A "great story"

(I am literally going to submit this to AmeriCorps as one of my two mandatory "great stories" from service this year)

The other day I was asked to take a Nepali couple for their initial medical screening. Though I had to get out of bed at an ungodly hour to drive all the way across town during a foggy rush hour, I was happy to do it. When I returned to pick the couple up after their appointment, they were waiting to hear from the nurse about something. It took me a while to figure out what they were waiting for but I eventually heard "pregnancy appointment" (by which I assumed they meant pre-natal care--not arranging for one). I turned to the wife to congratulate her and asked her how far along she was, to which the husband replied "8 months." I did a serious double-take and realized that yes, this woman was in fact very pregnant and I had not noticed (in my defense, she was covering it up with a large scarf--I think it is a modesty thing). Eventually the nurse came out and explained to me that I needed to somehow schedule this woman for some prenatal care at clinic that would take medicaid since she was 8 months along and had not yet seen a doctor. I happily agreed with no clue as to how difficult that would be. It turns out that no ob-gyn clinic in Portland will see a woman for the first time during her 8th month of pregnancy unless she has well-documented prenatal care because they don't want to be liable for something going wrong. I called clinic after clinic, incredulously, and listened to them explain that yes, though this woman did need to see a doctor right away they did not want to be the ones to do it. I was actually told that her only option was to go to the emergency room! They wanted a medicaid patient to go to the ER for routine prenatal care! I was outraged/appalled/any other furious emotion that would capture the essence of all that is wrong with our medical system. By my 7th or 8th phone call I started to lose my cool--I hadn't eaten in hours and was running on little sleep. I am embarrassed to say that I got quite snippy with a receptionist at a clinic and hung up on her after she used the words "not my problem."
In the end I did get her an appointment. I asked another Catholic Charities agency (Pregnancy & Adoption Support) for help and they gave me the number of a social worker at a Midwife clinic who was able to hook me up with some basic care and a nepali interpreter. (woot!) I took the couple to an ultrasound appointment yesterday--during which the husband was grinning nonstop--and the couple told me that they were having a baby girl around the first of January. The husband also told me, however, that he was not surprised by the news because "a woman in Nepal with magical powers told me it would be a girl." Well, clearly she was right. Let's hope that it is a healthy girl too. Pregnancy support is also hooking up the family with a new baby welcome kit (bottles, clothes, diapers and blankets) so the first member of this family to be born in their new country will arrive in style.