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Charis Around
the World
Childbirth in Kenya
by Jannekah
Guya
Martin and Jannekah Guya with their son, Ezriel and his big sister,
Amariah
This month was so headspinningly busy in our home, with countless
family and ministry responsibilities. That, along with the
fact that my very busy husband is the only one who can help me take
care of our children, makes attending births very difficult
sometimes. It was starting to look like I wouldn’t make it to
even one this month, but God was so kind to me and on April 26th I
had the honor of helping deliver a perfect little baby boy. In
late morning I got the call from Mama Christine, my mentor TBA,
asking if I could attend a birth. She’d been up all night
delivering a first time mother, which I wasn't able to attend
because my husband was out of town. The woman had delivered
that morning, just as another laboring woman arrived to have her
baby.
My husband was supposed to go preach and do music ministry, a high
school camp outside the city, but he asked someone else stand in for
him so he could stay with our kids so I could go to the birth.
I feel so blessed to have such a supportive husband.
When I arrived at Mama Christine’s, I asked her how far the mother
had progressed and she basically just said things were progressing
nicely, but didn’t seem to think birth was very imminent. She
told me to ask the mother. I observed about 4 contractions,
which were all around 5 minutes apart. The mother was quiet
and calm and handling them well and I thought it would probably be
hours before the baby came. In that time, I chatted with the
mother in-between contractions. She told me her name and that
she had a son who will be six years old next month. She told
me that she’d been having some back labor for about a week, but that
the contractions had gotten serious during the previous night.
She said the only reason she had come to Mama Christine’s so early
was because she didn’t want her customers to bother her at home and
I assumed she ran some kind of small business out of her house.
She seemed in good spirits and I was just settling in for a long
haul when during a contraction she signaled that the baby was
coming! Mama Christine and I moved fast to put on gloves, to
put the vinyl lining beneath the mother, and to help her into a
pushing position. Low and behold, there was the head!
The bag of waters presented with the head so Mama Christine pinched
it with her fingers to tear it. It took her several tries but
she got it during the second pushing contraction. Mama
Christine is very very insistent on firm perineal support so I
provided that during the mother’s pushing. The mother pushed
spontaneously and the head was born after the 4th contraction, with
the left hand along side it. I pulled the arm out and with the
next push the shoulders and body were born. Isn’t it one of
the most incredible experiences in the world to literally usher a
precious little life into this world with your very own hands!?
And then, to watch the Creator breathe life into those tiny little
lungs for the very first time – glorious. It was my very first
time to do so much on my own, all under the watchful patient
instruction of Mama Christine. It was a special experience for
me.
The baby was beautiful and breathing like a pro almost immediately.
Mama Christine wanted me to cut the cord right away, so I kind of
lolly-gagged and fumbled around until the cord turned white. I
tied it off on the baby’s side and then the mother’s side with
sterile string and cut in-between the strings with a new razor
blade. Shortly after the baby was all bundled up and cozy in a
blanket donated by friends from the U.S., the placenta was born.
It was the smallest placenta I’ve ever seen, but everything was
intact and looked good.
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After cleaning up a bit I put a “helmet of Salvation” on the new
little guy. My birth attendant friends from Perth Australia
told me amazing stories about the power of these little new born
hats that they put on all the babies they deliver all over the
world. They’re just simple little hats that friends have
knitted, but they pray over each and every one. They told me how
even the unsaved nurses they work with around the world began to see
the difference the little “helmets of Salvation” made in the
wellbeing of the babies, especially in the newborns that had a rough
time at the start. Non-Christian nurses would run up to them
and say, “I need a helmet of Salvation for a baby over here!
He’s not doing well!” After wearing the little hat that had
been lovingly hand made and faithfully prayed over, the babies would
often stabilize. This is not voodoo, religion, or
superstition. It’s simply faith in the power of God at work!
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I was so encouraged by these testimonies that I’ve started
to do the same with a little pile of hats a wonderful church
member made for us from our sending church in Washington
State. I figure these precious little babies need all
the prayers they can get considering all they’re up against.
I pray for God’s protection over the babies and that God
will set them apart for His Kingdom. I pray that He
will destroy the plans of the enemy and that they will
accomplish every good thing that He has prepared in advance
for them to do (Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 40:5). I pray
that they will persevere, overcome, and rise above all the
trials that surely lie before them.
I was especially concerned and prayerful about what lies
before this sweet little boy because the mother seemed
pretty disconnected from him. The moment he was born
she caught her breath and then got on the phone, and it
wasn’t to call friends and family about the good news.
It was very strange. She wasn’t interested in seeing
or holding the baby and when the father came he didn’t want
to see the baby either, though I tried to offer. His
mother had died in the night so I don’t know if that had to
do with their…distraction. It was such a dramatic
contrast to the last birth I attended where the mother was
so happy and so in love and captivated by her baby boy.
I cuddled him and prayed for him for a long time. He
was so wide-eyed and alert. I couldn’t get over how
gorgeous and perfect he was. He kept that left hand
right up by his face, just like it was when he was born, and
hungrily sucked on the fingers of his other hand. He’d
whimper every now and then but I’d hold him tight and talk
to him and he’d quiet right down.
Another pregnant woman came for Mama Christine to check on
her baby because things weren’t feeling right. She
thinks she’s due sometime mid-May. She was very
friendly, outgoing and talkative. She chatted
constantly with the newly delivered mother, as if they were
lifelong friends, though they had only just met. The
mother’s cousin and her 4 month old baby also came to escort
her and her new baby home. We all chatted about
pregnancy, labor, birth and babies and it struck me how
amazing it is that women can have such a connection with
each other even if they’re complete strangers or are from
worlds apart. Mama Christine made tea, as is the
tradition in order to help strengthen the new mother, and we
all had tea together.
The woman who came for a check up (closest to the camera)
the newly delivered mother (in the middle)
and the mother's cousin and her baby, all having tea after
the birth.
Finally, Mama Christine made the new mother nurse her baby
and he was able to put that wonderful sucking reflex to good
use. About that time, all of a sudden it was as if
everyone in every apartment in the building gave a loud
cheer at once. That kind of thing usually only happens
here when there’s a European football (soccer) match going
on!(= Turns out, the water had come. Everyone
ran out of their tiny one-roomed houses with buckets and
every kind of container available to line up so they could
fill them at the water main. It was utter chaos and
happy excitement. Women filled basins and started
washing piles of clothes and children worked together to
carry or push heavy buckets of water all the way home.
Sometimes running water can disappear for a week, and this
is the capital city! You certainly learn creative ways
to conserve water when it’s such a luxury to have it and you
never know when it will come or go. And it’s like
Christmas when it returns after a long absence.
Mama Christine came back in the room, laughing at herself because
she was soaked from fetching and carrying water. She walked me
out of the slum to the nearest main road so I could catch a matatu
(a 14 passenger public van) home. We chatted in Swahili all
the way and I wished I could give her some wonderful gift.
She’s such a special, amazing woman. She has SO little, but
she’s SO giving and SO happy. I pray with all my heart that
God will bless her beyond her wildest dreams, and I hope that
somehow, I’ll get to be a part of it. She has given me so much
so freely and so sincerely. I just don’t know how I could ever
repay her.
Mama Christine and the baby
Jannekah and the baby
Our International Charis
Family
Your stories from around the world touch us and we pray for your
safety.
Thanks, Love and Blessings to every one of you!
'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them
from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and The one who labors with child, together,
A
great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
Jeremiah 31:8, 14
~~~
©2011 Charis Childbirth
Services, All Rights Reserved
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May 2011
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