Morning work, afternoon give birth

Today my colleague gave birth to her second child. I saw her at about 10:30am this morning when we had a brief conversation in Tetun as to how she and the yet to be born baby were doing. The baby was due at the end of October so we were all anxiously awaiting its arrival into the world. At 4pm, another pregnant colleague informed me that our mutual colleague had gone home for lunch and given birth to a baby boy at 3pm with the assistance of another colleague who is a traditional birth attendant/midwife. Wow! I have never seen a pregnant woman the same day she gave birth. It was so fast! Apparently, her first child was born in the same manner: she had spent all day at work counselling a victim, then went home and gave birth to her daughter at 8pm. My colleague is a whippet of a thing and very beautiful (I do find the Timorese, in general, very beautiful people). I am glad that everything went so well for her and her new bundle of joy.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)