A Day I Will Never Forget

Monday was an incredibly emotional day for me, my wonderful friend Grace gave birth to a perfect baby boy. Any baby born in to this world is special but this one just slightly more so, this was Grace's fourth pregnancy, all the others had ended in tragedy. When I found out she was pregnant again I located a specialist who is an Australian, for the past several months I have been taking Grace for her appointments and on 4 or 5 occasions I had to rush her in, often in the middle of the night. The Dr recommended she get bed rest which I knew wouldn't happen at home so I insisted she come and stay with us here she has been for around 2 months just resting and eating a good diet. In Africa there is a sad stigma attached to women who haven't born children, one man once said to me 'You have to have a child from your womb, to prove that you are strong, that you are a real women!' Sadly I believe this made Grace feel bad.

but now she is a Mummy :-)

Sunday evening I took her into the hospital, she was scheduled for a c-section on Monday, I left her there and returned the following morning. In fact it was a bit of a nightmare Monday morning, I went out in the car only to discover half way down the road that I had a puncture, I had to call a member of staff from Neema to bring my car out to me and he stayed with the other one and changed the wheel whilst I got on with my day, by the time I got going it was 8:30 and I was due at the hospital at 9, traffic was hideous. I drove like a complete idiot to be honest, I wasn't about to miss this, only for Grace to not go in until 10:30...typical!!

When Grace went into theatre I sat outside with her husband, my whole body was full of nerves, that 2 minutes it took before they brought the baby out felt like a few hours. Watching them wheel Grace's baby out of the theatre and seeing him wriggle under his blanket brought tears to my eyes, after all the heartache my friend had endured now she had become a Mother. Eliyamani (husband) and I went with the baby to the nursery whilst they stitched up Grace, Grace was taking a while and I was just beginning to worry that something had gone wrong when the Dr text me 'Just finishing Grace, how is the baby?' I was ecstatic to know Grace was ok and he was happy to hear the baby was healthy.

I spent the day at the hospital enjoying baby Samuel, both Grace and Eliyamani where so very grateful for all the help I had given them, they kept saying that Samuel was my baby and they also asked me to name him, I felt very touched by this. Grace had already expressed to me that she liked the name Samuel so I chose this as a name for him. They kept thanking me but I told them that I am here for the babies and families of Tanzania and my friend's babies should come first!!

Grace was obviously in pain and uncomfortable so I helped her to feed Samuel, helping her to breast feed her son for the first time was incredible, we managed even though I wasn't really very good at it!!

A beautiful Mother who has a perfect son.

Congratulations to my wonderful friends, may you have many happy years ahead with your precious little boy.

Auntie Claire and Samuel