Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Joys of Birthing...

Last Saturday has been yet another day to remember for 2011...

Yeps it was the 12th of March and independence day for Mauritius; Yeps it was the birthday party of my daughter Kalinka at the ice cream parlour "Milky Lane" but it was also "marked" by a lady called "Princess".

Soooo...am lying extenuated on the couch at around 19:00 and I get one of those panic phone calls from a lady whose dog was having problems giving birth. She(the dog!!) had been in labour since the morning but nothing "popped" out yet.

15 mins drive to the clinic and the peeps were already there waiting for me with their doggie - severely distressed;visibly weak and in pain. She had given birth 3 times before without any problems but this time she had a big humongous baby stuck in birth canal. Emergency shot of Pain killers; intravenous drip of dextrose 5% and she was on surgery table in no time. I managed to dislodge the stuck baby and because of the weak state she was, I decided to go "get" the remaining babies by a ceasarean section surgery.

Owner came with her daughter and son-in-law and here we are, all 4 of us in the surgery room; me busy with my instruments and the other 3 looking intently at the scalpel in my hand...
Stressful moment it is...for me the surgeon and for the owners watching me taking uterus out and incising to get first baby out. OMG! Questions firing non-stop... "What is this? The intestines? (the uterus)" Why is this greenish?(placenta); Ah! Baby is inside a sac huh?; Is he alive?" Nothing better to put more pressure on you whilst you focus on being swift and quick;while you avoid being "showered" with amniotic fluid as you break open the sac;as you clamp the umbilicus with one hand and cut the cord with the other!!
What is interesting though is that, as soon as baby is out,...owners' attention immediately shift onto the latter. Suddenly, nobody cares about the mom who is lying there with her abdomen wide open and uterus exposed! Loool! Everybody is mesmerised by the cute wet ball of fur taking his first breath on that towel!

Two babies out; and I start to suture back uterus while the ladies are actively rubbing the pups back to life.I could "palpate" the stress as they both were criticising each other's way of "rubbing"! Lool!: "Mum! You are rubbing to hard!"..."Careful You! Your long nails are going to hurt them!"..."Turn them around! you are in my way!" looool! Then...the release operated - Babies started vocalising and whining and, as if, THIS was the real signal that they are ok, everybody was now relaxed. Mr son-in-law, who, until now was anxiously sitting on a chair biting the little nails that were left on his fingers, sprung up and started snapping pics (mostly of wife...lol); participating in towel rub etc.Loool!

By that time, I had finished stitching mum up and cleaning her. The whining was becoming louder and louder, so I expressed some colostrum from the nipples and "offered" them to the pups...Aaaaaaaw! Can you picture a vacuum cleaner nozzle stuck on your skin? Well, there they were...frantically pawing and suckling on these teats like they've done that all their lives!!

There are no words to describe my feelings in such a moment. You forget the time...you forget the strong smell of canine amniotic fluid permeating your sinuses; you forget the pain you have been feeling in your left knee (torn ligament) for standing so long...everything you can perceive is 2 babies falling asleep already on mum's incision line with teats in their mouth!
I looked at owner and I could see emotions flushing her system too; daughter was more into giving them names already and son-in-law had now switched from being a papparazi to pro cameraman now...shooting the scenes from various angles on his Hi-tech phone! Pffff!Hope I do not end up on Youtube or something!

Happy, Happy...Yeps! Babies are always bundles of joy! I guess Princess was happy too, loaded with pain killers for the next 5 days and I have been receiving text "updates" daily about them...all doing fine.

Can't wait for next saturday to see them again for their scheduled check up!

No comments:

Post a Comment