A Birth

Rodrigo Alejando Vega Fernandez was born at about 6pm last Thursday, May 7. He and Raquel are now back home and both baby and mother are in great health. Here's how it happened:

Last Thursday, Raquel came home from work early. She had evidently been having deep stomach pains since early that morning. As they became more intense, she realized that they were actually contractions. She came home with Melanie, a friend from her work, right after the family and I had finished eating lunch. As Javier was on his way out the door to return to work, he instructed me to go with her to the hospital. So at 2pm, Melanie and I left with Raquel to take her to the "Seguro" Hospital in nearby Comas. After examining her, the doctor instructed Raquel to go back home, do some walking, and return at 5:.

We did just that, all the while her pains getting stronger and stronger. Luckily, Keli, Javier's sister-in-law, and Blanca, Javier's mother were both home. Both being mothers, they helped Raquel calm down and helped her with the process. At about 4:15, Raquel really couldn't stand it any longer, so I went out, hailed a taxi and took her to the hospital (just the two of us this time). This time, she was admitted. And I was left in the waiting room.

Soon, Raquel's family arrived, and so did Javier as soon as he could leave from work. However, no one was allowed to go see/be with Raquel. No one. Not even Javier. Instead, we were instructed to go out and buy a couple things that the baby would need that weren't in the bag that we packed for Raquel in the hospital -- a different kind of soap and some special diapers. That's just the way things work at a public hospital in Comas. There also wasn't anybody who could definitively tell us how things were going. The hospital was simply too understaffed and under-resourced to operate effectively in such a poor, fast-growing area.

We were waiting in the same waiting area used for the emergency room. It was extremely crowded, with people standing around everywhere. None of them had serious injuries - they were mostly family members of patients, I think. But twice we did see someone burst through the hospital doors, crying hysterically after learning that a family member had passed away.

The initial, rough prognosis when Raquel and I arrived was that she would probably have the baby some time around midnight. At around 10pm, we (me, Javier and Raquel's sister, brother-in-law and niece) left to go eat dinner at a restaurant near the hospital. But having had the experience of waiting for so long and being frustrated over the lack of information at the hospital, we decided just to go home after finishing our meal. We knew going back would just mean more waiting, since no one "in charge" knew anything or was going to let us go visit Raquel anyway. We had also been assured that someone would call Javier when the baby was born to let us know. Javier decided that regardless, phone call or no phone call, he would go back to the hospital at 5am the next morning (when it would presumably be a lot less busy). I offered to go with him, and he told me he would wake me up so we could both go.

At 7:30 the next morning (Friday), I woke up naturally. Confused, I went to Javier's room, thinking he probably overslept (pretty silly in hindsight -- I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to sleep at ALL, looking back on it). It turns out at about 12:45am, the hospital called to tell him the baby had been born, and that both baby and mother were doing just fine. He had then gone BACK to the hospital with Keli and Raquel's family members (I was already asleep, so he didn't wake me up) only to be told once again that he wasn't allowed to go up and see his wife/new son. The reason we were given over and over again for being denied admittance was that the patient area upstairs was a "clean" area and they couldn't let people who weren't patients go in and contaminate it.

So even though no one had actually seen or talked to Raquel and we just had to take the hospital's word for it, we were all very relieved to learn that Raquel and baby Rodrigo were fine.

At 2pm that afternoon Javier, Blanca, Keli, Roberto (Javier's brother), Manuelito (Roberto & Keli's 9 month old baby) and I ALL went to the hospital during its "Official Visitation Hour" from 2-3pm, according to what Javier had just learned the night before. Raquel's family was already there when we arrived. We were all sure the hospital would probably only let us go in one at a time to visit, but decided to give it a shot. Of course, the hospital was too crowded, so all of us were once again denied entry.

So after that, I left to go spend some time with a few of the other YAVs in Lima for the rest of the night. The next day (Saturday), I learned that Javier and Raquel's family had stayed waiting at the hospital, and FINALLY late that afternoon they were allowed one by one to go visit with Raquel and Rodrigo. It was only then that we learned that Raquel had actually given birth at 6pm on Thursday -- just a little more than an hour after I got her to the hospital -- and not at 12:30 that night like we originally thought. Because Rodrigo was born a couple weeks premature, he had an irregular heartbeat and couldn't come home right away. He was kept for observation. Raquel came home that afternoon, but went back to the hospital that night to nurse the baby. On Sunday, she did the same thing, going back and forth. And yesterday, Monday, FINALLY Rodrigo was cleared to come home and I was able to see him for myself (still too terrified to hold him though...) He's adorable. Pictures will come soon.