Too Much Heat For This Eskimo Friend

My last day at the clinic was a scorcher.
I was working in the antenatal area doing prenatal assessments and immunizations when we heard a piercing shriek from the other side of the health center. I looked up from my book work as the other nurses laughed at me and said "it's a delivery". Maternity being my favorite area of nursing I jumped at the opportunity to participate in a delivery. As I enter the labour room which consists of two bare stretchers, a broken incubator, an outdated suctioning system, an old rusty weigh scale and some other miscellaneous birthing supplies, they dress me in a heavy orange gown and get me to put on gloves. The mother is alone so another nurse volunteer from Australia and I try our best to be her support people with reassuring touch, eyes and words that she can not understand (oh how i wish I could speak Swahili). I will not go into the details as I think even though in Kenya, I shall maintain confidentiality. Let me just say Kenyan woman are remarkably strong. There are no pain killers used here for childbirth. I guess when you have no other option humans can endure a lot. The baby is born, dried, weighed and wrapped. I suggest skin to skin but the nurses don't seem too receptive. Maybe next time. My Aussie nurse friend leaves to get some air as the room is quite stuffy. I stay with the mother as the nurses finish caring for her. My friend comes back and but a few minutes later I feel heat crawling up from my toes and I start to leave the room and tell her I am feeling dizzy. She takes my gown off for me and tells me she was feeling the heat when she left the room too. I go outside and lean on a half wall, the grass below me is spinning. The next thing I know Sally is holding me up saying my name and trying to help me to the floor. I wake up and sit down against the wall. She tells me I had a little faint and goes off to get me a bottle of water. I sit there waiting thinking, how did that lady deliver a baby in this heat? I have never fainted before, it is a strange feeling leaving the world for a few seconds but you do feel much better when your body reboots itself. My water arrives and I drink it quite quickly. Sally sits beside be and goes: "well, at least you didn't pee yourself". We laugh. She said I looked so pretty and relaxed hanging over the half wall. I think for the next delivery I will leave the gown on the hook.