Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
week forty eight - Perth Debrief
so here we arrive to the last week of BAS! we landed in Perth on friday in the later evening. feeling overwhelmed, cold and slightly nauseous i got to the house were i was to spend the week and went to bed. the next morning felt a little better getting to sleep till i wanted to and not having to answer to an alarm clock. me and some girls went to lunch at the base and felt so overwhelmed that we had some toast and then left again. its strange cause people are excited your back and want to know how it was but when the question is asked ‘how was it?’ how can i truly answer that? it was eight months of ups and downs so overall, ‘outreach was challenging, i love midwifery and want to keep doing it’ was my response.
we had the weekend off and were all able to try and ‘settle’ in a bit more. its weird cause things that seem so trivial have a whole new meaning when you come back from being in a foreign land for so long. like going to a grocery store.... so many choices, so expensive and very overwhelming! even the climate change. its quite chilly hear and it rained the first whole part of the week. i got to spend the saturday night at Naomi’s house which was nice. but then monday morning we got right into debrief week.
debrief week was far more chill than i expected, we shared as a group how we grew and our highlights of outreach and what we were thinking of doing in the future. we then prayed for one another. on thursday night we all went out for dinner to a really nice grill and then friday we talked about ‘going home’ said a few goodbyes and that was it. that evening some of us went out for food and just to hang out. saturday was full of goodbyes and then sunday me and Naomi left as well to her house. and that was it.
i have a week and Nai’s and then we both head to the east coast to visit friends and just relax. so this ends my midwifery adventures for now. its sad and i do miss delivering babies and being with the moms but i know this is not the end.
thanks for reading!
we had the weekend off and were all able to try and ‘settle’ in a bit more. its weird cause things that seem so trivial have a whole new meaning when you come back from being in a foreign land for so long. like going to a grocery store.... so many choices, so expensive and very overwhelming! even the climate change. its quite chilly hear and it rained the first whole part of the week. i got to spend the saturday night at Naomi’s house which was nice. but then monday morning we got right into debrief week.
debrief week was far more chill than i expected, we shared as a group how we grew and our highlights of outreach and what we were thinking of doing in the future. we then prayed for one another. on thursday night we all went out for dinner to a really nice grill and then friday we talked about ‘going home’ said a few goodbyes and that was it. that evening some of us went out for food and just to hang out. saturday was full of goodbyes and then sunday me and Naomi left as well to her house. and that was it.
i have a week and Nai’s and then we both head to the east coast to visit friends and just relax. so this ends my midwifery adventures for now. its sad and i do miss delivering babies and being with the moms but i know this is not the end.
thanks for reading!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
week forty seven - Dhaka-Perth
well a slow week, counting down the days till perth! but it was a nice week as well, getting to hang out as a team, relax, do a bit of shopping and even got to be taken out to the ‘American club’ in Dhaka to hang out for the day. they had a pool (a storm hit so we had to wait a few hours for the lightning to stop but we still got to swim!) and great food and internet.
the maui team was also in so i got to hang out with the leaders! so nice to see familiar friends! a lot of our team was feeling yucky on and off, i think going back to eating western food did our bodies in after all the rice, potatoes and fried eggs!
i don’t have much to share as most of the week was just recapping from the last two months and looking forward to whats to come. the pool was interesting at the club, by the time i got in Bek (my leader) and Jasmine (maui leader) had all the kids (about 8 of them) rounded up and were playing games with them! quite entertaining and me and Naomi even joined in for a few rounds!
we got our haircuts... i think i mentioned before? maybe not. not a too bad of an experience..... they don’t do bangs very well so i was a tad unimpressed but o’well they’ll grow! i bought some fabric and one of my teammates drew a photo of a dress and i got the tailor to make one for me! i was actually pleasantly surprised as it was not a bangla style at all but he did a very good job!
we left thursday evening, a scary drive in a ‘CNG’ (little motorized car thingy) and got to the airport and were taking off and met the rest of our team (that had been in India) in Dubai! we had a five hour layover and then were on our next/last flight to Perth.
arriving in Perth was overwhelming and very cold. it was a mere 12 degree’s and after our 30-40 degree’s we were used to we were all quite chilled! i knew it would be a hard adjustment but i don’t think i expected it coming back to Perth, just home. today is monday, and i still haven’t gone out anywhere public besides the base and that is even overwhelming. its had to describe but when your gone for eight months in foreign lands you get used to everything being foreign and being the only white people who speak english and coming back is just ‘pow’ in your face. but i plan on going to a grocery store today! woo hoo! haha! got to get some toothpaste, shampoo and things. it will probably be overwhelming with lots of decisions and the price of things here. but it has to be done! can’t hide away forever!
as of right now i fly into edmonton to go to a wedding (cousin) on June 23 and then drive back with my family sometime after that... maybe a week? not sure the day i’ll be home but hopefully i’ll get to spend canada day at home this year!!!!! first time in winnipeg for that day in 8 years!!!!
till next time...
the maui team was also in so i got to hang out with the leaders! so nice to see familiar friends! a lot of our team was feeling yucky on and off, i think going back to eating western food did our bodies in after all the rice, potatoes and fried eggs!
i don’t have much to share as most of the week was just recapping from the last two months and looking forward to whats to come. the pool was interesting at the club, by the time i got in Bek (my leader) and Jasmine (maui leader) had all the kids (about 8 of them) rounded up and were playing games with them! quite entertaining and me and Naomi even joined in for a few rounds!
we got our haircuts... i think i mentioned before? maybe not. not a too bad of an experience..... they don’t do bangs very well so i was a tad unimpressed but o’well they’ll grow! i bought some fabric and one of my teammates drew a photo of a dress and i got the tailor to make one for me! i was actually pleasantly surprised as it was not a bangla style at all but he did a very good job!
we left thursday evening, a scary drive in a ‘CNG’ (little motorized car thingy) and got to the airport and were taking off and met the rest of our team (that had been in India) in Dubai! we had a five hour layover and then were on our next/last flight to Perth.
arriving in Perth was overwhelming and very cold. it was a mere 12 degree’s and after our 30-40 degree’s we were used to we were all quite chilled! i knew it would be a hard adjustment but i don’t think i expected it coming back to Perth, just home. today is monday, and i still haven’t gone out anywhere public besides the base and that is even overwhelming. its had to describe but when your gone for eight months in foreign lands you get used to everything being foreign and being the only white people who speak english and coming back is just ‘pow’ in your face. but i plan on going to a grocery store today! woo hoo! haha! got to get some toothpaste, shampoo and things. it will probably be overwhelming with lots of decisions and the price of things here. but it has to be done! can’t hide away forever!
as of right now i fly into edmonton to go to a wedding (cousin) on June 23 and then drive back with my family sometime after that... maybe a week? not sure the day i’ll be home but hopefully i’ll get to spend canada day at home this year!!!!! first time in winnipeg for that day in 8 years!!!!
till next time...
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
week forty six-Dhaka
our second last week of outreach, a very full week. sunday morning me, Jen, Naomi and Bek left for this apartment to teach a group of women about healthcare in pregnancy. we spent three days with them teaching them snidbits of what we know so that they can help their community and the women in the slums that don’t always go to get care. we even got to go to a ANC clinic and better help them learn how to feel for the baby and listen to its heartbeat. the women really grabbed on to all we had to say and would spend time praying for each mom they checked. it was a really fun group of women who just wanted to learn! then wednesday Naomi and I were supposed to plan a teaching for a different group of women for thursday. so the next day we left early and went to the group of four women to teach them about deliveries and how they can help and support the mom in labour. it was an amazing experience, although i was sick the entire time... but the women were really into our teachings and got really excited about it.
it has been really nice hanging out in Dhaka, where we’re staying is very relaxing and comfortable and yes we’ve had grilled cheese sandwiches!! woohoo!! the teaching week was very full, and a bit tiring but also very encouraging to see that what we’ve learnt we can pass on for these women to better their communities. one of my lessons was on vital taking, pulse, breathing, blood pressure and temp. one of the women was so excited when i showed her how to take blood pressure she said ‘oh we’re all becoming doctor’s today!’ another things she said was about the pulse ‘sometimes i feel it jumping and sometimes not, but now i can feel it.’ the ‘jumping’ was referring to the pulse beating! and when they found the heartbeat of the baby in one of the lady’s bellies they got so excited and the smile on their face was priceless. they were so proud of what they had learnt!
we got friday and saturday off as we missed our day off last week, it was relaxing but also a bit crazy, i was feeling really nauseous most of friday and decided to go out shopping anyways. only made it to lunch then me, Naomi and Tiffany headed home feeling to yucky to continue with the day. the next day us three and Jasmine (a maui team leader that i knew when i mission built their!!!) went to a salon! yes, haircut in asia. sometimes not the best idea, but its not too bad. could have been worse, i’m not thrilled but i can get it fixed! i also got my eyebrows threaded! first time ever i did that, didn’t hurt to bad and they did a good job!
this next week we head into debriefing, a few projects to finish up and team times together. i’m excited we leave thursday but feeling a little nervous to head into ‘real life’ again!
so i guess this is it till Perth! talk to ya then!!!
it has been really nice hanging out in Dhaka, where we’re staying is very relaxing and comfortable and yes we’ve had grilled cheese sandwiches!! woohoo!! the teaching week was very full, and a bit tiring but also very encouraging to see that what we’ve learnt we can pass on for these women to better their communities. one of my lessons was on vital taking, pulse, breathing, blood pressure and temp. one of the women was so excited when i showed her how to take blood pressure she said ‘oh we’re all becoming doctor’s today!’ another things she said was about the pulse ‘sometimes i feel it jumping and sometimes not, but now i can feel it.’ the ‘jumping’ was referring to the pulse beating! and when they found the heartbeat of the baby in one of the lady’s bellies they got so excited and the smile on their face was priceless. they were so proud of what they had learnt!
we got friday and saturday off as we missed our day off last week, it was relaxing but also a bit crazy, i was feeling really nauseous most of friday and decided to go out shopping anyways. only made it to lunch then me, Naomi and Tiffany headed home feeling to yucky to continue with the day. the next day us three and Jasmine (a maui team leader that i knew when i mission built their!!!) went to a salon! yes, haircut in asia. sometimes not the best idea, but its not too bad. could have been worse, i’m not thrilled but i can get it fixed! i also got my eyebrows threaded! first time ever i did that, didn’t hurt to bad and they did a good job!
this next week we head into debriefing, a few projects to finish up and team times together. i’m excited we leave thursday but feeling a little nervous to head into ‘real life’ again!
so i guess this is it till Perth! talk to ya then!!!
