No baby plans

 It's hard for me to exactly pinpoint what lesson I'm bringing out from this story. I'm even uncertain who the story revolves around— the new mom, her husband, her mother in-law or 🤷. I think I'd just tell the story.

One day while on duty as the only nurse in neonatal unit , a baby was brought from the labour ward, freshly delivered, new to planet Earth. Unfortunately she wasn't in a great condition. I'm going to try to describe the situation as good as I can without using any medical jargon. Her temperature was subnormal, her sugar level was ridiculously low, the level of oxygen saturation was scary, you could hear her labouring to breathe— she was grunting, the palms and sole were somewhat blue.  

Her situation required immediate attention , so I sent the father to get a case note while I  swung to action with the unit doctor. There's probably no way I would have discovered all those abnormalities if I hadn't started attending to her. The sugar test was to be paid for , but  none of them had up to 500NGN  which was the price. I  did it anyways (I was already planning to pay with my money because some patients can be funny, help them in emergency situations but as soon as all is calm, they switch!) 

Minutes later the father came out without a casenote , he expected to get a casenote without money (😳😳 this man must be a joker). We sent him back, with the thoughts that he would go with money this time, little did we know that he even brought his wife to the hospital without money (can you even believe that???🤷🤷 Can you??) The woman's mother was wise enough to come with 5000NGN when she was informed that her daughter was in labour. It was this 5000 that settled a few of the things the woman needed in the labour ward. 

Worst part, he didn't  mention that he came with an empty pocket. The woman's mother was really angry, she kept saying she had money in her account , but she didn't come with her atm card. Meanwhile we kept attending to the baby using borrowed items. We borrowed drugs, fluid and other materials from other patients and she seemed to be responding. 

What  annoyed me most was the  fact that they had nine whole months to prepare for the arrival of this baby who was their first   but did absolutely nothing!  Not only did they come to the hospital empty handed, we also found out later that the man made the wife go spend some time with his mother who fed her with all sorts of herbal concoctions in the name of pregnancy herbs.  This was the  most likely cause of the child's condition, because the nurses in labor ward reported that a good quantity of the herbs were delivered alongside the baby (eeeeewww😵😵)  

Fortunately for the woman, she had some kindhearted , well to do, relatives who live abroad. As soon as they were contacted, they sent money and kept calling to make sure mother and baby were doing fine.  

I  left baby   in a better condition than she came and met her in a more beautiful state the next day.  I went straight to their bed as soon as I resumed work the next day. And sweet grandma  kept telling everyone especially the child's mum , how I ran around for the baby . She kept thanking me. It was a beautiful way to start a new day, I was all smiles. Feels good to be appreciated.

Oh and the doctor I worked with , he was amazing too. Couldn't have done much without him. God bless him.😍😍😍

Although I left the ward before the child was discharged I'm certain that she'd be just fine in good time.  

Not all babies whose pregnancy was mismanaged or whose mothers took in harmful substances are that Lucky. Again a pregnant woman needs to be monitored  a closely and take advice only from professionals.  

Picture is from google