CMA Report #6

There will be only one more report after this one, so enjoy them while you can. Of course, if the fire department does start a CFA, . . .:) But if they do it won't be until next year.:)

Right now I have a stack of papers sitting on my desk. 245 pages to be exact. It is the very first printed copy of "Home Fires of the Great War"! You test readers will still have to wait for a little while as I have to read through it all, adding things and changing things, then it has to go to Mom for her corrections. After that I have to fix them all and then I can print your copies. You will have to share your copies with others, as I can't afford to print one for each person.:) I still can't believe I have reached this point! It is pretty exciting. I am looking forward to reading the entire thing together as I have yet to do that.

But that has nothing to do with my report. It is a rather short report, but at least there is something. Enjoy it!

CMA Report #6

Welcome back. This is Rebekah, your very own reporter with Joplin’s first CMA class. I am pleased you could join me as we learn about delivering babies.
Dad and I arrived with chocolate mint brownies to go with our fried chicken. We found out that Stephanie had brought mashed potatoes and gravy and macaroni & cheese as well as cookies. A few minutes later, Paula shows up with another pan of brownies. We sure ate well! (Did I make you hungry?)

Ike and Jerry

Our instructors, Ike and Jerry, told us they had a video for us to see, but we could watch it later after we ate, unless we had strong stomachs. To their great surprise, we were all game to watch it while we ate. They gave each other a look of “Okay, if they think they can handle it.” It didn’t bother my stomach at all. In fact, I thought that several of the other things we had seen while we ate were worse than that.

After the video we had a slide show, which Ike talked us through, all on pregnancy and delivering babies. I did learn a lot. (Now, if I can just find some gloves that fit me, I should be ready to deliver the next baby. Any takers? Okay, maybe not quite, but in an emergency, I think I could do it. At least I wouldn’t be running the other way shouting, “No, way!”)

Did you know that there are many people who will call the fire department or the ambulance if they are about to have a baby just because they don’t want to pay the hospital bill?

Did you know that it is becoming a “new fad” to have your baby at home? I almost started laughing at that one. No one in class except Dad and me could figure out why anyone would be so crazy. I mean, don’t they know that hospitals are the best place to give birth? I thought about how not that long ago it was unusual to have a baby in the hospital. (Maybe they don’t know their history.)

Did you know that around the Joplin area at least, there are many people who do not know they are pregnant until they are about to give birth? I don’t know why that is. (I can’t figure out how they could keep from knowing.)

One thing that I really appreciated about Ike was that he didn’t want to call the baby a “fetus”. “It is a baby,” he would say, “and I’m going to call it that.”
Ike had delivered two babies about ten years apart. The last one was during the ice storm, and the mom spoke no English. I can imagine that was rather interesting.
Jerry has delivered about a dozen. He said that one time he responded to a call, and the wife was giving birth in the cab of the truck while her husband was inside finishing watching the football game.

We were told several times that newborn babies were very slippery, so be careful! If they are transporting a woman in labor to the hospital in the ambulance and the baby starts to come, they will pull over and stop until the baby is delivered. One, they don’t want to drop the baby in a moving ambulance, and two, it takes both of them to deliver it.:)

We did have a few short breaks, but as it was a long slide show, it took awhile. Jerry joined Ike towards the end of the talk, and I couldn’t help thinking of Bobby Lee Duke, coach of the Richland Giants. Have you ever watched “Facing the Giants”? Jerry was eating suckers almost the entire evening.:)

We went over proper handling of the baby as it is born, complications in delivery, premature birth, multiple births and the list goes on. Here are a few pointers we were given:
Don’t get in reach of a laboring mother’s hands. She might break your bones.
Never ask a woman in labor if she is sure she is in labor.
Don’t take offense if the woman yells at you and calls you names. She is in a lot of trauma right now.:) Ike said he tells the ladies they can scream all they want. His wife told him it helped.
Act like you know what you are doing even if you aren’t sure. It gives the patient a sense of security. (Now why did I tell you that. No one will trust me now.:))
Don’t drop the baby.:) (Remember, they are slippery.)

We got to see all the tools in their “birthing bag.” Jerry got out a bottle of oxygen, and hooked it up to a baby’s oxygen mask.

Hooking up the baby oxygen mask

Ike decided then that he needed some oxygen so he put the mask on.

I think it's a little small for you, Ike.

Of course Paula and I had the cameras ready.

After the slide show was finished, we did some “bagging.” No, that is not putting anyone in a bag, it is giving oxygen. Jerry wanted to be sure we all knew how so that when we go on ride-alongs, we can “bag” the victim while they do other things. It was very easy.

"Bagging" the poor victim.

We ran a little late this time, but no one minded. As we were about to leave, they got started talking about some of us getting our EMT licenses. Jerry said that in one class he taught (I think he teaches at MSSU as does Ike.) he had a seventy-year-old lady become an EMT. So you are never too old to start. (Thanks, but I think I’ll skip it now. I still haven’t found any gloves that will fit me.)

And that brings us to the end of the report. Thanks for joining me this week. I hope you’ll be back for the last class where we backboard, splint and drive the ambulance. Until then, this is Rebekah.

After the last report I'll post the "chicken pictures" for those of you who are wanting to see them.:)