Monday, May 23, 2011
week forty five- Bollobhpur-Dhaka
this week has been so crazy. tuesday started off with two deliveries and another lady in labour that i was monitoring. that night i did a delivery just before eleven, a beautiful little boy. Celia stayed up all night with the other mom who was still in labour and came to woke up me and Naomi at five am and Naomi did a delivery right then! another women was fully dilated and i delivered her at seven thirty. but this delivery was a bit more difficult. the baby’s heart rate was up and down, sometimes dropping dangerously low. i had to go to the head nurses house to ask for a drug to help the mom have more contractions so the baby could come out faster. it was a bit of a struggle and me and Naomi praying like crazy for this little baby. there were charms on the mom’s arm and we knew she was muslim. we saw break through at seven when the heart rate went up to a normal beat and stayed that way till delivery! the baby boy was born with a strong heart beat but not a strong cry. it took some stimulation and prayer but we eventually did hear a little cry from him which grew as the day went on!
that same morning Celia did two deliveries back to back! it was pretty crazy, i was her second and was running around helping her take vitals as well as taking my mom/baby’s vitals. it was fun, but exhausting as well. the rest of the day was spent getting paperwork and laundry done. in the afternoon our team went to Karpasdanga to say goodbye to Benuka and her family. it was a lovely lunch that they prepared, extremely spicy! my mouth has never been on fire as it was that day. thursday we had a team meeting, prepared for our seminars that we’ll be teaching on healthcare and tying loose ends up.
that evening we had a ‘tea/biscuit’ night for the nursing students. about thirty of them showed up in our small house! we were constantly serving Sprite, tea, cookies, sweets and water to the girls that continued to come and go. it was a lot of fun, we danced, sang, watched a ‘Bollywood’ video and started giving away things we didn’t need anymore. the girls were really sad that we were leaving and kept asking for photos of us. i ran out of ones of me and Naomi to hand out so started giving out my family photo’s! sorry family, you will now be shown to many people in Bangladesh! it was a good night though and the power stayed on for the most of it!
friday we packed, cleaned and got ready to leave. it was a bittersweet day, we are all excited to move on and are tired of outreach life but have all developed relationships with the nursing students and are going to miss midwifery. that evening Sister Gillian came over and we got to learn more about her and how she got to Bangladesh. she is a remarkable women who has dedicated her life to her work and to helping these people.
saturday we woke up early, and packed up the van and were off by six am. it was sad to say goodbye to our new friends. some of them cried. some of us nearly cried. the drive was no fun at all but a lot shorter than our original drive to Bollobhpur. we made it to Rachel’s house just after one and were able to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and rest! the next day was going to be a full one of teaching for me, Naomi and Jen. the other girls were heading out to a different part of the city to stay a night to do teachings to a group of Pakistani women. full on work but really good for these women. i’m excited but also very tired!
till next time...
that same morning Celia did two deliveries back to back! it was pretty crazy, i was her second and was running around helping her take vitals as well as taking my mom/baby’s vitals. it was fun, but exhausting as well. the rest of the day was spent getting paperwork and laundry done. in the afternoon our team went to Karpasdanga to say goodbye to Benuka and her family. it was a lovely lunch that they prepared, extremely spicy! my mouth has never been on fire as it was that day. thursday we had a team meeting, prepared for our seminars that we’ll be teaching on healthcare and tying loose ends up.
that evening we had a ‘tea/biscuit’ night for the nursing students. about thirty of them showed up in our small house! we were constantly serving Sprite, tea, cookies, sweets and water to the girls that continued to come and go. it was a lot of fun, we danced, sang, watched a ‘Bollywood’ video and started giving away things we didn’t need anymore. the girls were really sad that we were leaving and kept asking for photos of us. i ran out of ones of me and Naomi to hand out so started giving out my family photo’s! sorry family, you will now be shown to many people in Bangladesh! it was a good night though and the power stayed on for the most of it!
friday we packed, cleaned and got ready to leave. it was a bittersweet day, we are all excited to move on and are tired of outreach life but have all developed relationships with the nursing students and are going to miss midwifery. that evening Sister Gillian came over and we got to learn more about her and how she got to Bangladesh. she is a remarkable women who has dedicated her life to her work and to helping these people.
saturday we woke up early, and packed up the van and were off by six am. it was sad to say goodbye to our new friends. some of them cried. some of us nearly cried. the drive was no fun at all but a lot shorter than our original drive to Bollobhpur. we made it to Rachel’s house just after one and were able to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and rest! the next day was going to be a full one of teaching for me, Naomi and Jen. the other girls were heading out to a different part of the city to stay a night to do teachings to a group of Pakistani women. full on work but really good for these women. i’m excited but also very tired!
till next time...
Sunday, May 15, 2011
week forty four-Bollobhpur
hmmm trying to remember the past week... me and naomi were partners again, working a lot of morning shifts and going to an anc clinic.
its been a hot week, and our water pump has busted so we’re pumping water from the well outside non stop. going and dumping water on ourselves just to try and stay cool. the good thing is the power isn’t too bad so we usually can have cold water from our fridge! when the power is on me and Naomi sit in our wet towels under the fan, very refreshing!
the hospital was pretty slow as well this week, Jen delivered a stillbirth on wednesday which was a bit hard, especially because it was the mothers second one and she has no live children. that same day me and Naomi went to a clinic where a storm hit and the winds blew like crazy and the rain pelted down. all the women huddled under the roof top to escape and for an hour or so we felt cooled down.
that afternoon Celia told me a women had just come into the hospital in labour so i went and monitored her. she gave birth at six thirty to a little boy! a healthy mom and baby, but the delivery itself stressful. sometimes working with the nursing students can be a little trying, with language and just cultural differences. also though because they have such a different way of doing things. its difficult to explain but the student i worked with that day has a reputation of being very controlling and not very friendly. i was left feeling upset and frustrated with her. we’ve made emends since then and things are okay, but i probably won’t be working with her again!
the rest of the week there were no deliveries so we spent days sitting at the hospital talking with the nursing students and cleaning our house and just hanging out. then saturday a few women came in and Naomi did a delivery that evening. a women also came in at the same time who was only one cm dilated, so i stayed up through the night with her monitoring her, then another women came in at one thirty am who was much further along so i started monitoring both of them. Liz came around two to check in on me and i told her about the two women. Bek and Naomi came around two thirty and slept on one of the beds while i continued monitoring, then at three thirty we brought the second women in to the labour room, her waters were broke and she delivered a beautiful little girl at four o’five am! it was a beautiful delivery no stress and she cried as soon as she was out! the mom was so excited, i’m completely content if that was my last delivery. i’ll be sad to go home and no be able to be a part of deliveries but i’m grateful for the experiences i’ve had.
so after that delivery i came home, showered and layed in bed just as i heard a knock on the door that the first mom was ready. i woke up Liz and went with her to her delivery, while this was happening Celia’s mom from the night before also was ready to push so i ran back to the house and woke her up too! so i stayed their till they delivered and helped with recuss on Liz’s baby, he was born very small and didn’t cry, but after while and with some help he was crying and doing good.
so i didn’t sleep at all saturday night, so sunday i went to bed around seven thirty and woke up at one! it was a good night and doing a delivery always leaves you with a bit of an adrenaline rush so i didn’t feel to tired.
the rest of the weekend and our day off was just relaxing and catching up on sleep, despite being extremely hot was restful.
well i actually get to stay again here for the last week, crazy i know! we leave next saturday for Dhaka.
till next time...
its been a hot week, and our water pump has busted so we’re pumping water from the well outside non stop. going and dumping water on ourselves just to try and stay cool. the good thing is the power isn’t too bad so we usually can have cold water from our fridge! when the power is on me and Naomi sit in our wet towels under the fan, very refreshing!
the hospital was pretty slow as well this week, Jen delivered a stillbirth on wednesday which was a bit hard, especially because it was the mothers second one and she has no live children. that same day me and Naomi went to a clinic where a storm hit and the winds blew like crazy and the rain pelted down. all the women huddled under the roof top to escape and for an hour or so we felt cooled down.
that afternoon Celia told me a women had just come into the hospital in labour so i went and monitored her. she gave birth at six thirty to a little boy! a healthy mom and baby, but the delivery itself stressful. sometimes working with the nursing students can be a little trying, with language and just cultural differences. also though because they have such a different way of doing things. its difficult to explain but the student i worked with that day has a reputation of being very controlling and not very friendly. i was left feeling upset and frustrated with her. we’ve made emends since then and things are okay, but i probably won’t be working with her again!
the rest of the week there were no deliveries so we spent days sitting at the hospital talking with the nursing students and cleaning our house and just hanging out. then saturday a few women came in and Naomi did a delivery that evening. a women also came in at the same time who was only one cm dilated, so i stayed up through the night with her monitoring her, then another women came in at one thirty am who was much further along so i started monitoring both of them. Liz came around two to check in on me and i told her about the two women. Bek and Naomi came around two thirty and slept on one of the beds while i continued monitoring, then at three thirty we brought the second women in to the labour room, her waters were broke and she delivered a beautiful little girl at four o’five am! it was a beautiful delivery no stress and she cried as soon as she was out! the mom was so excited, i’m completely content if that was my last delivery. i’ll be sad to go home and no be able to be a part of deliveries but i’m grateful for the experiences i’ve had.
so after that delivery i came home, showered and layed in bed just as i heard a knock on the door that the first mom was ready. i woke up Liz and went with her to her delivery, while this was happening Celia’s mom from the night before also was ready to push so i ran back to the house and woke her up too! so i stayed their till they delivered and helped with recuss on Liz’s baby, he was born very small and didn’t cry, but after while and with some help he was crying and doing good.
so i didn’t sleep at all saturday night, so sunday i went to bed around seven thirty and woke up at one! it was a good night and doing a delivery always leaves you with a bit of an adrenaline rush so i didn’t feel to tired.
the rest of the weekend and our day off was just relaxing and catching up on sleep, despite being extremely hot was restful.
well i actually get to stay again here for the last week, crazy i know! we leave next saturday for Dhaka.
till next time...
week forty three- Karpasdanga
week forty three
Karpasdanga
a crazy week, very exhausting and a full of frustrating moments. me and naomi were together once again in Karpasdanga, but the atmosphere was different. different nursing students and a different schedule. the beginning of the week a women came in and we monitored her a little before Benuka made the call to send her for cesarian. we weren’t super thrilled because we knew that there were no major problems and a need for her to be cut open. we have been told here that cesarians are almost like a disease and they are over used. then the next day another women was in labour, progressing wonderfully, Naomi had spent the majority of the day monitoring her and spending time with her. her family however decided around ten pm that they were going to take her for a cs as well. we tried to argue for her that the pain she was in was normal, baby and mom were both physically doing very well and it wouldn’t be long before she would deliver but there voices started raising and same with Benuka and the whole situation became very stressful and when you don’t have the language, what can you do? so she left. we heard the next day she had a healthy little girl. we were left though feeling very discouraged. all these women going for unnecessary procedures.
friday we had wanted to leave because of the night before. we felt like there was nothing we could do so what was the point in us staying. but we prayed it over and felt like it was right to stay, that walking away wasn’t going to solve the problem. so we did and a women was in labour that day progressing slowly. around nine pm we were notified that another women had come and she was close. so Naomi monitored that women and i began to monitor the women who had been there all day. Naomi’s mom delivered at one am, everything fine. after the week we had had so far we were praying like crazy that these women would get to have normal deliveries. around three am another women came in fully dilated the same time my mom i had been with was fully. so i moved in with her to a small labour room (closet) behind another ‘checkup’ room and Naomi stayed with this new mom in the delivery room. Naomi’s mom delivered first just after five, and i was called in to help. i got there and this beautiful little boy, lay in the bed, blue and lifeless. we began praying like crazy for a miracle, for his slow heart to pick up and for him to cry, but it never came. the family showed the mom and took him away. i was feeling on edge and Benuka was shouting and clearly very upset at the loss. but she then went into overdrive and came into my delivery and demanded an episiotomy (a cut to help the baby come out) but she wouldn’t listen or even look at what was happening. the fetal heart was so strong and the mom was doing fine i knew that baby would be out soon. they rambled off in bangla to each other and with the random women who was in the room (later figured out she was a family member of the first delivery Naomi did) it was such a chaotic environment and really frustrating that everyone was overreacting. they told the mom to get up and were going to move her to the other room which i thought was ridiculous, no one was even watching the baby. she started to get up but while she was still sitting another contraction hit and i shouted for them to lay her back down and he was born. before his feet were even out he let out a great scream! i was so thankful and just kept praying that the chaos of the room would die down and he and his mom could be in peace. everybody left at that point, leaving me to clean up and take care of both mom and baby. i don’t think i’ve ever prayed so much through those deliveries. and though that one baby didn’t make it me and Naomi still felt God’s peace at the end of it all. Benuka later came to us and made emends by saying ‘no tension, Benuka no mad’ we didn’t agree with her methods and her rash behavior but when your held back by language and cultural differences theres not much you can do. we were both very tired, we had breakfast and then caught a ride back to Bollobhpur to be with the team.
the weekend was relaxing and i got to sleep and do almost nothing. went to the ‘big’ village again and did some shopping and got to by kit kat’s again! haha! monday was a relaxing day off and then began the next week. i’m now staying in Bollobhpur for the remainder time here, only two weeks left then we all head to Dahka. we’re preparing seminar for women in ministry with no health training but they want to have some to better their communities. after that week its a bit of r&r then back to Perth! i can’t believe we’re so close to the finish line. crazy to think this time next month i’m back in an english land where the electricity is always on and cheese is always available!
till next time...
