First Aid Saves Lives. It's for everyone, everywhere

18 months : 1st game-inflicted-wound. #TheFrenzy 

***The tale of a newmom, who thought she had passed the stage of cold sweats and panicking over baby's minor injury.*** 

How those 10 minutes unfolded: 

Josh running around, then, Bam! "waaaaarrrggghhhhh..."

I hear Josh waiiliiiing and running towards me, as blood is gushing out of his mouth. I swoop him up (thinking out loud, what do I do? what do I do?), reminding myself to stay calm, I look at his eyes desperately pleading to save him. 

Me : "tout va bien bébé d'amour, ça va aller, ça va aller." All is well. 

I run to my bathroom, try to rinse off his mouth from our sink but he doesn't want to put down his head to the tap. I look at our bidet, clothes are piled in there (we never seem to use it for its primary purpose!), I take him to the one in the other bathroom...I splash water on his lips, he shrieks while twisting away. 

Vanelle (his aunty and holiday part-time caretaker) is helping me to keep him stable while we try to pour water on his bloody red mouth; but he is wrestling! The two of us can't hold him down. She goes and looks into his first aid tool box, but most things in there are bandages and things to apply on the skin, not on lips! She comes back with a clean white cloth from his room; we dab it on the wound to stop the bleeding. 

Josh is still screaming, cupped in my arms, his eyes pleading. We scurry back to my room, my thoughts yelling (what do I do? What do I dooo?")???

I start declaring to him : "tu es un champion, tu es plus qu'un vainqueur, l'enfant chéri de Dieu, tu es brave, ca va aller mon bébé, tout va bien..." 

He seems reassured, but he is still crying. I'm thinking "what's the first aid thing to do? why do I not know this? why do I find myself in this kind of situation again, due to my ignorance? I start feeling the heat of my  inner guilt rising up, as my tears welled up at the corner of my eyes (Olivia, don't you dare let any teardrop fall! - my inner self says). 

I think about Googling what to do, but both hands are full, with Josh still agitated in one arm and my other hand patting his mouth. (Why did Charlie have to travel today, of all days?!) I'm thinking of going to the clinic, then I question my future sanity on the steering wheel with a screaming baby in the back. 

So I tell Vanelle to call my mom. She puts the phone to my ear : 

"Maman, Joshua c'est blessé à la bouche, le sang ne cesse pas de couler, je ne sais pas quoi faire, je fais comment? " "Va à la clinic" "Maman pardon vient!" Mama says she is actually not far, 10 minutes away, she is coming. Phew! Thank you God. 

My heart cools down. It will be alright, Mama is coming.

One minute later, Josh's lips stops bleeding. I ask Vanelle to bring him some water to drink (he lovvves drinking water). Once he had that bottle in his mouth, he started smiling again. The relief ! 

Later on, I googled "what to do when a child is injured on the lip when playing?" I learned that wounds on the lips tend to diffuse lots of blood (that may seem scary) but after 5 minutes of light pressure with a clean cloth on it, the bleeding stop. It also mentioned applying ice to the lip, frequently. That's what we ended up doing. 

At that point, though, all Josh wanted was to play, and not be disturbed in his play. We stood our ground vs Mr Josh, wrestled him to the floor (lol) and iced his lip. Once we finished, he went running out to the next thing. You wouldn't have imagine he was the baby screaming his lungs out 10 minutes before. Kids eh! 

--- Now my #PSA --- #FirstAidSkills Save lives. ---

This episode gave me a 2nd wake-up call about learning First Aid Skills, as a mother.

The first wake up call was when Josh was 3 months and he choked on his milk (after eating, he burped - but needed to burp 3-4 times, and they laid him in his infant seat), a few minutes later, they (he was in the room with his cousin) called me. We saw him struggling to breathe, screaming to breathe . We rushed to his clinic, praying to Jesus and the Holy Spirit to keep him breathing, and once we got there the nurses put him on oxygen.

The day after, I watched a YouTube video that explained what to do when a child is choking (would never have thought about searching that before the incidence). I used that technic 2 times on Josh afterwards, although he wasn't even choking, lol (poor boy with an over-zealous mama!), but you know what they say in the village "when you've been bitten by a snake, even a millipede would make you jump." 

Many other minor instances made me realize how much soon-to-be moms and new moms in Cameroon, and probably #Africa, are not well informed and equipped to address many challenges of #maternity, and THAT sometimes leads to unnecessary stress and even fatalities. To address this issue I think we must provide First Aid workshops, nurses assistance, and doctor's coaching on relevant topics and risks to pregnant women and new parents.

It's in that light that next year, some partners (such as Giftedmom by Alain Nteff) and myself will launch BabylovExpo (A weekend that gathers preggers, mamas, daddies, grandparents, uncles and aunties around all topics (led by experts) that have to do with conceiving, delivery, IVF, mothering twins, first time dad tips, Kangaroo method for premies, grandma recipes for kids' ailments, and first aid skills to master ) around Cameroon and later on in other African countries, to provide hands-on information not only about baby and mama products (the expo), but more importantly ,to offer workshops that could help save the lives of many babies and young kids. 

The project is still cooking, but you know us already : we make things happen. We are #Solutionneurs ✌. 

By the Grace of God we will help some mothers, some babies, some daddies, some granmas, granpas, aunties and uncles be better caregivers, be better equiped and more empowered to save the lives of our children. 

I thank God that today it was a minor issue I had to figure out with Josh - an energetic and adventurous little boy - as they often are; but I will empower myself with Redcross online tutorials and physical trainings they offer. I encourage you to do the same because you probably don't want to learn the hard way.

#firstaidsaveslives #ignoranceisnotbliss 

#Toddler #Motherhood #Parenthood #NewMom #LessonLearned #LearnAsYouGo #LearnAsYouGrowing #Sharing #SomethingCouldHelpSomeone 

#ChildrenAreABlessingFromGod #Proverb10x22KindaBlessing

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