AUDIE CORNISH, host:
A week and a half after Haiti's earthquake, six health care teams from the U.S. government are in place in Port-au-Prince. These units are staffed by doctors and nurses who leave their own practices to help injured people in disasters. Sometimes, they get to help new life to begin as well.
NPR's Joanne Silberner has this profile of an American surgeon who's been in Port-au-Prince since three days after the earthquake.
JOANNE SILBERNER: Anna Kathryn Goodman kneels at the base of a camp cot in a stuffy vinyl hospital tent. In front of her is a pregnant woman - Nita Brazil(ph) - who's been in labor all day long.
Dr. ANNA KATHRYN GOODMAN (Obstetrician): Saw her the minute she walked into the tent, a beautiful young woman, very short with a very big tummy, clearly tired.
SILBERNER: Dr. Goodman has a baseball cap backwards on her head. It says A.K. -Relief for Alaska - but it's the name everyone calls her. Along with her baseball hat, A.K. Goodman wears navy blue military pants with lots of pockets and big black army boots. As she turns her head towards her patient, you can see five small earrings in each ear. Now, Nita Brazil has Dr. Goodman's full attention.
Dr. GOODMAN: So, I thought to myself, uh-oh, one baby, teeny little short woman, and is this going to be a big baby?
SILBERNER: Goodman even did an ultrasound check just to make sure she was not dealing with twins. At one point, she stopped to console the father who was outside the tent crying. He was worried the baby was so big because he had been giving his wife protein drinks during her pregnancy.
(Soundbite of crying)
SILBERNER: Looking back on it, there was a point where Dr. Goodman was really concerned that the labor wasn't progressing.
Dr. GOODMAN: Three hours later, she was still eight centimeters and the baby wasn't down.
It's too far up. You need to push it down to me.
Once I noticed that she hadn't changed, I didn't leave the tent.
(Soundbite of crying)
Dr. GOODMAN: Her cervix was swelling, because even though we were trying to coach her not to push, she was still pushing. At that point, I was thinking we might have to go a different route.
SILBERNER: You could have done a C-section here?
Dr. GOODMAN: Mm-hmm. Yes.
SILBERNER: And you've done them in the field?
Dr. GOODMAN: I have.
(Soundbite of crying)
SILBERNER: In her stateside job, A.K. Goodman is a surgeon in Boston who specializes in gynecology, obstetrics and oncology.
For the last five days, all she's seen is this school courtyard, which is smaller than a football field. It's full of medical tents, people and equipment and patients suffering from crush wounds and dehydration and broken bones.
On the soccer field next door, several thousand people are living outside because their houses were destroyed. Those who still have houses are afraid to go inside because of all the aftershocks.
Sure enough, as A.K. Goodman fulfills another of her duties on the medical team - sweeping the courtyard - things begin shaking again.
Dr. GOODMAN: It's shaking. I'm still trying to, like, (unintelligible). It's so annoying.
SILBERNER: Goodman stops what she's doing and scrambles around to make sure she could find all her team members.
Dr. GOODMAN: Where's Clyde?
SILBERNER: She finds them all - no one's hurt.
Dr. GOODMAN: Team four. All set.
SILBERNER: And then yells out their status to other groups of doctors and nurses - something they always do to make sure everyone's accounted for.
(Soundbite of people yelling)
Dr. GOODMAN: Come on, come on, come on.
SILBERNER: Meanwhile, Nita Brazil is about to bring some joy to the people working on other quake survivors in this courtyard.
(Soundbite of people yelling)
SILBERNER: After eight hours of labor and an hour of very active coaching by A.K. Goodman, Nita Brazil succeeds.
(Soundbite of cheering)
SILBERNER: And Goodman delivers a very much wanted seven-pound three-ounce baby boy.
Dr. GOODMAN: Look at that baby.
(Soundbite of cheering)
Dr. GOODMAN: It's really wonderful to see some wonderful, normal birth. It's nice to see little smiles on people's faces.
SILBERNER: A sign of hope in a badly bruised country. The new father has a baby hat ready - actually one blue and one pink. He was really prepared until the earthquake leveled their lives. Now, his family will have to return to tent life in the soccer field. A.K. Goodman is worried about them, but optimistic too.
Haitians have gotten through some tough times before; she's praying they'll get through this one as well.
Joanne Silberner, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.