5th November

I found another baby in the cot with Jaba this morning. The bit of sticky plaster stuck on his wrap had ‘F22’ written on it, presumably because he belonged to the woman in bed F22.  He had been, and still was, in respiratory distress the previous day after delivery following resuscitation and had been kept in the labour room so that he could be watched. From previous blogs, you might be wondering whether this was the best place for him as from what I have seen so far, this is not a place of great observation – well not for babies anyway. Indeed, today was no exception. Jaba was soaking wet and dirty and as a consequence was really quite cold (his hot water bottles were cold, probably having been left from the night before). Baby F22 however, was baking hot as he had been put on the hazardous warming mat that reaches temperatures hot enough to cook a roast dinner. Once again, I removed the ‘boiling’ mat and asked the nurses to send it for repair or get rid of it as it was dangerous. I set to cleaning both babies up and suggested that baby F22 was reunited with his mother as she was sure to observe him as well, if not better, than anyone in the delivery room. He was still on oxygen but he cold have this at her bedside. So he was taken to F22, only to find that she already had a baby in her arms. Turns out that he was actually F23’s baby but someone had written the wrong number on his head. I wonder how often this happens.

Indeed, as I was thinking about this back in the labour room, there were two babies born in quick succession, each being placed next to each other on the table where they are dried and, if needed, resuscitated. Both were boys – strange how many boys are born here – and both lay there waiting to be reunited with their mothers. They were in fact given to the right mothers (I kept a close eye on them) but it was very easy for a mix up to occur.