Its been quite a weekend.

I was on call on Friday night. A pretty busy evening, but thankfully got a fair bit of sleep after midnight. The many referrals for caesarean sections all managed to deliver without the assistance of my knife.

We had decided that Saturday evening we would get Denise started if God and nature didn’t direct otherwise sooner…so at 5am she woke up with some funny feelings. As the day went on it was clear that this was it. Our senior midwife Gertrude, who was due to be assisting us, was in Kampala for the day making arrangements for her own wedding in a few months’ time. It was nearly 11pm when she arrived back in Kiwoko. Her review of the situation was to confirm that things were indeed under way, but still relatively early stages, with the cervix still closed. We went home – I slept well, while Denise after a short nap noted that contractions were stronger and sleep no longer a reasonable proposition.

Gertrude called after church and we headed up to the ward for admission. We had reached the 6cm mark, so Denise’s night of discomfort had not been wasted. Through the day the contractions became stronger, though at times more regular than others. Determined to see this through, Denise took to walking or pacing to keep everything in motion. In Uganda analgesia for mothers in labour is a most unusual thing, so Denise took it all in hand and the best pain relief throughout was leaning her back firmly against the wall during a contraction. Denise had been afraid that she would make a scene by crying with the pain – but instead Gertrude noted how she was able to joke on a frequent basis through the whole day (though not usually with a contraction!) Dr Raul was looking over Gertrude’s shoulder on a regular basis, but only really got involved for the last while. His big head (Gideon, not Raul) was a little slow to make the final appearance, but with a little help out came Gideon Mugisha Wilson at 7.40pm much to the relief and joy of all. He weighed in at 3.8 KG (we don’t have old scales – I think it’s about 8 and a half pounds if you need it in old money?) Such a weight has amazed our midwifes – many of our young midwives have never delivered such a big baby as most of our mums are chronically malnourished. I do wonder what they would say if they saw some of the big babies in Belfast! After the episiotomy was repaired, baby had some dinner from mum, and then mum and dad had some lovely shepherd’s pie courtesy of Judith who came to the rescue of the tired and hungry.

We are so grateful to everybody for all the prayer and support in recent weeks. The birth has been close to miraculous. A few weeks ago with the cord wrapped 540° around his neck, a Kampala obstetrician wanted to do a c-section. Earlier this week the cord was still there, but we felt it not unreasonable to try a normal delivery with close monitoring. Then on Saturday morning – the cord had gone! Despite having his head well down in mum’s pelvis he had managed to turn enough to get himself untangled! We had originally intended to deliver in Kampala, but are so glad for the love and care we have received in Kiwoko, and so pleased we stayed here. We will head up to Kampala in a few days as we’ll need to sort officialdom with passports etc, but we’re here for now.

Denise has been absolutely fantastic. I am so proud to be married to such a tough lady! We’re all a bit tired though, so any spare prayers for the next few days still gratefully accepted.

Most people reading this will have heard of Gideon – if not read Judges 6. Mugisha is a Ugandan name meaning ‘Blessing.’ We are so blessed to have been given this little boy now, and hope and pray that he will be a blessing to many in the years to come.

Man, this has been a rather long and narrative blog entry – hope that if you found it too boring you‘ve gone to do something else before now, and if you are still reading, hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our little adventure.

Lots of Love

Rory, Denise + Gideon.