Karpasdanga
a crazy week, very exhausting and a full of frustrating moments. me and naomi were together once again in Karpasdanga, but the atmosphere was different. different nursing students and a different schedule. the beginning of the week a women came in and we monitored her a little before Benuka made the call to send her for cesarian. we weren’t super thrilled because we knew that there were no major problems and a need for her to be cut open. we have been told here that cesarians are almost like a disease and they are over used. then the next day another women was in labour, progressing wonderfully, Naomi had spent the majority of the day monitoring her and spending time with her. her family however decided around ten pm that they were going to take her for a cs as well. we tried to argue for her that the pain she was in was normal, baby and mom were both physically doing very well and it wouldn’t be long before she would deliver but there voices started raising and same with Benuka and the whole situation became very stressful and when you don’t have the language, what can you do? so she left. we heard the next day she had a healthy little girl. we were left though feeling very discouraged. all these women going for unnecessary procedures.
friday we had wanted to leave because of the night before. we felt like there was nothing we could do so what was the point in us staying. but we prayed it over and felt like it was right to stay, that walking away wasn’t going to solve the problem. so we did and a women was in labour that day progressing slowly. around nine pm we were notified that another women had come and she was close. so Naomi monitored that women and i began to monitor the women who had been there all day. Naomi’s mom delivered at one am, everything fine. after the week we had had so far we were praying like crazy that these women would get to have normal deliveries. around three am another women came in fully dilated the same time my mom i had been with was fully. so i moved in with her to a small labour room (closet) behind another ‘checkup’ room and Naomi stayed with this new mom in the delivery room. Naomi’s mom delivered first just after five, and i was called in to help. i got there and this beautiful little boy, lay in the bed, blue and lifeless. we began praying like crazy for a miracle, for his slow heart to pick up and for him to cry, but it never came. the family showed the mom and took him away. i was feeling on edge and Benuka was shouting and clearly very upset at the loss. but she then went into overdrive and came into my delivery and demanded an episiotomy (a cut to help the baby come out) but she wouldn’t listen or even look at what was happening. the fetal heart was so strong and the mom was doing fine i knew that baby would be out soon. they rambled off in bangla to each other and with the random women who was in the room (later figured out she was a family member of the first delivery Naomi did) it was such a chaotic environment and really frustrating that everyone was overreacting. they told the mom to get up and were going to move her to the other room which i thought was ridiculous, no one was even watching the baby. she started to get up but while she was still sitting another contraction hit and i shouted for them to lay her back down and he was born. before his feet were even out he let out a great scream! i was so thankful and just kept praying that the chaos of the room would die down and he and his mom could be in peace. everybody left at that point, leaving me to clean up and take care of both mom and baby. i don’t think i’ve ever prayed so much through those deliveries. and though that one baby didn’t make it me and Naomi still felt God’s peace at the end of it all. Benuka later came to us and made emends by saying ‘no tension, Benuka no mad’ we didn’t agree with her methods and her rash behavior but when your held back by language and cultural differences theres not much you can do. we were both very tired, we had breakfast and then caught a ride back to Bollobhpur to be with the team.
the weekend was relaxing and i got to sleep and do almost nothing. went to the ‘big’ village again and did some shopping and got to by kit kat’s again! haha! monday was a relaxing day off and then began the next week. i’m now staying in Bollobhpur for the remainder time here, only two weeks left then we all head to Dahka. we’re preparing seminar for women in ministry with no health training but they want to have some to better their communities. after that week its a bit of r&r then back to Perth! i can’t believe we’re so close to the finish line. crazy to think this time next month i’m back in an english land where the electricity is always on and cheese is always available!
till next time...
week forty two-Bollobhpur
back on the home base, partners with Tiffany again! had a good week, went to a few clinics, worked the morning and afternoon shifts at the hospital and even went to ‘town’ to buy a few fun things for the team. things like ‘chocolate’ powder (not quite but pretty good when you got nothing), cereal, and we even found slightly melted kit kat bars for an easter treat!
wednesday i spent all morning and afternoon monitoring a labouring mom. around five we (nursing student and me) started walking her around the hospital yard. we’d walk her and then she’d have to throw up, then we’d walk her. (we did this to help her labour progress as it was going slow) we didn’t have to walk her long before we were walking her to the labour room. she got on the bed and by the time the nursing student could run our to yell ‘delivery’ to all her friends (so you get to have a small crowd watching you but its for their experience) the i had already delivered the head and body came immediately after! it was so nice to have a relaxing environment for the mom without the crowd and her to be able just to be in a position that suited her without having to have her knees up by her ears! and it was a little girl! my first girl in almost ten deliveries! both mom and baby were healthy and happy!
i was blessed enough to do two deliveries this week, my second being on saturday morning. a women came in at eight thirty who seemed to be much further along in her labour than the only three centimeters she actually was. she walked and stood and started pushing in the ‘labour’ area. i told the student nurse that we should bring her to the labour room cuz she was pushing, she waved her hand at me and said ‘no’. i looked at the mom again, and looked at Naomi who was with me monitoring another women and said again, ‘i think we should go or this baby will be born here’. the student looked at me, looked at the women, spoke something bangla to her and said ‘okay’. we walked her into the room at nine thirty and her daughter was born just ten minutes later! i couldn’t believe how fast she progressed. when i asked when she started going into labour the girls told me six am. this means she was only in labour for three hours! not impossible but highly unusual. so either their was a mix up in translation or she really did only have a three hour labour! pretty amazing.
Naomi did a delivery later on that day which was the opposite of mine. the poor women had been in labour since before four am that morning, she was fully dilated around two pm and started pushing but that baby wasn’t born until five twenty. i couldn’t believe the strength of this women and it was so amazing to see her and the baby both fine in the end. it was also nice that Nai, Bek and myself could be there to support her and encourage her. we could walk with her as she pushed (baby still very high up) and hold her in different positions so she didn’t get to sore or uncomfortable (as comfortable as one can be in labour). we earned her trust, especially Naomi who at one point was going to just go to check on something and the women didn’t want to let go of her arm. she was exhausted when all was said and done, but still managed a smile at the sight of her new baby boy!
our easter here was really nice! the night before we boiled and painted eggs as a team. we had to use permanent markers and nail polish as we had no paint! but they turned out beautifully! then sunday we had breakfast on the roof. some bangla food and also ‘french toast’ made with buns as we had no bread! but very tasty! we then read the story of the reason we celebrate easter, and acted it out as we went along. it was neat to ‘be a part of’ all that happened. we ended with singing an African song we remembered and then ‘Celebrate Jesus Celebrate’. we finished off our celebration with an egg hunt and a kit kat bar for each of us! it was a really fun day with the team. we even went on a house visit to see one of the nursing students families who lives near by. they fed us many sweets chatted with us as best as we could. her aunty actually speaks very good english and it was neat to chat with her about the beliefs of pregnant women in the villages. her job is to train TBA’s. (traditional birth attendants) mostly all women wear a black cord with a charm attached around their bellies, some very tight. this is to help protect the baby from being to big. they think if they tie this around their bellies the baby will grow upwards instead of out and it won’t be to big. there were other beliefs about certain foods that would harm the baby and that for twenty days after the baby is born the women is not allowed out of the house, i’m not sure why on that one but it is their belief.
so yes good day, good week! even a few cyclones which helped us have cool nights so sleeping isn’t too unbearable! next week i’m off to Karpasdanga once again for the last time, i’m looking forward to staying home after that but also looking forward to seeing Benuka again!
till next time...
wednesday i spent all morning and afternoon monitoring a labouring mom. around five we (nursing student and me) started walking her around the hospital yard. we’d walk her and then she’d have to throw up, then we’d walk her. (we did this to help her labour progress as it was going slow) we didn’t have to walk her long before we were walking her to the labour room. she got on the bed and by the time the nursing student could run our to yell ‘delivery’ to all her friends (so you get to have a small crowd watching you but its for their experience) the i had already delivered the head and body came immediately after! it was so nice to have a relaxing environment for the mom without the crowd and her to be able just to be in a position that suited her without having to have her knees up by her ears! and it was a little girl! my first girl in almost ten deliveries! both mom and baby were healthy and happy!
i was blessed enough to do two deliveries this week, my second being on saturday morning. a women came in at eight thirty who seemed to be much further along in her labour than the only three centimeters she actually was. she walked and stood and started pushing in the ‘labour’ area. i told the student nurse that we should bring her to the labour room cuz she was pushing, she waved her hand at me and said ‘no’. i looked at the mom again, and looked at Naomi who was with me monitoring another women and said again, ‘i think we should go or this baby will be born here’. the student looked at me, looked at the women, spoke something bangla to her and said ‘okay’. we walked her into the room at nine thirty and her daughter was born just ten minutes later! i couldn’t believe how fast she progressed. when i asked when she started going into labour the girls told me six am. this means she was only in labour for three hours! not impossible but highly unusual. so either their was a mix up in translation or she really did only have a three hour labour! pretty amazing.
Naomi did a delivery later on that day which was the opposite of mine. the poor women had been in labour since before four am that morning, she was fully dilated around two pm and started pushing but that baby wasn’t born until five twenty. i couldn’t believe the strength of this women and it was so amazing to see her and the baby both fine in the end. it was also nice that Nai, Bek and myself could be there to support her and encourage her. we could walk with her as she pushed (baby still very high up) and hold her in different positions so she didn’t get to sore or uncomfortable (as comfortable as one can be in labour). we earned her trust, especially Naomi who at one point was going to just go to check on something and the women didn’t want to let go of her arm. she was exhausted when all was said and done, but still managed a smile at the sight of her new baby boy!
our easter here was really nice! the night before we boiled and painted eggs as a team. we had to use permanent markers and nail polish as we had no paint! but they turned out beautifully! then sunday we had breakfast on the roof. some bangla food and also ‘french toast’ made with buns as we had no bread! but very tasty! we then read the story of the reason we celebrate easter, and acted it out as we went along. it was neat to ‘be a part of’ all that happened. we ended with singing an African song we remembered and then ‘Celebrate Jesus Celebrate’. we finished off our celebration with an egg hunt and a kit kat bar for each of us! it was a really fun day with the team. we even went on a house visit to see one of the nursing students families who lives near by. they fed us many sweets chatted with us as best as we could. her aunty actually speaks very good english and it was neat to chat with her about the beliefs of pregnant women in the villages. her job is to train TBA’s. (traditional birth attendants) mostly all women wear a black cord with a charm attached around their bellies, some very tight. this is to help protect the baby from being to big. they think if they tie this around their bellies the baby will grow upwards instead of out and it won’t be to big. there were other beliefs about certain foods that would harm the baby and that for twenty days after the baby is born the women is not allowed out of the house, i’m not sure why on that one but it is their belief.
so yes good day, good week! even a few cyclones which helped us have cool nights so sleeping isn’t too unbearable! next week i’m off to Karpasdanga once again for the last time, i’m looking forward to staying home after that but also looking forward to seeing Benuka again!
till next time...
week forty one - Karpasdanga
spending the week with Tiffany at Karpasdanga. new nursing students and the absent of Benuka made the week rather quiet, but still enjoyable. we did some ANC clinics seeing over fifty women. one clinic was an hour away and one i had gone to the first time i spent the week there. it was neat to see some of the same women and continue their care and not be strangers each time!
thursday was Bangla New Years, and we were awoken to drums beating nearby at five am. they continued on for the morning and after breakfast we were ushered over to the school next door to watch the celebration. all the children were dressed up beautifully and then we heard the drums. a large crew of teenage guys came dancing into the school yard, some covered completely in mud, banging on drums and shouting. then we saw a ‘couple’ under an umbrella. after getting a closer look Bek, who had come to visit for the night, said ‘oh my thats a boy!’ the ‘girl’ in the couple was dressed as a women. then i noticed that some of the girls had dressed as boys as well. i’m not sure why, i tried asking but with limited english no one could give me an answer apart from ‘celebration!’. the dancing crew left and went on to the hospital grounds then on to other homes in the village. the crowds slowly dissipated and we returned back to the hospital. we had lunch and then all three of us returned to Bollobhpur for the celebration.
