinatatum@hotmail.com has been taken over by a hacker!!! :(
MY NEW EMAIL ADDRESS IS:
sherinajoy@gmail.com
PLEASE EMAIL ME THERE IF YOU WANT TO KEEP GETTING UPDATES.
I'm really sorry for any worry or inconvinence this may have caused you!! :( It's been pretty upsetting for me too as I had over 300 contacts and over 2,00o personal emails!! I've spent most of today changing passwords and creating new email accounts. Please email my new gmail account cuz I'm really sad that I've lost your address!!! :( :( :( :( :(
Thank-you

First Birth at Ate Cecil's

Baby Marvin

Doing the Neonatal Exam
Taking his measurements
Trying to find his pulse!
Checking his stepping reflex!
He wasn't enjoying the exam!

So I tried to comfort him!

Eye Ointment

Vitamin K Injection

Bath Time

I think I should put an explicit lyrics warning on this!!! Oh, it’s not a song! Ok, explicit description!! Don’t read before eating!! :P LOL

DJ shook me awake this morning to say that Ate Cecil texted and asked if we could come to her place to help with a labor. The Patient was 6cm already so we tried to hurry. I had a really fast shower and while I was packing my bag, Ate Cecil texted again that the patient was now 10cm!! We ran out the door and started looking for a taxi!! In the hurry I forgot my hair brush and water!! The 2 things I really wanted to bring!! When you see my hair in the pictures you’ll see why I wished that I’d brought my hair brush!! Ha ha ha!! We got there before the baby was born, but unfortunately we also made it in time to help clean up all the poo that the patient was pushing out!! A few times I had to tell myself, “No, you will not throw up!! Deal with it!!” Because of the lack of supplies, the soiled sheets and absorbent bed pad are not removed until after the baby is born so the smell stays the whole time!! And the baby is born on top of the poo!! L If I had known some of these things I would have tried to bring more of the absorbent bed pads with me!! Another thing is that laundry is done mostly by hand so it’s a lot of work to wash extra sheets and bed pads!
Baby Marvin made his appearance at 9:18am this morning! He had an unusually short cord that was wrapped around his neck, but we were able to slip it off! His mom needed a lot of encouragement to push out the shoulders and it seemed to take forever! Ate Cecil waited awhile for the cord to stop pulsating before I got to cut it!! The idea is that the baby will receive the rest of the blood and nutrients from the placenta if we wait to cut the cord until after it has stopped pulsating! For this to be effective though, the baby needs to be held lower than the cord. So the baby was lying on the same bed pad that was covered in poo and blood and then he peed and pooed to add to the assortment of bodily fluids that were pooled there!!! Kadiri!! That means gross in Tagalog!!
After I cut the cord, I clamped and cut the baby’s cord and then I got the baby!! I was going to catch the placenta but it was taking a long time to come out so I opted for cuddling with the baby while Ate Cecil took over with the mom! After 20mins and the placenta didn’t seem to be coming at all, I suggested that the baby breast feed! They agreed so we helped the mom to hold the baby. Breastfeeding helps the uterus to contract and push out the placenta. If the baby isn’t able to breastfeed or in the sad event that the baby died, L the breasts can be manually stimulated to help the uterus contract. This also works well during labor. The baby didn’t seem to keen on feeding that much at this time so I got him back while they tried other positions for the mom. The placenta finally came out over an hour after the baby had been born!! The placenta usually comes out within 5-30 minutes after the baby and 1 hour is about the longest you would want to wait! All the women are given a shot of pitocin after the baby is born to help their uterus contract and help prevent hemorrhaging, but sometimes this is not enough. When the placenta comes out, it is checked carefully to make sure that no pieces could be left inside the mom. If that happens, the body will bleed and bleed to try and get rid of what it considers a foreign object and then the mom could bleed to death!! Hemorrhaging is one of the top 4 reasons why women of child bearing age, are dying in the world today!
1 woman dies every minute of child birth or related causes somewhere in the developing world!!
This is an insanely large number!! Learning about this is one of the reasons why I wanted to be here studying about childbirth! To help prevent these unnecessary deaths!!
This is the number one need in the developing world today!!!
Just thought I would share that because it’s something that I am passionate about! And until studying Primary Health Care at the University of the Nations, YWAM, Hawaii, last year, I was unaware of how high these statistics were!!



