The baby stopped breathing and her heart even stopped beating several times during the day, but my co-worker, Susan, was able to revive her through CPR. We sat at the church all day with the family wailing, and just waiting for the time to come when breathing for the baby just wasn't enough anymore. We thought that time had come when the mother took the baby from Susan after a very long period of her giving mouth to mouth and chest compressions with the baby not responding. The mother signaling to us that she was ready to let the baby go, took her from Susan's arms went to the front of the church (the place for a funeral) and everyone gathered around to wail and mourn. We watched as a lifeless baby was being rocked and stroked and pulled on by grieving relatives. She would take a few sporadic breaths occasionally, but was not breathing consistently on her own. The mother then gave the baby her breast one last time (which is a normal act of mourning in Hewa culture) and miraculously the baby started to nurse!!!
We were all in shock, but had cautious hope as the baby's breathing seemed to become stronger and stronger. After about two hours of the baby breathing on her own, the mother took her home and she lived through the night, and is much better today as the antibiotics in her system are starting to fight off the sepsis that started all this in the first place (most babies here get sepsis at 3 weeks of age due to the mothers not properly caring for the umbilical cord).
Thank you so much for caring and praying. Not only was the life of this precious 3 week old baby spared, but the lives of the women and children here who are marked as witches were spared as well!
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