some of the girls on my team got dressed up in their sari’s, (a wrap around dress) and we went to the field in front of the church nearby. they had a stage and music set up. me and Naomi stayed for an hour and when nothing happened we left. we heard after that the program consisted of a man talking for quite some time, then random people singing and then dancing. but the dancing was cut quite short because of a cyclone that hit suddenly. the cyclones here are quite fun! the wind all of sudden picks up and all the shudders and doors bang like crazy. everything has to be locked up. the thunder is so loud and lightening lights up the house. then the rains come and pound down for less than an hour and then everything returns to normal! the air is so cool after its really nice as we’re heading into their hot season. already i feel like i’m melting away. today i have taken a total of five ‘showers’ just to cool off.
me and Tiff returned to Karpasdanga friday morning via bicycles! yes our team are now owners of two very old fashion bikes including bells of course! it took us just over an hour to get there and apart from riding against the wind and feeling like i was sitting on a cement seat the ride was good.
because it was still a holiday (new years) there were no clinics, so we hung out with the nursing students who had fun playing dress up and filled our faces with lipstick, eye liner and mascara. they even gave us jewelry to wear and a bindy for our foreheads. (the circle stickers) me and Tiff ended up falling asleep on their bed and slept till it was time for lunch. in the late afternoon the girls took me to the river just behind the hospital and we hung out and talked and taught each other our languages. Tiff wasn’t feeling well so she stayed in bed. they asked if i wanted to cook so i made fried eggs and hash browns. Tiff and I were excited to get out of eating the evening rice. (they eat dinner around nine pm and rice is the staple food so lunch and dinner always consist of a large portion) With Tiff still unwell i began monitoring the one women in labour (only one the entire week). between checking in on Tiff and staying with the soon to be mom Tiff fell asleep and the women became very tired of being in labour. she like to stay on the floor and refused water or food. at one point she finally obliged and took a sip of water not knowing it was mixed with a glucose powder to give her energy and she spat it strait out! including all over my one foot! at ten fifty five she gave birth to a beautiful boy! it was a nice delivery but she did tear. i asked the girls if they would suture and they said ‘no you suture’ so i sutured. my first time all on my own. it went good, i was nervous but tried not to be! lots of prayer and my headlamp on she was sutured up. i even got a compliment from one of the students, which help reassure me i hadn’t destroyed the poor girl!
the next morning i had woken up but was still laying in bed and heard a knock on the door, when i didn’t answer a face appeared in the window, the new little boys grandma stood their holding the baby motioning me to come outside! a little taken aback but not completely surprised, i got dressed and went out to find them packed up ready to go. i was very grateful that they woke me up. they had also prepared breakfast for me and Tiff. the hospitality here is so genuine i’ve never experienced anything like it before. a roti and very good omelet filled me right up and it took a bit of persistence for them to take no for an answer that i was in fact not going to eat any more!
we had tea and packed up and got back on the bikes and made our way home to join the team. a better drive but by bottom being very very sore. i nearly hit a goat and a lady but made it safely with no injuries on me or others. the problem is the bikes are quite high and my feet don’t touch the ground so stopping and starting are somewhat challenging! also my very heavy backpack was strapped to the little ledge on the back of the seat which threw off my balance a little, but again God kept us and the rest of villagers safe!
i did ANC that morning, and then got to relax for the afternoon. sunday we had church and spent the afternoon cleaning and then me and Naomi went to the village market to buy some grocery’s and use the internet. my second time online. its not possible to use my computer there and its easier to write out these updates on my computer so sorry you had to wait so long to read them. sunday i really wanted to call home but couldn’t find anywhere to get enough credit for the phone so no call.
monday, day off. sleeping,shower, movie, shower, eat, shower, movie, shower, eat. and going and checking in at the hospital to see if they are any women labouring. there are none today. its almost seven pm now, power off. very hot. but feeling rested which is nice, ready to start another week here at Bollobhpur!
till next time...
thursday was Bangla New Years, and we were awoken to drums beating nearby at five am. they continued on for the morning and after breakfast we were ushered over to the school next door to watch the celebration. all the children were dressed up beautifully and then we heard the drums. a large crew of teenage guys came dancing into the school yard, some covered completely in mud, banging on drums and shouting. then we saw a ‘couple’ under an umbrella. after getting a closer look Bek, who had come to visit for the night, said ‘oh my thats a boy!’ the ‘girl’ in the couple was dressed as a women. then i noticed that some of the girls had dressed as boys as well. i’m not sure why, i tried asking but with limited english no one could give me an answer apart from ‘celebration!’. the dancing crew left and went on to the hospital grounds then on to other homes in the village. the crowds slowly dissipated and we returned back to the hospital. we had lunch and then all three of us returned to Bollobhpur for the celebration.
some of the girls on my team got dressed up in their sari’s, (a wrap around dress) and we went to the field in front of the church nearby. they had a stage and music set up. me and Naomi stayed for an hour and when nothing happened we left. we heard after that the program consisted of a man talking for quite some time, then random people singing and then dancing. but the dancing was cut quite short because of a cyclone that hit suddenly. the cyclones here are quite fun! the wind all of sudden picks up and all the shudders and doors bang like crazy. everything has to be locked up. the thunder is so loud and lightening lights up the house. then the rains come and pound down for less than an hour and then everything returns to normal! the air is so cool after its really nice as we’re heading into their hot season. already i feel like i’m melting away. today i have taken a total of five ‘showers’ just to cool off.
me and Tiff returned to Karpasdanga friday morning via bicycles! yes our team are now owners of two very old fashion bikes including bells of course! it took us just over an hour to get there and apart from riding against the wind and feeling like i was sitting on a cement seat the ride was good.
because it was still a holiday (new years) there were no clinics, so we hung out with the nursing students who had fun playing dress up and filled our faces with lipstick, eye liner and mascara. they even gave us jewelry to wear and a bindy for our foreheads. (the circle stickers) me and Tiff ended up falling asleep on their bed and slept till it was time for lunch. in the late afternoon the girls took me to the river just behind the hospital and we hung out and talked and taught each other our languages. Tiff wasn’t feeling well so she stayed in bed. they asked if i wanted to cook so i made fried eggs and hash browns. Tiff and I were excited to get out of eating the evening rice. (they eat dinner around nine pm and rice is the staple food so lunch and dinner always consist of a large portion) With Tiff still unwell i began monitoring the one women in labour (only one the entire week). between checking in on Tiff and staying with the soon to be mom Tiff fell asleep and the women became very tired of being in labour. she like to stay on the floor and refused water or food. at one point she finally obliged and took a sip of water not knowing it was mixed with a glucose powder to give her energy and she spat it strait out! including all over my one foot! at ten fifty five she gave birth to a beautiful boy! it was a nice delivery but she did tear. i asked the girls if they would suture and they said ‘no you suture’ so i sutured. my first time all on my own. it went good, i was nervous but tried not to be! lots of prayer and my headlamp on she was sutured up. i even got a compliment from one of the students, which help reassure me i hadn’t destroyed the poor girl!
the next morning i had woken up but was still laying in bed and heard a knock on the door, when i didn’t answer a face appeared in the window, the new little boys grandma stood their holding the baby motioning me to come outside! a little taken aback but not completely surprised, i got dressed and went out to find them packed up ready to go. i was very grateful that they woke me up. they had also prepared breakfast for me and Tiff. the hospitality here is so genuine i’ve never experienced anything like it before. a roti and very good omelet filled me right up and it took a bit of persistence for them to take no for an answer that i was in fact not going to eat any more!
we had tea and packed up and got back on the bikes and made our way home to join the team. a better drive but by bottom being very very sore. i nearly hit a goat and a lady but made it safely with no injuries on me or others. the problem is the bikes are quite high and my feet don’t touch the ground so stopping and starting are somewhat challenging! also my very heavy backpack was strapped to the little ledge on the back of the seat which threw off my balance a little, but again God kept us and the rest of villagers safe!
i did ANC that morning, and then got to relax for the afternoon. sunday we had church and spent the afternoon cleaning and then me and Naomi went to the village market to buy some grocery’s and use the internet. my second time online. its not possible to use my computer there and its easier to write out these updates on my computer so sorry you had to wait so long to read them. sunday i really wanted to call home but couldn’t find anywhere to get enough credit for the phone so no call.
monday, day off. sleeping,shower, movie, shower, eat, shower, movie, shower, eat. and going and checking in at the hospital to see if they are any women labouring. there are none today. its almost seven pm now, power off. very hot. but feeling rested which is nice, ready to start another week here at Bollobhpur!
till next time...
week forty - Bollobhpur
as we’re split up and are rotating each week this week i was at our ‘home base’ located at Bollobhpur hospital. the week went by pretty slow monday being our day off was spent literally doing nothing and just resting! so nice! then tuesday me and Liz had early shift which meant being at the hospital from 7am-1pm. we got their, listened to the night reading and then went to chapel with the girls which lasts only 20-30mins. things at the hospital we’re really slow this week.
spending most of our shifts crocheting hats, hanging out with the nursing students and new moms with their babies. the dedication that these girls have to their schooling is incredible. we learnt that they are not allowed to be in a relationship (dating), they are not allowed cell phones and they are also not allowed to cook for themselves but have to eat what is prepared when its prepared. it seems like a very strict program, and its four years long! i have given up only a year for the BAS and i can’t imagine not having the limitations that these girls have. but they do have lots of fun together and they are incredibly hospitable to us. although some can be quite cheeky and forward, but all in good fun! one girl tried to feed me an unripe mango by shoving it into my pursed lips. she pushed so hard that my lips were sore after. i did not want it. i told her ‘i do not like’ and she mocked me and laughed, i then told her ‘ i do not like...’ and i pushed my fingers into her lips just as hard as she had to me. i think she got the hint because then she gave me the ‘thumbs up’ which here is equivalent to the middle finger back home! her and the girls around her laughed as i made a ‘shocked’ face. i started laughing with them... whatcha gonna do? they are slowly understanding us a little more and we are them. they tend to come over a lot and at any time. they stand at our open door and yell ‘i come in?’ and then proceed to walk right in! the other day i was awoken from a nap with a girl knocking on my bedroom door i peered out to see her grandmother, mother, aunty and nephew just chilling in our living room! its quite comical but can also become annoying if you let it get to ya.
as for hospital work... there wasn’t much to do. me and liz did two mornings at an antenatal clinic and checked over seventy women in total. it wasn’t till saturday that four women were in labour! i decided to continue monitoring ‘my mom’ into the night doing hourly check ups and hanging out with her through her contractions. at midnight i had to go home and eat something to stay awake then went back, Celia gave me her cell number and told me to call when she started pushing, Bek did too. around one thirty am and lots of walking laps around the hospital (small building) the nurse looked at me and said ‘okay’ i assumed she meant ‘fully dilated and ready to push’ she did. i called Celia, who tried to wake up Bek but failed. so Celia came and helped me out. it was a good delivery, the mom did amazing, baby cried right away! beautiful little boy again! and 3.1kg! usually the bangla babies are around 2.5kg so he was quite a chunker to their standards! born at 2:05am! got to bed around 3:30am and took awhile to fall asleep as you usually are on a little of an adrenaline rush after a delivery!
the other not so exciting news of the week, there is a rat in our bathroom... its started around wednesday when me and liz gave our house a deep clean, we noticed a few droppings on the floor. then friday we had droppings in the sink with chew and claw marks on the soap... by sunday a small handful of droppings sat in the sink with more soap scrapes and also claw marks on the wall where he attempts to get home. i’m hoping we can get some poison, those of you who know me know how terrified i am of those critters. luckily we have two bathrooms and i know use the other. we also have many large spiders but i’m not too worried about those! we also have a birds nest in the wall of our room, their are these vents all over the house and the birds have chosen the one in our room to build a nest! not a fan of being woken up to the chitter chatter of them so we attempted to get rid of the nest... failed. so we jammed sticks into the holes...failed. so we tried sound blocking by shoving toilet paper into the holes to try and diminish the sound... sorta worked!