Back to Baby Marvin. He got a brief bath and then I did the neonatal exam. He was perfect, no abnormalities. But he really liked being held and disliked me injecting him with Vitamin K and measuring and weighing him!! So I cuddled him lots after to make up for it!! Thank you, Lord, for another baby brought safely into this world!


This is some information I found on the WHO website which I pasted at the bottom!! Please check it out!!!





WHO / MPS
Every day, 1500 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications. In 2005, there were an estimated 536 000 maternal deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths occur in the developing world and most of them are avoidable.
(1) Improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the international community at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.

Where do maternal deaths occur?

The incidence of maternal death is inequitably spread throughout the world reflecting the gap between rich and poor. A woman's lifetime risk of maternal death is one in 75 in the developing regions, compared to one in 7300 in developed regions. In Niger one in seven women dies of pregnancy-related complications. By contrast, in Ireland a woman's risk of maternal death is one in 48 000. (2)



Developing countries account for 99% of all maternal deaths worldwide. More than half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, one third in South Asia.

Why do mothers die?

The four major killers are: severe bleeding (mostly postpartum haemorrhage), infections (mostly sepsis), hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (usually eclampsia), and obstructed labour. Complications after unsafe abortion cause 13% of maternal deaths. Among the indirect causes (20%) of maternal death are diseases that complicate pregnancy or are aggravated by pregnancy, such as malaria, anaemia, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular diseases.(3)

WHO / Marie-Agnes Heine
Most maternal deaths are avoidable as the medical solutions to prevent or manage the fatal causes are well known. Skilled care at birth can make the difference between life and death. For instance, if unattended, severe bleeding in the third stage of labour can kill even a healthy woman within two hours. An injection of the drug oxytocin given immediately after childbirth reduces the risk of bleeding very effectively.
Sepsis, the second most frequent cause of maternal death, can be widely reduced if aseptic techniques are respected. The third-cause, pre-eclampsia, is a common hypertensive disorder in pregnancy, which can be monitored. Although pre-eclampsia cannot be completely cured before the delivery, the administration of drugs like magnesium sulfate can lower a woman's risk of developing convulsions (eclampsia), which can be fatal. Another frequent cause of maternal death, obstructed labour, can be prevented or managed by skilled birth attendants. Obstructed labour occurs when the fetus' head is too big compared to the mother's pelvis or if the baby is abnormally positioned. A simple tool to identify problems in labour early is the partograph, a graph of progress of labour and the maternal and fetal condition. Skilled practitioners can use the partograph to recognize and deal with slow progress before labour becomes obstructed, and, if necessary, refer the woman to caesarean section.

Why do mothers not get the care they need?

WHO / Jim Holmes
In 2006, only about 60% of deliveries in developing countries were assisted by a skilled birth attendant. This can be translated into 50 million home deliveries that were not assisted by skilled health personnel. The coverage ranges from 34% in Eastern Africa to 93% in South America. (4) The coverage of antenatal care varies too. In Peru, 87% of pregnant women had at least four antenatal care visits, whereas in Ethiopia the coverage was only 12%. (5)
There are many reasons why women do not receive the care they need before, during and after childbirth. In some remote areas, there may be no availability of professional care. Or, if available, the care may not be good. In other cases, the women may lack access to health facilities, because there is no transportation available or because they cannot afford to pay the costs of the transport or the health services' user-fees. Also cultural beliefs or a woman's low status in society can prevent a pregnant woman from getting the care she needs. To improve maternal health, gaps in the capacity and quality of health systems and barriers to accessing health services must be identified and tackled at community level. http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/topics/maternal_mortality/en/index.html

Baby Christian

Grace is taking Elena's blood pressure in their one room squatters hut!!
Elena's close friends and family and some of her children were in and out in the few hours we were there! It was crowded, hot, and smokey!!
Cuddling Baby Christian!
He's so tiny!
He's so light colored he almost looked like a 'white' baby!

Don't mind the bags under my eyes!! For some reason babies like to come in the middle of the night!!

Auntie Imelda is giving the Vitamin K injection while baby Christian cuddles beside mom!

