While many stories from the clinic are fascinating, humorous,\nor just plain strange, sometimes they are not any of those. Sometimes they are\nhard and sad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been heavy on my heart and mind how cheap the life of\na child can be sometimes. It broke my heart several months ago when we had a\nwoman come to the clinic complaining of abdominal pain and swelling. Among\nother tests, we ran a pregnancy test that came back positive. She was unmarried\nand already had a 5 yr old son being raised by her parents who complained about\nhaving to look after him. She told us that she had had a voluntary abortion\nlast year. Apparently, for 100 kina you can buy an abortion pill from the local\nhausik<\/em> (hospital). The doctor\ninformed her that we would be running a pregnancy test and he asked her, \u201cIf it\ncame back positive, would this be happy news to you?\u201d She immediately replied, \u201cNogat!\u201d<\/em> (No!) It broke my heart. Chaperoning\nand being present for baby ultrasounds is one of my favorite things in the\nclinic! So much joy seeing those little hands and feet and watching the baby\u2019s\nantics, to see their features develop throughout the pregnancy, to see their\nparents\u2019 happiness at the life of this little one. But here was a baby that I\nknew would not live. And it broke my heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So many couples I know are barren or have had miscarriages.\nThe doctor talking to the woman above and his wife had trouble conceiving. The\nnurse that stepped in for me with this woman has been unable to bear children.\nAnd yet this child will not likely live. And now some of the states in my\npassport country, the U.S., are passing laws allowing abortion right up until\nbirth and after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here in PNG life is so rough for so many women. Abuse is\nhorrific and yet not uncommon. A fellow nurse told me that while taking\nhistories for a women\u2019s clinic day several years ago, most of the women said\nthat they had been sexually abused at some point in their lives. Both men and\nwomen sleep around and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are often given\nto spouses. Babies can be abandoned or thrown in the river if the family does\nnot approve of the pregnancy (not frequent but I have heard the stories). Poor\nwater, poor understanding of infection, a tropical climate that promotes quick\ninfection growth, superstitious and fearful belief systems, and plane selfish\nsinfulness all play a part in maternal and infant mortality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently we had a mom bring her 7-year-old daughter in that\nhad been molested. 7 years old. She was brave enough to tell her mom about it\nright away, who promptly took her to the hausik<\/em>\n(hospital) to be examined. Though physically okay, her fears are understandably\nhigh. Her mother\u2019s tears heartbreaking. Her uncles and other male family\nmembers have stepped in to address the man who wronged her. But it can\u2019t be\nundone. The girl has expressed her wish to her mom to just forget it and move\non. Her mom came to us to just confirm that physically her daughter is healthy\nand not at risk for infection due to a scratch the previous doctor had seen. We\nconfirmed that she was okay and helped explain to the little girl that she did\neverything right, the way she should have, and that this is not her fault. We\ncomforted the mother and explained a mother\u2019s tears to her daughter. Overall,\nit could have been much worse than it was but my heart still breaks that it\nhappened at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How cheap and valueless Satan tries to make us believe that\nlives are! Yes, sin is rampant in this world and so many are affected by an\nindividual\u2019s sin. How differently God teaches us what life is and how it ought\nto be viewed! What value He places on us! So much so that He gave up His own\nlife to redeem us, to buy us back from slavery, to bring us back to life from\ndeath, and to bring us into full perfect warm light from the cold, isolating\ndarkness! Sin is around me and my heart breaks! My tears fall! But hope is\nfound in God alone and in Him I take joy in each little life I see! In each\nlittle chubby baby I hold! In each fragile, aged hand I clasp! In each clumsy\ngrip by a child-like one whom I encounter! How precious to God are His\ncreations! And how vast His creativity! And how powerful His salvation! I\ncannot change the sin in this world but God can change hearts and lives! Praise\nbe to the Most High God! Talk of all His wonderous deeds! Tell of His salvation\nto the nations! Tell of our great God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While many stories from the clinic are fascinating, humorous, or just plain strange, sometimes they are not any of those. Sometimes they are hard and sad. It has been heavy on my heart and mind how cheap the life of a child can be sometimes. It broke my heart several months ago when we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}