I was eating dinner with my husband and son at 8pm on a Friday night when I heard my phone beep. One of the mothers from Pulang Lupa (our first program site) had texted me to say that Helen, her neighbor, was ready to give birth. Whew – time to get busy! I stopped eating and started to text our nurses and Susan. After much texting, we ascertained that the intervals between Helen’s contractions were every half hour.

Daisy, one of our nurses, texted to say that she could attend the birth even though it was her birthday. Josh, our Head Nurse, was sleeping when she got the message, but after waking up and reading the message, she immediately said she would go. But we still didn’t have a ride and it is really hard to get public transportation at that time of night. Susan volunteered to drive us to Pulang Lupa but, I refused because I thought it would probably take a long time for Helen to deliver and didn’t want Susan to have to wait around. Luckily, our neighbor has a tricycle and he agreed to take us.

We picked up Daisy and Josh, and passed by the office for tour delivery kit. When we arrived at Helen’s house the nurses asked about the contractions and observed the intervals. It looked like the baby was still hours away, so we proceeded to eat Daisy’s cake and ice cream, to make sure we had enough energy. We were all excited, especially me. This was my first time to see an actual delivery! I really can’t explain my feelings at that time. I kept checking on Helen, advising her to walk around and do exercises to widen her cervix.

As it got later there was still no sign of the baby, so the three of us staff from ROH all lay down and fell asleep. We couldn’t really rest though. I kept standing up to check on Helen. She was amazing; she kept on smiling even though I could see that she was clearly in pain. She told me to go back to sleep, and that she would wake us up when she was ready. I also kept on updating Susan; she was excited too and would follow up at least every hour. This was only the second time that our nurses were going to deliver a baby, but our nurses are very well trained and were ready to do it.

Time passed, and Ate Helen’s labor still didn’t seem to progress. But then suddenly she said that her water had broken! I woke the nurses up and we went into action fast. The nurses prepared the bed, put down the plastic to make the birthing area sterile, and prepared the baby clothes, while I helped Helen walk back to her bed. When she lay down she said she was really in pain, so we got her into the most comfortable position possible and kept encouraging her to push.

At 1:41 in the morning, after two strong contractions, Helen pushed out a beautiful baby girl. Josh put the baby straight to Helen’s breast and after a little bit, cut the umbilical cord with a sterilized scalpel. We were all ecstatic and thanked Helen for cooperating with us and for doing very well. Five minutes later, the placenta was out. We sang happy birthday to the baby and in that moment, everyone was full of love. We had huge smiles on our face. It was a successful delivery, and we were so thrilled to have been a part of it.