Namesake!

Baby Susan at 12 hours of age!

The culture in PNG is a very relational one.   A PNG National who's life you have touched through friendship or helping them with something or by being a part of a significant gathering may choose to honor you by giving you a gift.  That gift may be a bilum (string bag) made just for you or by bringing you gifts of produce from their garden.  Or, a very special way, would be to name one of their children after you!  The child would be referred to as your "Namesake".
A few weeks ago when I was on call I had been following the progress of two ladies in labor.  Their progress was a bit slow and so I was checking on them pretty regularly.  The time came when I decided we needed to go to plan B and get each of these ladies ready for a C-section.  The one lady's unborn baby was showing signs of distress so I took her to the OR first.  When we were near finished I asked one of the operating theater staff to call the labor ward and have them bring the second lady over.  After she had been brought over and we were ready to move her onto the operating table  I felt impressed to check her one more time to see if she had dilated completely or not.  Well guess what?!  She had and although this mama was pretty worn out I thought we could safely get the baby out with vacuum assistance and avoid a CS.  We were successful!  Both mama and baby did well!  Yeah!!  Mama was very pleased and asked me my name and right then and there named her newborn baby girl Susan!