February 15--Five Babies in One Day!

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at least one which makes the heart run over. 
--Ray Bradbury

    I have several budding friendships with folks I have met over the past year playing pickleball. This excites me to no end. 

    I birthed five babies on Monday! (See the Feb 6 post for background.) At the Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (KSCOM), I was in the control room behind a one-way mirror being the voice of the birthing manikin. There were six rooms with 5 Encounters each lasting 18 minutes. It was a monumental teaching effort. Each Encounter had three student doctors who did various evaluations and birthed the baby via a normal (no complications) delivery. For 10 minutes in each Encounter, I was huffing and puffing and having contractions, answering questions and encouraging the students to "get that baby out!!!" Breathing was quite the issue for me. I learned in the first encounter that hyperventilating was way too possible. My huge afternoon of breathing led to total brain-dead exhaustion.

    I stayed afterward for a feedback session. There was another person in the role that I had (they have only two full-person birthing manikins), and the staff raved about how realistic we made it. The doctor instructors loved the Encounters, and they said the students loved them, too. 

    The actress in me is getting to play!!!

        Leta

Not a great shot, but you 
kinda get the picture.