one more story about animals... the monkeys. terrifying!!! the other day we wanted to go to the hospital to check on the mom’s we delivered the day before and when we walked outside the monkeys were guarding the wall around the gate out. we walked slowly and carefully but once we got near they hissed at us and barred their teeth, which sent us running back. i picked up a rock thinking i could scare them off. no such luck. we waited until something must have scared them off and they took off running. i was first one to check it out and got through the gate only to find the tree nearby held a dozen monkeys all chattering at me! the girls all made it through the gate and we ran for it making it safely away without being attacked! monkey’s are not nice creatures, we’ve seen them get mean and heard stories of attacks! hence the caution we took!
its funny sometimes i feel like i’m living in the olden days, cooking over the fire and having to pump water outside to have a cold bucket shower! (when the power goes off it doesn’t take long before the water stops inside the house) when me and liz decided to clean the house we washed floors with a bucket and rags. deciding to make it more fun we put the rags on our feet and skated around wiping the floor as we went. some of the nursing students dropped by and stared at for a food few minuets before leaving. i’m sure they think we’re strange for the things we do and how we dress around our house wearing shorts and tank tops! so scandalous! (when we go out we have to wear shawl kameez (long shirt, baggy pants and a scarf))
we also have a night time guard named Beboo... he’s a funny man who doesn’t speak a word of english and thinks we understand his bangla perfectly... we nod and say our ‘hei’ and ‘nei’s’ at appropriate times and he laughs and its all good! he basically says the same thing each night wanting to make sure our door is locked and the outside light on. he loves Bed and often brings her a handful of nuts. probably cuz she’s the one who talks to him the most! but he hands her the nuts through the fence around our outside hallway and makes us feel somewhat like a caged monkey in the zoo!
i’ve been making friends and having a lot of fun! craving cheese, something i haven’t had in a while! the girls found kit kat bars at the big market and that was my first chocolate in three weeks! (record for me!) doing well and looking forward to head to Karpasdanga again next week. although its my first week not with Naomi! thanks for your prayers!
till next time...
spending most of our shifts crocheting hats, hanging out with the nursing students and new moms with their babies. the dedication that these girls have to their schooling is incredible. we learnt that they are not allowed to be in a relationship (dating), they are not allowed cell phones and they are also not allowed to cook for themselves but have to eat what is prepared when its prepared. it seems like a very strict program, and its four years long! i have given up only a year for the BAS and i can’t imagine not having the limitations that these girls have. but they do have lots of fun together and they are incredibly hospitable to us. although some can be quite cheeky and forward, but all in good fun! one girl tried to feed me an unripe mango by shoving it into my pursed lips. she pushed so hard that my lips were sore after. i did not want it. i told her ‘i do not like’ and she mocked me and laughed, i then told her ‘ i do not like...’ and i pushed my fingers into her lips just as hard as she had to me. i think she got the hint because then she gave me the ‘thumbs up’ which here is equivalent to the middle finger back home! her and the girls around her laughed as i made a ‘shocked’ face. i started laughing with them... whatcha gonna do? they are slowly understanding us a little more and we are them. they tend to come over a lot and at any time. they stand at our open door and yell ‘i come in?’ and then proceed to walk right in! the other day i was awoken from a nap with a girl knocking on my bedroom door i peered out to see her grandmother, mother, aunty and nephew just chilling in our living room! its quite comical but can also become annoying if you let it get to ya.
as for hospital work... there wasn’t much to do. me and liz did two mornings at an antenatal clinic and checked over seventy women in total. it wasn’t till saturday that four women were in labour! i decided to continue monitoring ‘my mom’ into the night doing hourly check ups and hanging out with her through her contractions. at midnight i had to go home and eat something to stay awake then went back, Celia gave me her cell number and told me to call when she started pushing, Bek did too. around one thirty am and lots of walking laps around the hospital (small building) the nurse looked at me and said ‘okay’ i assumed she meant ‘fully dilated and ready to push’ she did. i called Celia, who tried to wake up Bek but failed. so Celia came and helped me out. it was a good delivery, the mom did amazing, baby cried right away! beautiful little boy again! and 3.1kg! usually the bangla babies are around 2.5kg so he was quite a chunker to their standards! born at 2:05am! got to bed around 3:30am and took awhile to fall asleep as you usually are on a little of an adrenaline rush after a delivery!
the other not so exciting news of the week, there is a rat in our bathroom... its started around wednesday when me and liz gave our house a deep clean, we noticed a few droppings on the floor. then friday we had droppings in the sink with chew and claw marks on the soap... by sunday a small handful of droppings sat in the sink with more soap scrapes and also claw marks on the wall where he attempts to get home. i’m hoping we can get some poison, those of you who know me know how terrified i am of those critters. luckily we have two bathrooms and i know use the other. we also have many large spiders but i’m not too worried about those! we also have a birds nest in the wall of our room, their are these vents all over the house and the birds have chosen the one in our room to build a nest! not a fan of being woken up to the chitter chatter of them so we attempted to get rid of the nest... failed. so we jammed sticks into the holes...failed. so we tried sound blocking by shoving toilet paper into the holes to try and diminish the sound... sorta worked!
one more story about animals... the monkeys. terrifying!!! the other day we wanted to go to the hospital to check on the mom’s we delivered the day before and when we walked outside the monkeys were guarding the wall around the gate out. we walked slowly and carefully but once we got near they hissed at us and barred their teeth, which sent us running back. i picked up a rock thinking i could scare them off. no such luck. we waited until something must have scared them off and they took off running. i was first one to check it out and got through the gate only to find the tree nearby held a dozen monkeys all chattering at me! the girls all made it through the gate and we ran for it making it safely away without being attacked! monkey’s are not nice creatures, we’ve seen them get mean and heard stories of attacks! hence the caution we took!
its funny sometimes i feel like i’m living in the olden days, cooking over the fire and having to pump water outside to have a cold bucket shower! (when the power goes off it doesn’t take long before the water stops inside the house) when me and liz decided to clean the house we washed floors with a bucket and rags. deciding to make it more fun we put the rags on our feet and skated around wiping the floor as we went. some of the nursing students dropped by and stared at for a food few minuets before leaving. i’m sure they think we’re strange for the things we do and how we dress around our house wearing shorts and tank tops! so scandalous! (when we go out we have to wear shawl kameez (long shirt, baggy pants and a scarf))
we also have a night time guard named Beboo... he’s a funny man who doesn’t speak a word of english and thinks we understand his bangla perfectly... we nod and say our ‘hei’ and ‘nei’s’ at appropriate times and he laughs and its all good! he basically says the same thing each night wanting to make sure our door is locked and the outside light on. he loves Bed and often brings her a handful of nuts. probably cuz she’s the one who talks to him the most! but he hands her the nuts through the fence around our outside hallway and makes us feel somewhat like a caged monkey in the zoo!
i’ve been making friends and having a lot of fun! craving cheese, something i haven’t had in a while! the girls found kit kat bars at the big market and that was my first chocolate in three weeks! (record for me!) doing well and looking forward to head to Karpasdanga again next week. although its my first week not with Naomi! thanks for your prayers!
till next time...
week thirty nine - Karpasdanga
week thirty nine
Karpasdanga
first full week of strait on bangla! me and Naomi left on saturday to where we thought we were going to a certain village but once on the ‘van’ (bike with platform attached where we sit) we were told something entirely different. so we do what all good ywamer’s do and went along for the ride!
we got there and were immediately welcomed and given a tour and fed. it was a small clinic with the house of the couple who run/own it on the same property. Benuka and her husband Kilion. Benuka was trained with the british lady who has been living here in Bangladesh for over sixty years training young women to become midwives/nurses. she now has her own clinic where the nursing students come to get more training and practice. the stories i could tell would go on and on and i’m afraid would get a bit too much to read. overall we had a really good week. Benuka is an amazing women who with her little english is very humorous. she laughs constantly and loved us so much she offered us a job! we had a lot of fun with the nursing student hanging out during the storms and playing games in the dark cause electricity was out.
in the mornings Kilion would take us out to a village to do antenatal visits. usually seeing anywhere between four and ten women. it was really fun to do our own antenatal care even if it was a bit difficult with the language barrier. one day on the way back we got caught in a huge storm. the wind picked up and rain pelted us and our driver (bike, pedal bike) couldn’t pedal anymore so we got off and tried to walk. we ended up hoping into a trailer of a tractor who brought us to the nearest road side stand where we stood with many others trying to get out of the rain. we were drenched when we finally made it back to the clinic and the nursing students came to help us dry off. one problem though we had put our clothes in a bucket of water for washing before we left and didn’t have time to fully wash them. so with only two sets of clothes, one in the bucket, one soaked on our backs we tried to explain to them we had no dry clothes. they got the hint and one girl went off and came back with dry clothes and blankets and the other girl started doing our washing for us! we were very well taken care of.
they are a very hospitable culture, always serving you. they didn’t let us do our dishes or even pour our own tea. a few times they let us cook and thought it very strange when we didn’t put any spices on our potatoes. they washed our floor for us and made sure we didn’t drink any unfiltered water. we did a few home visits and they always provided us with food and tea of course. we learnt that suicide is very prevalent here. one women we worked with in the clinic told us her daughter hung herself two years ago when she was only fourteen years old. we prayed with her and cried with her, it seemed so very real still to her. we have also seen it here in the hospital where we are living at (our home base) people being brought in because they have drunken chemicals trying to end their lives. one died just yesterday. with her family wailing outside the hospital, just to hear their cries is enough to make you cry. its weird to think in one room a life is ending and just next door a new one begins.
i got the chance to do two deliveries this week. one at the little clinic (on my mom’s birthday!) and one this past saturday (yesterday) in the hospital. both little boys, first born to their moms! its a very different system here. they conduct deliveries differently. their are many hands involved and many people watching. their a bit more stressed and tend to overreact in many situations. we’re getting used to it and their getting used to us so it is getting better. my first delivery was stressful just with how many people were involved but this last one was much better. communication is key!
it is nice though that family is very much involved in the laboring process. mothers, mother in-law's, sisters, aunty’s and even the husband and grandparents come and offer support and all want to see the baby when their born. the men usually come, look at the baby, nod their head in approval and walk off. the women are much more involved and are rubbing the mothers back, offering her food and water and anything else she needs. they tend to never leave her side apart form the delivery room where there not allowed in. the mothers especially stay with their daughter as she labour’s and cares for the newborn for up to a seven day stay in the hospital, even sleeping over with her. its really nice to see such support from the family.
today we went as a team to the India border. theres a monument of how Bangladesh got its independence. you can walk around and there is also a field of mango tree’s, there not in season yet but soon. there is a fence just beyond the monument and on the other side lays India! kinda neat to see how close we are!
next week i go with Jen back to Karpasdanga but for a shorter amount of time. i look forward to seeing familiar faces again!
till next time...
