Calla Grace Rosemary Meyer Birth Story

about to leave for the hospital!

4 days past my due date on Sunday morning, November 8, 2015, I woke up before the rest of the family full of energy and feeling better than I had in a long time. I became very sick on Friday with what I thought might be food poisoning or a virus. I rested a lot that day and felt better Saturday. Little did I know, it was my body’s way of preparing for labor.

As Josh cooked our breakfast that morning, I spent time reading on the couch with Isaac and Judah. I enjoyed the time with them because they have been so busy playing on the playground where we have been staying in N’Djamena that they have not spent as much time as normal. I then helped Josh set the table and thought I felt some contractions coming on – stronger than Braxton Hicks but I was afraid to get my hopes up. At 7am, I sat down to a delicious breakfast of coffee, banana, and eggs with a special addition of bacon jerky that a friend from church sent as a gift. As I was eating, I told the family I needed to go sit on the cushioned chair because I thought I was having contractions. I finished eating, but they kept coming every 10 minutes or less so I told Josh he needed to get things in the truck. We were all very calm. Josh took a fast shower and I told him I didn’t want him to take too much time because they seemed to be coming pretty close together. It takes almost an hour to get to the hospital under normal conditions. The boys went outside to play and at 9:30 am, we snuck out so they wouldn’t get upset if they saw us leaving. I wanted so bad to tell them good-bye. Josh spent a couple minutes mounting our new Go-Pro camera so we could share what the drive looked like with our friends and family. I got irritated at that because I wanted to just get going.

My doctor wasn’t answering her personal cell phone, so en route, I called the hospital line and started explaining who I was in French and that we were on our way to the hospital. She said, “Hey!” in English and then I realized who I was talking to. I explained everything and she said she would see me when I got there. We passed the president’s palace – still on paved roads – rounded the corner and saw the Chari River to the left of us. We were thanking God that I was laboring on a Sunday. There was no traffic at 9:30 am which made our drive much shorter than it would normally be! What a blessing! We thanked the Lord. In addition, I had noticed at breakfast time that it was quite overcast that day. It makes the drive much more pleasant when the sun is not beating down on us. So, during the drive, in between contractions, I was very comfortable. Another blessing! We thanked God again.

We finally made it to the dirt road turnoff. I knew it would be about 20 minutes on this road before we made it to the hospital. I told Josh to prepare to stop completely when each contraction came. I couldn’t imagine going over bumps during the contractions! That plan worked well for me, and I started timing them so I could tell the doctor a general number of minutes. They were ranging from 9 minutes to 6 minutes apart.

the midwife listening to the heartbeat

We made it to the hospital around 10 am with no problems. They checked my blood pressure, dilation, etc. and then I settled into my private hospital room, where I planned to labor, recover, and leave before dark with baby in arms. I walked the sidewalk up and down the private section the hospital. Thankfully, there were no other patients occupying rooms, so I had privacy except for the distant visitors who could see me walking. God blessed me with a beautiful flowering bush full of bright pink flowers. It was a time for me to celebrate the coming of my baby girl. I haven’t seen many flowering bushes since dry season is upon us, so I counted this plant as a gift from God to get me through the next few hours. I was able to pray some as I walked, thanking God for how He orchestrated the morning and declaring my trust in Him for the delivery.

these flowers were growing right outside our room

walking around the hospital as labor progressed.

Josh walked with me, and around 11am, my friend Erica came to take photos of the birth. She is due in December, and she will be having her baby at the same hospital and then moving out to our town in the east of Chad. So, it was a great opportunity for her to see how things are done at the hospital and also a great opportunity for me, because I got good photos out of the arrangement and she was a calm, hands-off photographer.

My doctor came for a visit and told me that my face said all she needed to know. Contractions were coming closer together, so we decided to break my water to get things moving. I wanted to stay in my room to deliver, but the Dr. Andrea felt more comfortable delivering in the proper delivery room, so I said ok. Josh gathered up the battery fan, some hand fans, a bottle of Gatorade, and a few other items for after the birth. We started walking the dirt path to the delivery room, but I had to stop in the middle to get through a contraction. Many Chadians on the public side of the hospital were watching me and I was standing in the sun, but it didn’t matter. All I needed to do was make it through the contraction so I could continue walking. I told Josh he could go ahead and get set up. Erica was behind me if I needed help.

gathered the essentials to head over to the delivery room

I had another contraction as I entered the maternity ward, so I leaned against the wall. The midwife told me to go into the delivery room but I needed to wait until the contraction finished. I made it into the delivery room and had yet another contraction. They were coming very close together. I waited until it finished to climb into the bed. I didn’t want to labor in bed any longer than necessary.

Dr. Andrea, a missionary doctor from England, was amazing and we appreciate her so much!

The doctor came in and broke my water at 12 noon. We found meconium in the water, so Dr. Andrea let me labor for a few more minutes; then she said we really needed to get the baby out because of the risk of aspirating the meconium. So she helped the process along and the baby was born naturally at 12:25 pm crying loudly! As she was crowning, the doctor and midwife described her head of hair as no different from the Chadians. I didn’t know exactly what they meant, but once she was born, we were shocked at the amount of black hair she had! Our two boys didn’t have much hair when they were born.

I got to snuggle Calla Grace Rosemary and nurse her (she latched on great the first try!) and when I was ready a while later they weighed her (9lbs 4oz). I went to the maternity ward and they brought a wheelchair to wheel me back to my private room for recovery. Josh took the baby and walked ahead of us. We got greeted in Arabic by the group of women outside the hospital. They had lots of smiles and blessings for us. We were proud parents! My midwife mentioned how strange it was for the Chadian women to see a father attend the delivery and carry the baby. We pray there was small testimony of our faith that was displayed as these women saw my husband serving and loving his wife and daughter during this special time.

Calla Grace was supposed to be released the same day of her birth, but due to the meconium in the amniotic fluid, she began showing early symptoms of infection so we stayed overnight. She developed a fever and had low oxygen saturation scores the following day. We started her on antibiotics and ended up staying 6 nights in the hospital with her during her recovery. We worried she had something else going on with her heart or lungs, so on Friday, she and I took an ambulance to another hospital for a chest x-ray. That was the only moment in the entire experience that I regretted being in Africa! It was stressful because I was in the front seat of the ambulance, very close to the windshield, and there was no air conditioning and no siren to warn the traffic that we were coming. Also, Josh wasn’t with me because he went into town to drop the boys off for lunch. I had to call him, ask him if he knew where central hospital was, and meet me there. All tests came back normal and two other American pediatricians in country said Saturday that the levels were not low enough to be worrisome. So, on Saturday afternoon, a week after her birth, we took Calla Grace Rosemary Meyer home to her family! Praise God for His faithfulness to us during both the beautiful day of labor and delivery and also during the following week of challenges.

About her name: Calla lilies made up my wedding bouquet and the word Calla means beautiful in Greek. Calla Grace’s name means “Beautiful Grace.” Her birth and life is already a small testimony of God’s beautiful grace to us. We added Rosemary as a tribute to my maternal grandmother who lives in Athens, Georgia.