I would like to share this scary experience that I had last March 7—8, 2013. I was close to giving birth then, and we have been inside the clinic for four days.

They had three small rooms there for those who are giving birth. It was tight, and the only furniture that fit there was a single bed and three plastic chairs. My husband and I occupied one room, and the other two were empty.

Then a pregnant woman went in and asked for a check—up. We caught a bit of their conversation, not because we intended to eavesdrop, but because the clinic wasn't large, and the walls of the rooms were thin. The midwife told the woman to go home, walk around a bit and come back in the morning the next day.

However, the woman couldn't wait until tomorrow to get herself admitted. That night, she came back, along with her husband and her grandmother. The woman was young; I believe she was still around 18 years old.

So it was now noisy, and the people were now moving around outside. My husband and I weren't able to get back to sleep because of it, and we simply listened to them as if we were listening to a radio show.

Then suddenly the power went out. There were emergency lights in the clinic, but there were only two of them outside our rooms, and the rest were in the delivery room. A few minutes passed, then someone screamed in utter fright! The midwife's assistant said that she saw something by the window.

The door was in between two windows with jalousie glass. There was apparently a dark—skinned person who peeked in. The assistant wasn't able to see the face of the person, but she did see their eyes. The midwife stopped the assistant from saying any more, because obviously, it wasn't the right time to scare anyone.

I couldn't explain what I felt that night. There was fear, but there was also worry and concern, just like in another story that was told in the group about aswang. The aswang is our local version of the vampires of old and they are known to favor unborn and newly born babies.

As a mother, there's a feeling burning inside me that will fight anything because you wanted to protect your baby. My husband and I now turned on both our phones' flashlights as if expecting something or someone to attack.

It was soon the middle of the night, and the pregnant lady was crying because her abdomen was already aching. It was noisy inside the clinic, but we could clearly hear a cat's loud meowing. It was just outside the window and was also making so much noise.

I honestly didn't like what I was feeling back then and my arm hairs were now all standing up.

They already took the young lady to the delivery room. As I mentioned just earlier, there were also emergency lights there. The midwife also had all the equipment for helping someone give birth in that room.

Then someone screamed again.

They said that there was a large cockroach inside the room. Like, absolutely black, and not brown like the usual roaches you see at home. They made a ruckus inside and started to attempt smacking the pest until it went out of the room.

I invited my husband to pray with me. We prayed and prayed, not only for us and our baby but also for the other woman, who was now giving birth, and her baby.

We could hear that she was having a hard time pushing the baby out. The woman was already being scolded by the midwife since she wasn't listening or following what she was being told to do. It continued until we heard it had become an actual emergency.

There was a problem with the child. It was already blackened when it came out. The child was now dead. I couldn't help but cry my eyes out at the news.

When everything had already quieted down, I think the lady had already fallen asleep then; we heard the conversation between the midwife and the grandmother…