Karpasdanga
first full week of strait on bangla! me and Naomi left on saturday to where we thought we were going to a certain village but once on the ‘van’ (bike with platform attached where we sit) we were told something entirely different. so we do what all good ywamer’s do and went along for the ride!
we got there and were immediately welcomed and given a tour and fed. it was a small clinic with the house of the couple who run/own it on the same property. Benuka and her husband Kilion. Benuka was trained with the british lady who has been living here in Bangladesh for over sixty years training young women to become midwives/nurses. she now has her own clinic where the nursing students come to get more training and practice. the stories i could tell would go on and on and i’m afraid would get a bit too much to read. overall we had a really good week. Benuka is an amazing women who with her little english is very humorous. she laughs constantly and loved us so much she offered us a job! we had a lot of fun with the nursing student hanging out during the storms and playing games in the dark cause electricity was out.
in the mornings Kilion would take us out to a village to do antenatal visits. usually seeing anywhere between four and ten women. it was really fun to do our own antenatal care even if it was a bit difficult with the language barrier. one day on the way back we got caught in a huge storm. the wind picked up and rain pelted us and our driver (bike, pedal bike) couldn’t pedal anymore so we got off and tried to walk. we ended up hoping into a trailer of a tractor who brought us to the nearest road side stand where we stood with many others trying to get out of the rain. we were drenched when we finally made it back to the clinic and the nursing students came to help us dry off. one problem though we had put our clothes in a bucket of water for washing before we left and didn’t have time to fully wash them. so with only two sets of clothes, one in the bucket, one soaked on our backs we tried to explain to them we had no dry clothes. they got the hint and one girl went off and came back with dry clothes and blankets and the other girl started doing our washing for us! we were very well taken care of.
they are a very hospitable culture, always serving you. they didn’t let us do our dishes or even pour our own tea. a few times they let us cook and thought it very strange when we didn’t put any spices on our potatoes. they washed our floor for us and made sure we didn’t drink any unfiltered water. we did a few home visits and they always provided us with food and tea of course. we learnt that suicide is very prevalent here. one women we worked with in the clinic told us her daughter hung herself two years ago when she was only fourteen years old. we prayed with her and cried with her, it seemed so very real still to her. we have also seen it here in the hospital where we are living at (our home base) people being brought in because they have drunken chemicals trying to end their lives. one died just yesterday. with her family wailing outside the hospital, just to hear their cries is enough to make you cry. its weird to think in one room a life is ending and just next door a new one begins.
i got the chance to do two deliveries this week. one at the little clinic (on my mom’s birthday!) and one this past saturday (yesterday) in the hospital. both little boys, first born to their moms! its a very different system here. they conduct deliveries differently. their are many hands involved and many people watching. their a bit more stressed and tend to overreact in many situations. we’re getting used to it and their getting used to us so it is getting better. my first delivery was stressful just with how many people were involved but this last one was much better. communication is key!
it is nice though that family is very much involved in the laboring process. mothers, mother in-law's, sisters, aunty’s and even the husband and grandparents come and offer support and all want to see the baby when their born. the men usually come, look at the baby, nod their head in approval and walk off. the women are much more involved and are rubbing the mothers back, offering her food and water and anything else she needs. they tend to never leave her side apart form the delivery room where there not allowed in. the mothers especially stay with their daughter as she labour’s and cares for the newborn for up to a seven day stay in the hospital, even sleeping over with her. its really nice to see such support from the family.
today we went as a team to the India border. theres a monument of how Bangladesh got its independence. you can walk around and there is also a field of mango tree’s, there not in season yet but soon. there is a fence just beyond the monument and on the other side lays India! kinda neat to see how close we are!
next week i go with Jen back to Karpasdanga but for a shorter amount of time. i look forward to seeing familiar faces again!
till next time...
week thirty eight - Bangladesh
okay so we’ve made it, all seven of us. we left Tanzania on sunday around five thirty in the evening and arrived in Bangladesh on monday at eight in the morning. We were met at the airport by an american women who lives here with her husband and we stayed with her for the first few nights. It was a nice smooth entry into a new country. things are similar to Tanzania but the culture is very different. the people are so welcoming and so smiley and instead of shouting out at us they rather flock and stare and giggle with us. we had a bit of an orientation and went shopping to purchase our salw kameez. (the outfits we have to wear here. a long shirt to the knee’s, baggy pants and a scarf) it was fun to go out and shop for “new clothes” but a little overwhelming at the same time!
we also had dinner at one of our girls uncle’s who lives here and it was really refreshing to chat with her family and the friends they invited over.
we left on wednesday for what was supposed to be a six hour ride was actually nine. with honking the ENTIRE way. seems they need to warn people and fellow cars that ‘they are coming so you better move’. our tire also blew but our driver was very quick to fix it and during this minor ‘pit stop’ we met some lovely ladies who were collecting cow poop and drying it in small balls on the concrete slab on the side of the road. very interesting. they seemed pleased to meet us and thought it funny when one of us got scared after talking to the cow and having it moo in our face. we were back on the road and after a long drive and it becoming dark on us we arrived.
where you might ask did we arrive? well we are in the middle of no where... its a small community with a hospital (very small) and a nurses school. there are many nursing students, all of which are VERY excited we are here. they keep stopping by our house i think to see if we’re still here! on friday we were preparing dinner and a small mob of them walked in and all of sudden they had taken over my rolling of chapatis and continuing to laugh at our ‘circle’ chapatis! (they weren’t as round as i suppose they thought they should be? and they kept trying to cut them into rectangles!) we then preceded to have a ‘dance party’ and they actually joined it! quite entertaining!
living in the middle of no where is also a little difficult in finding food. we’re in survival mode here! cooking over a small fire and trying to find veggies to cook has been more difficult then i think we imagined. with no paper or kindling to start the fire and limited matches it makes for a difficult time especially when your tummy’s are grumbling. (i know i made fires all my life but this is no ordinary fire place) so far we’ve eaten a lot of boiled eggs and bread. we found some cucumbers which was nice and the village has apples and oranges! we had quite the difficulty shopping and finding things so we embraced the help of the bangla women and gave them our shopping list and they were able to find some of the items we need!
there are not enough spoons, cups or beds for all of us, so we share spoons or eat with our hands, drink out of our bottles that we’ve filtered our water in and sleep three in one double bed and one on the couch! its an adventure for sure. there are even monkey’s that come to hang out on the wall just outside the house we live in. the other day we counted fourteen monkey’s, including three babies!
electricity is an on and off again game... more off than on but the nice thing is there is solar power so some of the rooms still have lights that work even when the power is out. its mainly the fans that don’t work, which is sad because then its really hot especially in the three person bed! we have running water! praise the Lord!!! which we filter to drink but its fine to wash dishes, clothes and ourselves in. its quite hot and apparently going to get even hotter. theres a well pump outside our house that we often dunk our heads under and them pump it to make the water come! its funny because people at home put these pumps up for decoration in their front yards, here its a reality. the bed is all but a wooden table with a small ‘mattress’. its difficult to lay on your side for a long period of time because your hips will be extremely sore. mosquito's are pretty bad at night but not too bad during the day and we have nets to sleep under so they don’t get to ya in your bed.
we’ve had a bit of a difficult time getting information from our contact here, a british women in her eighties that has been here for sixty years, but friday we were finally able to figure things out! (today is friday as i write this!) and so tomorrow me and naomi head off to another village hospital to stay for the week. the rest of our team will stay here and work in the hospital and two will leave on tuesday for a third village to work in that hospital. we’re not sure what to expect. this area has not had any foreigners since the last BAS that came nearly ten years ago! we’ve been invited and are expected at these other hospitals and hopefully they will give us the experience that we still crave to have in midwifery!
its an adventure for sure, and i find it interesting that after my dts outreach i thought i’d never want to be in this kind of place again, but somehow i’m finding a strength i didn’t know i had and a joy to be here that can only come from God. through sweat, mosquito bites and trying to find my way through a foreign language i will get through this, i know God has brought our team here, and he has some kind of plan for us!
till next time...
we also had dinner at one of our girls uncle’s who lives here and it was really refreshing to chat with her family and the friends they invited over.
we left on wednesday for what was supposed to be a six hour ride was actually nine. with honking the ENTIRE way. seems they need to warn people and fellow cars that ‘they are coming so you better move’. our tire also blew but our driver was very quick to fix it and during this minor ‘pit stop’ we met some lovely ladies who were collecting cow poop and drying it in small balls on the concrete slab on the side of the road. very interesting. they seemed pleased to meet us and thought it funny when one of us got scared after talking to the cow and having it moo in our face. we were back on the road and after a long drive and it becoming dark on us we arrived.
where you might ask did we arrive? well we are in the middle of no where... its a small community with a hospital (very small) and a nurses school. there are many nursing students, all of which are VERY excited we are here. they keep stopping by our house i think to see if we’re still here! on friday we were preparing dinner and a small mob of them walked in and all of sudden they had taken over my rolling of chapatis and continuing to laugh at our ‘circle’ chapatis! (they weren’t as round as i suppose they thought they should be? and they kept trying to cut them into rectangles!) we then preceded to have a ‘dance party’ and they actually joined it! quite entertaining!
living in the middle of no where is also a little difficult in finding food. we’re in survival mode here! cooking over a small fire and trying to find veggies to cook has been more difficult then i think we imagined. with no paper or kindling to start the fire and limited matches it makes for a difficult time especially when your tummy’s are grumbling. (i know i made fires all my life but this is no ordinary fire place) so far we’ve eaten a lot of boiled eggs and bread. we found some cucumbers which was nice and the village has apples and oranges! we had quite the difficulty shopping and finding things so we embraced the help of the bangla women and gave them our shopping list and they were able to find some of the items we need!
there are not enough spoons, cups or beds for all of us, so we share spoons or eat with our hands, drink out of our bottles that we’ve filtered our water in and sleep three in one double bed and one on the couch! its an adventure for sure. there are even monkey’s that come to hang out on the wall just outside the house we live in. the other day we counted fourteen monkey’s, including three babies!
electricity is an on and off again game... more off than on but the nice thing is there is solar power so some of the rooms still have lights that work even when the power is out. its mainly the fans that don’t work, which is sad because then its really hot especially in the three person bed! we have running water! praise the Lord!!! which we filter to drink but its fine to wash dishes, clothes and ourselves in. its quite hot and apparently going to get even hotter. theres a well pump outside our house that we often dunk our heads under and them pump it to make the water come! its funny because people at home put these pumps up for decoration in their front yards, here its a reality. the bed is all but a wooden table with a small ‘mattress’. its difficult to lay on your side for a long period of time because your hips will be extremely sore. mosquito's are pretty bad at night but not too bad during the day and we have nets to sleep under so they don’t get to ya in your bed.
we’ve had a bit of a difficult time getting information from our contact here, a british women in her eighties that has been here for sixty years, but friday we were finally able to figure things out! (today is friday as i write this!) and so tomorrow me and naomi head off to another village hospital to stay for the week. the rest of our team will stay here and work in the hospital and two will leave on tuesday for a third village to work in that hospital. we’re not sure what to expect. this area has not had any foreigners since the last BAS that came nearly ten years ago! we’ve been invited and are expected at these other hospitals and hopefully they will give us the experience that we still crave to have in midwifery!
its an adventure for sure, and i find it interesting that after my dts outreach i thought i’d never want to be in this kind of place again, but somehow i’m finding a strength i didn’t know i had and a joy to be here that can only come from God. through sweat, mosquito bites and trying to find my way through a foreign language i will get through this, i know God has brought our team here, and he has some kind of plan for us!
till next time...
