by Sr. Ifeoma R. Ifedi MMM               Nigeria                08.07.2023

Every new child comes with the newness of the divine. Baby A, one of our recent newborns, is a gift to us although she did come with many challenges. She awoke in each one of us our zeal in caring for the newborn. Her little life began poorly. She had a low APGAR score. What is an APGAR score? The Apgar score is a scoring system doctors and nurses use to assess newborns one minute and five minutes after they’re born. APGAR stands for Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance and Respiration. If you are born with a low score, it is concerning. Baby A was like this.

Resuscitation was initiated immediately, and it seemed like a long time while we worked for healing and a healthy life for this baby. As each one tired of providing (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), somebody else took over. But our instinct to protect life was palpable. Soon the peripheral pulse was present, and the cardiac monitor picked up respiration. Where before we had almost given up hope, now came a sigh of relief.

Each day we share life and death experiences in the hospital, at home, on the street, and everywhere. It demands of us some measure of competency. We need to know when to call for help. To be more competent and assist in healing and health delivery, we urgently need ongoing training and retraining. We need to continually learn, communicate, and listen. It is necessary to have simple first aid skills, to have acute and critical care equipment and the personnel to use them.

The journey of every MMM is to never lose hope in our caring. We are who we are in God for the service of the common good. God is always at work with us and in us. The experience of Baby A shows us how grace met us in God’s own time and God made all things possible. As the prophet Isaiah would say, ‘God knit me together in my mother’s womb……’

Mother Mary Martin would add: ‘If God wants the work, he will show the way’.

If you would like to make a donation to MMM, please click on this link: Donate – Medical Missionaries of Mary (mmmworldwide.org)