So I’ve now had 5 healthy baby boys!! I don’t know why there haven’t been any girls yet!! Ha ha ha!!! So no babies named Sherina yet! Baby number 5 was born this morning at 1:34am!! He is our first baby that we have helped deliver from the new ministry area in Marikina. We received a text yesterday around 5pm that one of the ladies was in labor so we quickly packed a bag of supplies and hopped on a jeepney heading there! It was rush hour weekend traffic and the jeepney was so crowded and it was so hot and I was not feeling good L I hadn’t gotten that much sleep the past few nights and I get really motion sick and in the jeepneys you have to sit sideways. I was so tired that I actually passed out for like 10 mins and when we got off I was so out of it! But I woke up fast when we entered Elena’s home. A crowded, squatters hut with one dimly lit bulb! All her closed friends and family were there, coming in and out of the door. Elena is 44 and has 6 children. They all live in one room! Their bathroom is a hole in the floor in the same room with just a curtain for privacy! I prayed that I didn’t need to use the bathroom while I was there! Grace, (she and her husband Joel have been working with YWAM for 5 years and live in Marikina) was there and had been monitoring Elena’s vital signs. Her blood pressure was 160/90 when her labor started but by lying on her left side and drinking lots of water it was down to 120/80 within the hour! She was only 4cm when we got there and after evaluating the situation and her condition, we decided to take her to our clinic. But right before we left we got another text that there was another woman in labor nearby!! DJ went to go check it out! She came back a few minutes later saying that she was only 1cm and it was a primi so it could be days or even false labor. So we left her there but took Elena. We had to walk for about 20 mins to find a taxi. Elena and 2 of her friends, me and DJ and Ate Imelda all squished into a small cab. I was sandwiched right beside Elena! I felt bad for her! In so much pain and squished in a cab! But she was still laughing and positive!! We had only been in the cab for a minute when we were almost in an accident!! Two jeepneys almost sideswiped us on both sides at the same time!! After a few more close calls like this it was obvious that our driver was not the most competent!! I just prayed that we would get there safely but quickly!! When we finally arrived back at our clinic, I was so tired!! But it was so much more relaxing here with more space. Elena and her friends each laid down to relax for a bit before the baby came! I walked down the street to say hi to some friends for a few minutes and then got some dinner, I was starving! And then I cleaned up the kitchen and went upstairs so that I wouldn’t be keeping Elena and her friends awake. Upstairs it was so hot and I hadn’t had a shower to cool down. (And I kept getting texts from this lady, Marge, but that’s another whole story!!!) Finally after trying to get some sleep and not being able to, I went to go have a shower. Just when I was about to fall asleep, Ate Imelda knocked on the door to say that it was time to get up!!! Ha ha ha!! I hadn’t even slept at all yet! I was so tired!! Elena was still smiling and in a good mood but I could tell that she was in more pain now. She was only 8cm so it still wasn’t time for her to push yet, but within 30 mins she was fully dilated! It’s so hard to try and keep the patient relaxed during contractions! The natural tendency is to tense up! We spend so much time breathing with them and helping them keep a position that makes it easier for the baby to come out! It only took her a few pushes and the baby came out! He was the smallest baby yet! It was so nice to see a mother that really loved and wanted her baby!! Even though she already had 6 other children!! (I don’t know why it’s so hard for them to understand about family planning!! Ha ha) For some reason this little baby pooed a lot!! And it was so hard to get it off him!! Stuck to his skin like glue!! I had to rub and rub with cotton and baby oil! But it was worth it cuz I got to cuddle with him after!!

Baby Louie

Suctioning the poo out!! Gross!! LOL :P

Eye Ointment
Vitamin K injection
Listening to the lungs
Isn't he cute?!! :)
Minutes after birth
So cute!! I don't know how anyone couldn't love him!!!

