When someone reads about a third world country, it has no more meaning to them than the words on
the page, in black and white. We were there, in vivid color, to do what needed to be done. This
is a story we will tell our friends, family, and generations to come. It was nine days we will
never forget. Baby after baby was born, and our arms never seemed to hold a baby for more than
a few moments before they were carried off and we were attending to another. We saw it all -
the good, the bad, and the ugly. It will be forever in our hearts and minds.
Jamaica is a country of much poverty. The maternity hospital that we worked at was no exception.
The hospital received an average of over 1000 babies a month. That is quite impressive when you consider
that there are only two midwives at a time on a shift in the delivery room! There were nurses assigned to
other areas of the floor, although they needed many more. With us we brought supplies, medications, and
welcome relief. These supplies included disposable supplies, such as gloves and syringes, and durable
goods such a suctioning and resuscitation equipment. We also brought any used baby clothing, receiving
blankets, and diapers that we could find space to pack. Occasionally there were no sheets for the delivery
room beds, and the women would birth on bare plastic mattresses. We were rationed one pair of gloves, one
underpad, and four gauze pads per birth. We learned quickly to conserve what little we had. And what we
didn't use, we left behind as donations.
The morning we arived in Jamaica, we found ourselves entering the delivery room for the first time. It was
like a war zone in there, we thought, as we took in the sights, sounds, and smells before us. Each of the
five beds in the delivery room had a woman on it, separated only by hanging sheets shredded by the wind
over time. Some of the women had their babies in their arms, and some were delivering. Across the hall were
eight more beds in the labor room, almost always with women on them, waiting to come across the hall. The
heat was intense coming in the open holes in the wall they called windows, without the screens and glass
that we are accustomed to. Every now and again a breeze could be felt coming off the harbor into the rooms,
and each of us took a deep breath of the momentary fresh air.
