Anita has been sick for most of this week. After the blood tests it looks like she has a bacterial stomach bug (the flu). So she is on antibiotics. Because she is 27 weeks pregnant, it seems like the cramping in her stomach and perhaps this sickness is causing some irritation to the womb. Over the past couple of days she has experienced quite a number of contractions.
This is not good news in any country, but especially in Malawi where there are no facilities for premature babies. Our doctor has been monitoring Anita and checked to see if she was dialated (and she was not – this is good news). However, we were told that if she does dialate that we would have to emergency air evacuate her to South Africa.
We don’t want to risk having to go through that scenario, therefore we are changing some tickets and we hope to fly to South Africa (today – Friday, March 13, 2009) on South African Airlines. We were already planning to go down to South Africa for the birth when Anita was at 35 weeks, so we are just bumping our trip up. Because of responsibilities I have here in Malawi, I am only going down for a couple of weeks and then I will be flying back up here to Malawi (assuming that her contractions calm down and everything goes well). Anita and the kids will be staying with her parents and I will go down at least one more time before I go down for the birth towards the end of May (she is due in mid-June). We are thankful that good medical care and facilities are only a two-hour flight away.
Please pray for us as we try to get on the flight today, and especially for Anita and baby #4. The most likely scenario is that things will calm down with these contractions and she will get over this bacterial stomach bug. But we are trying to avoid a stressful situation if we decided to stay here.
My cell number in South Africa is +27-82-400-2266.
Thank you,
Brian for the Biedebachs
This is not good news in any country, but especially in Malawi where there are no facilities for premature babies. Our doctor has been monitoring Anita and checked to see if she was dialated (and she was not – this is good news). However, we were told that if she does dialate that we would have to emergency air evacuate her to South Africa.
We don’t want to risk having to go through that scenario, therefore we are changing some tickets and we hope to fly to South Africa (today – Friday, March 13, 2009) on South African Airlines. We were already planning to go down to South Africa for the birth when Anita was at 35 weeks, so we are just bumping our trip up. Because of responsibilities I have here in Malawi, I am only going down for a couple of weeks and then I will be flying back up here to Malawi (assuming that her contractions calm down and everything goes well). Anita and the kids will be staying with her parents and I will go down at least one more time before I go down for the birth towards the end of May (she is due in mid-June). We are thankful that good medical care and facilities are only a two-hour flight away.
Please pray for us as we try to get on the flight today, and especially for Anita and baby #4. The most likely scenario is that things will calm down with these contractions and she will get over this bacterial stomach bug. But we are trying to avoid a stressful situation if we decided to stay here.
My cell number in South Africa is +27-82-400-2266.
Thank you,
Brian for the Biedebachs
2 comments:
We, at Omaha Bible Church, will be praying for your family during this difficult time. I know how difficult medical trials can be, but God teaches so well through them.
-Jim Baxa
i only read this now, waauw that is something!
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