Advice for an EMT volunteering with clinic births in South America?

Hi yall!

Glad to have found this forum. There´s tons of good information that I will be digesting over the next few months, but I wanted to post this question and see what kind of replys I could get.

I am an Wilderness certified EMT in the United States, a pre-nursing drop-out (got through Anatomy and all my Bio and Chem) and a volunteer at a Level 1 Trauma Center ER. Now I live in Peru and am volunteering 3 shifts a week at the local clinic/hospital/emergency room. Two to three doctors per day, each seeing 50 patients. 5-7 nurses and 5 technicians.

I attended my first birth (other than that of my sister) a few days ago, and while it was a powerful experience I was also overwhelmed with anger and saddness at the poor treatment of the patient(s), and would love some advice on what I might be able to do to make the mother´s and child´s experience more pleasant.

I´ll hold off posting to many details of the birth until I´m able to attend more and get a more balanced sense of what standard practice is, but in general what reccomendations could you make for situations where IV´s and O2 are routine, EVERYONE births on their back in stirrups, and the coaching to first time mothers are minimal.

In this case I stayed with the mother durring the 1st stage, encouraged her to find the most comfortable position on the bed (for her sitting up with her husbands hand on her lower back), worked on calm breathing in through the nose and out the mouth, got a wet cloth to wipe her brow, kept reminding her husband to keep his hand on her back and not her stomach or shoulder, and as the contractions became stronger encouraged her to stay focused on my eyes durring the intense pain and breathed/channeled energy/supported her. I was the only member of our staff in the room this whole time.

Durring 2nd stage, I was trying to encourage the mother to bring her knees closer to her chest, as she was just resting her calfs in the stirrups and didn´t seem to be able to push down into her pelvis.

After delivery of the baby, I talked to the baby as it lay on the warming table a room away from the mother and tried to give it as much physical contact as I could. I also asked the nurses if it would be okay if I actually brought the baby to the mother´s chest, and they seemed a bit surprised but said okay. The baby was sucking on its hat so I told the mother that her daughter seemed hungry and she might want to try feeding it, but she declined and the nurses had nothing to say about it.

I´m reviewing the lamaze website as we speak (I only remember a bit from the classes I attended with my Mom durring her pregnancy with my sister 13 years ago), but please any other resources, books, etc would be much appreciated.

Thank you all for your time. I spend my off days gardening and drying herbs with what the locals call a witch, learning about a whole different modality of health.

May we all open to the Spirit and become an empty vessel for healing,

From the land of the Eagle and the Condor,

Oscar