Saturday, March 19, 2011
week thirty seven- debrief/zanzibar
monday we said farewell to the hospital and its staff. it was a bit emotional and some of the staff even cried... which is very huge because Africans do not show their emotions very well. then tuesday we had debriefing things as we do as a team and individually and wednesday morning we left for Zanzibar! its an island off the coast of Tanzania which we took a two hour ferry to get there. the ride was a little grueling as i am very prone to motion sickness so after the first hour i went outside the lovely air conditioned room where our seats were and sat on the deck with one of my staff. and sitting there i saw in the distance fins... then they were jumping! yes dolphins!!! i was so very excited!!! i stood up and watched as our boat drove right over them as they played beneath the clear blue water! it was so amazing, i have never seen them in the wild and have always wanted to!
we got to our ‘hotel’ and we’re very pleased to find we had a/c in most rooms! (mine does!) we’re staying right in the city so its loud but its also in walking distance to many restaurants and shops. Stone Town is what they call it here, its kinda like a southern france//italy feel. the windey streets made of stone and Arabic style buildings and doorways make it feel very quaint. other areas are still very african!
they have a night market where there are different street vendors selling different things, one thing being ‘Zanzibar Pizza’ its kinda like a calazone with ingredients inside and fried over a fire. i of course got a nutella/banana one! delicious! we also met these guys who told us a few things to do while we’re here. one of them has his own driving company so the next day a few of us went to this beautiful little resort, very quiet in the jungle that had a pool basically right on the beach. we pay around four dollars (CDN) to stay the entire day! it was a really nice day just to sit, swim, and hangout with one another before we split to different countries.
the next day (for those of you who know my ‘goals in life’ list) was one to check off that list! we got up really early and headed out to the coast on the other side of the island where we got to swim with the dolphins! we got out in a small boat and when we spotted one nearby we’d all jump out and ‘try’ not to scare them off! i was actually really scared at first cuz, well their big, and their animals. but it was really fun. while i was watching a mom and her little baby under me two came up right beside me! it startled me at first but then i just stared at them! just like the movies! haha! it was really fun!
napped the rest of the day and walked around ‘stone town’ had lunch and then decided to go for a sunset swim! it was short lived but still nice to go for one last dip in the ocean before i leave. we had dinner as a team which was nice apart from the three hour wait for our food. but still i enjoyed it!
we left saturday on the early ferry and i slept most of the way home and then me and naomi did some last minute arrends in the city and now we’ve just been packing and trying to get things together to leave tomorrow (sunday)!
i’m excited but nervous, part of me is just done with outreach but the other part still wants to keep going and deliver more babies, learn more and just keep trucking along!
thanks for your prayers as i head into this last leg of the race! i also don’t know what internet will be like, so i may or may not be able to update.
till next time...
we got to our ‘hotel’ and we’re very pleased to find we had a/c in most rooms! (mine does!) we’re staying right in the city so its loud but its also in walking distance to many restaurants and shops. Stone Town is what they call it here, its kinda like a southern france//italy feel. the windey streets made of stone and Arabic style buildings and doorways make it feel very quaint. other areas are still very african!
they have a night market where there are different street vendors selling different things, one thing being ‘Zanzibar Pizza’ its kinda like a calazone with ingredients inside and fried over a fire. i of course got a nutella/banana one! delicious! we also met these guys who told us a few things to do while we’re here. one of them has his own driving company so the next day a few of us went to this beautiful little resort, very quiet in the jungle that had a pool basically right on the beach. we pay around four dollars (CDN) to stay the entire day! it was a really nice day just to sit, swim, and hangout with one another before we split to different countries.
the next day (for those of you who know my ‘goals in life’ list) was one to check off that list! we got up really early and headed out to the coast on the other side of the island where we got to swim with the dolphins! we got out in a small boat and when we spotted one nearby we’d all jump out and ‘try’ not to scare them off! i was actually really scared at first cuz, well their big, and their animals. but it was really fun. while i was watching a mom and her little baby under me two came up right beside me! it startled me at first but then i just stared at them! just like the movies! haha! it was really fun!
napped the rest of the day and walked around ‘stone town’ had lunch and then decided to go for a sunset swim! it was short lived but still nice to go for one last dip in the ocean before i leave. we had dinner as a team which was nice apart from the three hour wait for our food. but still i enjoyed it!
we left saturday on the early ferry and i slept most of the way home and then me and naomi did some last minute arrends in the city and now we’ve just been packing and trying to get things together to leave tomorrow (sunday)!
i’m excited but nervous, part of me is just done with outreach but the other part still wants to keep going and deliver more babies, learn more and just keep trucking along!
thanks for your prayers as i head into this last leg of the race! i also don’t know what internet will be like, so i may or may not be able to update.
till next time...
week thirty six icu/clinic/home
this week was generally pretty chill for our group. only three of us, on tuesday only two of us went to icu. the morning was really good, got to look into some cases. we went for lunch and halfway through we’re asked to go to theatre to catch the baby of a women going in for cesarian because she had a ruptured uterus. so us two along with our staff went. we took the baby and began resuscitation. bag and mask for quite sometime. she was born full of meconium and even had to suction out her lungs. but even though she was born with a small heartbeat, she never took a breathe and eventually the heartbeat stopped. we wrapped her up and carried her back with us to icu as her mom would be there eventually for recovery after cesarian. it was the second time that i’ve ever experienced death first hand, and the first time i have carried the baby. i’m usually too nervous to touch them but i really felt like i should be the one to carry her and so i did.
its something that i’ve had a difficult time understanding of how we can put so much work and prayer into a little life and to see them die still is so discouraging. but God gave me a picture of all the children in heaven who never took their first breathe and told me, they get far more love there then they ever could on earth. that although their parents would love them deeply, no one could love them more then their heavenly father. it doesn’t take the sorrow away, but it is reassuring that i know she is with her father and he is loving her more then anyone.
after that the week really seemed to be very slow. wednesday i wasn’t feeling well so i stayed home and worked on homework and rested. thursday i went back to the clinic near where we used to live, and went on a house visit with Celia (student from our team) to a mom she had met back in december who ended up having a cesarian because her baby had a ‘big head’. after meeting her little girl, we both thought that something was not right mentally. they were getting normal checkups at a different hospital so hopefully they will get good care for her.
friday we had nothing scheduled for the three of us who were not in the hospital so we went to a shopping centre and got pictures developed, had a coffee and bought some things to make a nice lunch for ourselves! it was a relaxing day, ended up working on our journals for the afternoon while watching a movie. days like that are needed every so often!
after hearing stories from the hospital group it sounded like a crazy week! one baby was born with her intestines outside her body. you could see them in the umbilical cord just outside her tummy. apparently she will be transferred and it can be fixed, so that is good! there was also a delivery in a (can’t remember the african term) but in Thailand they are called ‘tuk tuk’s’ a motorbike with a sheltered seat behind. one our staff just barely got there in time to catch the body! never a dull moment in the hospital!
the weekend was very nice, went out to a tourist area and did some shopping and even found a sushi restaurant! it was a really good day. sunday we had church and said goodbye to one team member who’s going home for a week, but will go to India so i will not see her till we meet in Australia again. we also had a few of the hospital staff over for dinner. it was really nice to see them outside their work environment.
this week is a mish mash once again as we leave next sunday!!!!!! we spend some time here then are going as a team to Zanzibar!! i am very excited, i’ve heard great things about that island! crazy that this time next week i will be at the airport! eek!!!
till next time...
its something that i’ve had a difficult time understanding of how we can put so much work and prayer into a little life and to see them die still is so discouraging. but God gave me a picture of all the children in heaven who never took their first breathe and told me, they get far more love there then they ever could on earth. that although their parents would love them deeply, no one could love them more then their heavenly father. it doesn’t take the sorrow away, but it is reassuring that i know she is with her father and he is loving her more then anyone.
after that the week really seemed to be very slow. wednesday i wasn’t feeling well so i stayed home and worked on homework and rested. thursday i went back to the clinic near where we used to live, and went on a house visit with Celia (student from our team) to a mom she had met back in december who ended up having a cesarian because her baby had a ‘big head’. after meeting her little girl, we both thought that something was not right mentally. they were getting normal checkups at a different hospital so hopefully they will get good care for her.
friday we had nothing scheduled for the three of us who were not in the hospital so we went to a shopping centre and got pictures developed, had a coffee and bought some things to make a nice lunch for ourselves! it was a relaxing day, ended up working on our journals for the afternoon while watching a movie. days like that are needed every so often!
after hearing stories from the hospital group it sounded like a crazy week! one baby was born with her intestines outside her body. you could see them in the umbilical cord just outside her tummy. apparently she will be transferred and it can be fixed, so that is good! there was also a delivery in a (can’t remember the african term) but in Thailand they are called ‘tuk tuk’s’ a motorbike with a sheltered seat behind. one our staff just barely got there in time to catch the body! never a dull moment in the hospital!
the weekend was very nice, went out to a tourist area and did some shopping and even found a sushi restaurant! it was a really good day. sunday we had church and said goodbye to one team member who’s going home for a week, but will go to India so i will not see her till we meet in Australia again. we also had a few of the hospital staff over for dinner. it was really nice to see them outside their work environment.
this week is a mish mash once again as we leave next sunday!!!!!! we spend some time here then are going as a team to Zanzibar!! i am very excited, i’ve heard great things about that island! crazy that this time next week i will be at the airport! eek!!!
till next time...
Monday, March 7, 2011
week thirty five-prayers answered!
this week was a little different looking because part of our group had gone to Kenya for the Bangladesh visa’s, and another part went to Zanzibar to do some teaching to some traditional birth attendants and the rest of us (7 students) stayed here. i was one of the few that remained here. at first i was not too happy about this and there is still some confusion in my mind but after the week i had, it was a good one.
it was nice to be a smaller group, we even got to go for dinner one to a place that is kinda like a food court and they have pizza! of course i was excited for pizza! (they have ‘milkshakes’ too but there more like soupy ice cream!) and because we were in a smaller number i was able to go to the labour room twice.
its funny because i have been prayer for certain experiences that i’ve wanted for quite some time now, and this week they all happened. (apart from one that couldn’t happen at the hospital) tuesday the labour room was overflowing once again and women were on the floor, and i got to do a delivery on the floor! a baby boy! it was so quick and i was quite sore after ward from squatting and leaning over but very worth it! the mom was quite excited as well, she tried to pay me, (they sometimes do that) but we always say no, it was our pleasure to help. wednesday i was in ANC and i walk in after transferring a women to the labour room and i see all the women clearing a bed with one women left, legs apart. i go over and the head is crowning. i managed to get one good (sterile) glove on and i was wearing one on the other hand (usually we double glove) but it wasn’t sterile and i didn’t have time so in between calling the hospital staff over the head came out, cord was around the neck, so i slipped it over the first shoulder, then the second and another beautiful little boy was born! i was saying ‘karibu sana’ which means ‘your very welcome’ as in i was welcoming him into the world and the nurse that finally did come over to assist me was laughing saying that the other women were laughing at me welcoming him! while i was still dealing with third stage of labour, a women on the ground began crowning. i called for that same nurse who had helped me and told her that this women was delivering, well the head came with no one there and she got there in time to catch the body! it was quite fast and busy, another labouring women had to help me get certain supplies from the women's bag! and then friday i was in the labour ward and went over to anc to bring a card for a women, while being there one of the students had a women she was transferring to labour ward who had twins!!! yes twins! i have always loved twins, (most of you know that from my mary-kate and ashley days! haha!) i was so excited!! i brought her in and got her set up on a bed and before i could check her vitals she was asking to push, my staff came over to assist and we noticed the first twin was breech. so i got to help guide her out, and it was the easiest breech i’ve ever seen, then only four minutes later her brother was born! a little girl and a little boy, both 2.2kg (4.9 pounds). i’m not sure if the mom knew she was having twins when she came in to the hospital that morning, i’m thinking they told her in anc, but sometimes, more often than not, women are very surprised when they have to give birth to two babies! both were doing well, the little boy hadn’t had a good cry but other than that they were both really good!
so thats the four things i’ve been praying for, on the floor, in anc, breech and twins! i was on top of the world friday afternoon!
another fun story from the week was on tuesday i was leaving the labour ward to go for lunch and i see my staff holding a baby at the end of the hallway (which is ‘outside’ with only a covering over incase of rain) and then i see a cab and she tells me that this baby was born in the cab and one of the doctors is delivering the second twin in the cab right now. i can see the security guard (a women) and what i’m assuming is the women's mother holding khanga’s up as a shield so people can’t see into the cab. so funny! a little girl and boy both healthy as well!
oh and last monday i went on a house visit with naomi, to see the mom that i had delivered just over a month ago whose baby had to go to the hospital and then went home okay. so we went to see them! the little girl was so cute, and her parents both so proud. the dad was telling us a story (they spoke good english) of when the hospital called him and said that he had to come and say goodbye to his daughter because they didn’t think she would make it. but she was healed and she is now okay! he said he was so sad and he prayed and prayed and prayed. his contract for work was up just before the birth and he said he wouldn’t sign another one until she was strong and healthy, four months old. it was encouraging to hear how much he cared for his family and wanted to be with his wife and daughter. the mom was doing good too, it was a joy to see her with her daughter smiling and playing with her and just lovin on her. they named her Sharon (but pronounced it differently then we do) because the dad had looked it up and found that it meant ‘talent and strength’ and he said, she is going to be smart and full of talent. she will be a doctor! they fed us lunch and blessed us abundantly. it was a great day.