4am Saturday morning, Auntie Imelda knocked on our bedroom door to say that Auntie Shirley was here in labor! I had only fallen asleep at 2 so I was kinda out of it but when I went downstairs I woke up really fast!! Auntie Shirley is 36 with 6 children already. She labors are usually fast so we knew that we didn’t have much time to get ready. I got to do an internal exam, IE, for the first time! So crazy to feel the baby’s head before it comes out!! Auntie Shirley’s blood pressure was a bit high so I kept monitoring it and trying to get her to drink lots of water. Within the hour the baby Louie was out!! I was the one to ‘catch’ the baby this time!! So crazy!! The water hadn’t broken and the baby was born with a membrane covering it that had to be ripped open so he could breathe! He was also born covered in poo so we did a lot of suctioning to try and prevent it from going into his lungs. As soon as the cord stopped pulsating I clamped and cut it! I was a bit worried cuz a lot of blood came out a few minutes after the baby came out but before the placenta. But this is normal. I also delivered the placenta! They taught me to wrap the cord around the clamp and hold firmly on the uterus while gently wiggling the cord. When the placenta came out we had to examine it to make sure no pieces were missing that would be still inside Auntie Shirley and cause hemorrhaging! Meanwhile, the baby was being cleaned up and examined and then we gave him Vitamin K injection and eye ointment.
I kept monitoring Auntie Shirley’s blood pressure and pulse. Her blood pressure was going down so that was good. We gave her baby Louie to breast feed. He was such a hungry baby, wanted to eat all the time!! After he was fed for awhile, Auntie Shirley wanted to rest so I held baby Louie!! We had found out that Auntie Shirley hadn’t wanted to be pregnant and had tried to have an abortion by taking cykotic (some type of pills that makes the uterus contract to expel out the baby) but it didn’t work. The pregnancy before this one when she took the drug it did work! I was really upset to hear that! She had taken the drug when she was 2 months pregnant so baby Louie might have some birth defects because of it but to me he looked perfect! These drugs are quite expensive but people will pay the money if they can manage to save up enough because they really don’t want to have a baby. Some girls take so much of this drug that they themselves die! As this is becoming more known in the drug stores, they are trying to control who has access to this drug but even if it’s not available in the drug store, some form of the drug is available on the street! My heart broke to think that this adorable little boy wasn’t wanted and I tried to encourage mother and baby bonding for the rest of the time that they were here at our place!! I pray that she really comes to love her baby!! And that there are no adverse side affects to baby Louie because of the drugs!

Possible new ministry location

Taking our new patients medical histories.
This is Grace! She is pregnant too and also a midwife!

This was our examination bed!! A small dirty covered hut!! Very cozy!!

I came home one night to Auntie Imelda coughing and so sick she couldn't sleep! I laid my hand on her back and prayed for her and then continued to pray for our whole ministry there!! I had been trying to think of ways to encourage us to pray together more! The next morning I woke up and this couple was sitting downstairs on the couch. They were Joel and Grace, former YWAMers!! Grace is pregnant and had heard about our clinic so they had been trying to make the trip out to get a prenatal check up but they live a ways away. They both have worked in YWAM for about 5 years and have a heart for Tibet!! They are making plans to live there in the next few years! Grace is also a trained midwife. They both have a heart for the poor and told us about many pregnant women they know that live near them and have no prenatal care! We were excited to go there and see the area. Joel said he would arrange to have some of the poorest women gather together for a prenatal check up. After Joel and Grace left, Auntie Imelda, DJ and I prayed and talked together about the possibility of going to this new place. Auntie Imelda told me that the night before when I had put my hand on her back and prayed for her, the terrible pain that she had been having left!! She told me she thinks that I have healing hands!! I told her, wasn't me, it could only have been God! But the fact that God would use me to heal someone or touch someone is totally cool!! And Exciting!! I felt like God prompted me to pray for her so I did and I guess He wanted to touch her!! Very cool!!:) So cool to see what happens when you pray!! :)

So Thursday, Auntie Imelda and I went to Marikina and held a clinic in a very primative location! We had 10 pregnant women/girls! Joel said there are many more but he wanted to limit it for our first visit. Now the challange is that its too far for these women to travel to our clinic for their labors so Joel and Grace are praying with us about renting a small apartment or a room near there for the women to give birth in! The place where Joel and Grace live won't let them have women give birth there so that's not an option like we had originally thought:( I think everyone is looking to me to come up with the money to fund a clinic in this new location. But its one thing to start a clinic, but who will keep it going when I'm no longer here?? I don't want to start something only to have it fall apart in a few months! So it requires lots of prayer!! We are scheduled to go again tomorrow!! It means getting up at 6am and traveling by jeepney for at least an hour!! It means breathing in lots of pollution and exhaust and having no bathroom for most of the day! Its tiring but the women there are so appreciative! So please pray for this new place! Its hard to start helping the women but not be able to deliver their babies! Everything seems to be so much more complictated here than it would be at home!!