Prenatal check ups

This morning I headed out to a small local clinic with Carla, a local female doctor. She spends one day a week working in a small clinic four kilometers outside of Copan that was far from well equipped. When I went to the washroom there wasn't even running water to wash my hands with. I set myself up beside her in the small office with a stack of thick files that she would spend the day working through. The waiting room was full of expecting women. The first woman came in with a tiny premature baby. I was shocked to find out she was two months old! From the look of her face and movements I'm guessing she had Down Syndrome. Her skin was almost transparent, her hands making jerking movements. The mother was silently crying over the baby as the the doctor talked to the woman that had accompanied her. Later I found out that the grandmother of the infant had died the day before. My heart ached.
The rest of the day followed with prenatal consultations and check ups with the women in various stages of pregnancy from two weeks to eight and half months. First came the questions of where do you live, how old are you, is this your first child. I was shocked over and over again at the ages of the girls, they looked as if they should be in elementary school! One woman came in, she was 33 and this was her fifth child. After her came a sixteen year old expecting her first. Turns out they were mother daughter and their due dates were a month apart! Doctor Carla was great letting me listen to the heart beats of the babies and locating the heads. Several of the baby's were turned in different directions and we had fun guessing what part of the baby we were feeling and watching the babies kick or punch their moms so hard we could see it!! It amazed me how each one was so different, varying in size and even feel. The first few women I touched I almost felt high. To make that contact and begin learning was such an amazing and inspiring gift