so that was my week, it was actually a really good week despite my thinking i was going to be going to Kenya. i thank God for the blessings of this week.
till next time...
it was nice to be a smaller group, we even got to go for dinner one to a place that is kinda like a food court and they have pizza! of course i was excited for pizza! (they have ‘milkshakes’ too but there more like soupy ice cream!) and because we were in a smaller number i was able to go to the labour room twice.
its funny because i have been prayer for certain experiences that i’ve wanted for quite some time now, and this week they all happened. (apart from one that couldn’t happen at the hospital) tuesday the labour room was overflowing once again and women were on the floor, and i got to do a delivery on the floor! a baby boy! it was so quick and i was quite sore after ward from squatting and leaning over but very worth it! the mom was quite excited as well, she tried to pay me, (they sometimes do that) but we always say no, it was our pleasure to help. wednesday i was in ANC and i walk in after transferring a women to the labour room and i see all the women clearing a bed with one women left, legs apart. i go over and the head is crowning. i managed to get one good (sterile) glove on and i was wearing one on the other hand (usually we double glove) but it wasn’t sterile and i didn’t have time so in between calling the hospital staff over the head came out, cord was around the neck, so i slipped it over the first shoulder, then the second and another beautiful little boy was born! i was saying ‘karibu sana’ which means ‘your very welcome’ as in i was welcoming him into the world and the nurse that finally did come over to assist me was laughing saying that the other women were laughing at me welcoming him! while i was still dealing with third stage of labour, a women on the ground began crowning. i called for that same nurse who had helped me and told her that this women was delivering, well the head came with no one there and she got there in time to catch the body! it was quite fast and busy, another labouring women had to help me get certain supplies from the women's bag! and then friday i was in the labour ward and went over to anc to bring a card for a women, while being there one of the students had a women she was transferring to labour ward who had twins!!! yes twins! i have always loved twins, (most of you know that from my mary-kate and ashley days! haha!) i was so excited!! i brought her in and got her set up on a bed and before i could check her vitals she was asking to push, my staff came over to assist and we noticed the first twin was breech. so i got to help guide her out, and it was the easiest breech i’ve ever seen, then only four minutes later her brother was born! a little girl and a little boy, both 2.2kg (4.9 pounds). i’m not sure if the mom knew she was having twins when she came in to the hospital that morning, i’m thinking they told her in anc, but sometimes, more often than not, women are very surprised when they have to give birth to two babies! both were doing well, the little boy hadn’t had a good cry but other than that they were both really good!
so thats the four things i’ve been praying for, on the floor, in anc, breech and twins! i was on top of the world friday afternoon!
another fun story from the week was on tuesday i was leaving the labour ward to go for lunch and i see my staff holding a baby at the end of the hallway (which is ‘outside’ with only a covering over incase of rain) and then i see a cab and she tells me that this baby was born in the cab and one of the doctors is delivering the second twin in the cab right now. i can see the security guard (a women) and what i’m assuming is the women's mother holding khanga’s up as a shield so people can’t see into the cab. so funny! a little girl and boy both healthy as well!
oh and last monday i went on a house visit with naomi, to see the mom that i had delivered just over a month ago whose baby had to go to the hospital and then went home okay. so we went to see them! the little girl was so cute, and her parents both so proud. the dad was telling us a story (they spoke good english) of when the hospital called him and said that he had to come and say goodbye to his daughter because they didn’t think she would make it. but she was healed and she is now okay! he said he was so sad and he prayed and prayed and prayed. his contract for work was up just before the birth and he said he wouldn’t sign another one until she was strong and healthy, four months old. it was encouraging to hear how much he cared for his family and wanted to be with his wife and daughter. the mom was doing good too, it was a joy to see her with her daughter smiling and playing with her and just lovin on her. they named her Sharon (but pronounced it differently then we do) because the dad had looked it up and found that it meant ‘talent and strength’ and he said, she is going to be smart and full of talent. she will be a doctor! they fed us lunch and blessed us abundantly. it was a great day.
so that was my week, it was actually a really good week despite my thinking i was going to be going to Kenya. i thank God for the blessings of this week.
till next time...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
week thirty four - ANC
what to say what to say.... i think last week was a tough one. i had gone into the week in high expectations for my week in the labour room and each day was a challenge to get through.
during one delivery the mom would not push, baby was coming, nearly half out and she would not push, all she wanted to do was lay on her side and forget that she was having a baby... we eventually got a good push out of her and a healthy little boy was born! thursday the women i delivered had complications afterward, which were corrected but a little scary. and also she had odd mass’s in her uterus... she was going to be going for an ultrasound within the next few days. friday’s delivery was a blur. this women was pushing facing the wall sitting on the very edge of the bed. i got over in time to semi put gloves on (all fingers were still in the palm) and catch the baby before he fell on the floor. it was so quick and she refused to move even after the baby was out. so the rest of the delivery was also done with her sitting on the edge of the bed. it was this lady’s seventh baby... it was a little sad because she didn’t seem too impressed with her new baby or with me. yup she was not a fan of me. i can’t help but wonder if she didn’t want the baby to be caught?
it was also the first week that i saw pre mature twins be born. i’ve seen pre mature babies before but these were very pre mature. it was thought they were only twenty weeks old. they were so tiny, could have fit in the palm of my hand... crazy to see life so small. it made me sad that even them being only five months old they had little fingers and toes and you could see that they were males. makes you realize how precious life is.
there was also a chance for me to go to Kenya this week and get my visa for Bangladesh. but with limited seats available and five of us wanting to go, i was not chosen. so yes just a few tough things to deal with, but the weekend was relaxing and because people are going to Kenya, or Zanzibar to do teachings, there are less of us here and i get to go into the labour ward again next week!
i don’t really have much to add... i know this is a short update but theres just not much else to add this week...
till next time...
during one delivery the mom would not push, baby was coming, nearly half out and she would not push, all she wanted to do was lay on her side and forget that she was having a baby... we eventually got a good push out of her and a healthy little boy was born! thursday the women i delivered had complications afterward, which were corrected but a little scary. and also she had odd mass’s in her uterus... she was going to be going for an ultrasound within the next few days. friday’s delivery was a blur. this women was pushing facing the wall sitting on the very edge of the bed. i got over in time to semi put gloves on (all fingers were still in the palm) and catch the baby before he fell on the floor. it was so quick and she refused to move even after the baby was out. so the rest of the delivery was also done with her sitting on the edge of the bed. it was this lady’s seventh baby... it was a little sad because she didn’t seem too impressed with her new baby or with me. yup she was not a fan of me. i can’t help but wonder if she didn’t want the baby to be caught?
it was also the first week that i saw pre mature twins be born. i’ve seen pre mature babies before but these were very pre mature. it was thought they were only twenty weeks old. they were so tiny, could have fit in the palm of my hand... crazy to see life so small. it made me sad that even them being only five months old they had little fingers and toes and you could see that they were males. makes you realize how precious life is.
there was also a chance for me to go to Kenya this week and get my visa for Bangladesh. but with limited seats available and five of us wanting to go, i was not chosen. so yes just a few tough things to deal with, but the weekend was relaxing and because people are going to Kenya, or Zanzibar to do teachings, there are less of us here and i get to go into the labour ward again next week!
i don’t really have much to add... i know this is a short update but theres just not much else to add this week...
till next time...
Monday, February 21, 2011
week thirty three - ANC
a week i’ll never forget for sure....
monday started off okay, with our morning test and lectures all day. started learning about eclampsia. something that you don’t hear of often but a very relevant problem in pregnancy. starts off with a high blood pressure and can lead into the women fitting. (seizure) i’ve seen a few cases here in Tanzania, only once have i actually been there while a women was fitting on the bed.... a scary situation. we are now learning how to notice it, test for it and treat it. its difficult because there is no way to know ahead of time if the women will have eclampsia, you kinda just have to know the signs that can lead up to it and educate her, and her family and make sure she is getting regular check ups.
tuesday i was not feeling well and ended up staying home. it was great to get to just rest. i slept for nearly five hours! much needed rest, and i felt much better afterward as well. wednesday was not too bad of a day, anc this week, started off the morning with doing ve’s and check ups on women. it was a holiday so that of course meant less staff. the doctor there told us not to do ve’s just on women who were having strong contractions.... well we thought that silly and just because it was a holiday these women should still get proper check ups, so with us running the show we did full check ups. it was very busy, the labour room was having overflow so we had a delivery in anc which i assisted in. (taking the baby) many women were there, some beds held over five women and there were more overflowing onto the floor. to walk through the anc side you have to literally watch each step to ensure you don’t step on someone.
i don’t usually share about the times outside the hospital, mainly because there not that much to say, filled with group prayer times, worship, some lectures, and study nights. but this particular wednesday i guess i should share. a story of God’s protection and grace. i don’t want this to be taken the wrong way of cause fear into anyone but i do think it is a great testimony of how big my God is!
the night started off as any other, i was getting ready for bed, when i heard these ‘booms’ outside, it had been raining a lot earlier that week and at first i assumed it was thunder... after it continued i told Naomi i was a little scared and thought they sounded like bombs. she ensured me it was thunder. at this time it was just after nine, and we were both scheduled for prayer chain at ten, so we thought we just rest a bit and then get up to pray. i crawled into bed with her still feeling uneasy when one of our staff knocked on our door. she explained that the armory outside of town had caught fire and all the ammunition was being shot off as a result. the government asked that everyone go outside there homes so if any of the bombs or missiles were to come in our direction we could run... not exactly what you want to hear. so we went outside with the rest of the group and everyone started praying like crazy. they had told us the armory was only 10km from us, but later we found out that it would have had to be further. but from outside you could see the red sky and watch some of the bombs and debris fly up into the sky. most stayed relatively far away but a few were heard nearer, one in particular shook the ground we stood on. we prayed and prayed, it was funny cause you never know what your gonna do in a situation like that and everyone handles it differently. some made jokes about us having to run, some grabbed their passports incase a bomb hit our home, some just continued staring at the sky and praying and me, i cried! i prayed constantly but was in no place to make jokes. around 10:30 they finally died down and we were given word that we could return into our house.
they don’t know how it caught fire, but in the last ten years this is the third time something like this has happened. apparently people in the area of the blasts were running. we have a friend who was traveling past the place and he joined in the run and just ran. trucks were overloaded with people getting away and the stadium was housing people who lived nearby. over a hundred children were split up from their parents, people lost limbs and had severe injuries from the debris that flew. some lost their homes and thirty people lost their lives that night. i’ve looked at a few newspapers and some of the pictures are terrible. the hospital that we work at had a list of all bomb victims posted on the gate so family members could locate their loved ones. some of the staff have gone to help, the red cross is also here offering help. i know they had 150 children as of thursday that had been separated, i hope by now parents have been able to locate them. please be praying for these that have lost so much because of wednesday night.
thursday and friday were insane days at the hospital. the labour ward was overfilled with women on the floor and anc continued to fill with women. friday we had three beds for checkups going on and there ended up being three more deliveries in anc. in labour ward our school did eight deliveries, never before have we done that many deliveries in one day! partly full moon this week and partly because of the bomb that can set off stress in the mom’s that can onset labour. i don’t know what the hospital would have done had we not been there. i’m sure when its that busy babies are born on their own and staff come just to cut the cord and finish up the delivery.
saturday, day off, went to a market/shopping area with some people from my team. it was a really nice day, had a grilled cheese for lunch! (delicacy here for me as cheese is pretty expensive) and looked around at the shops. went to a market and met some really nice people. one man was an artist and painted amazing portraits. i made an order with him as there was one painting that three of us really liked. so two of us ordered another and one bought it. it was of five african women with babies slung on their back. a good representation of why i am here doing what i’m doing! i’m excited to pick it up in the next couple weeks. its relatively small but colourful and its made by him.
i’m in labour ward next week for the last time hear in Tanzania.... i’m sad cause its my favorite place here, but excited for whats next!
till next time...
monday started off okay, with our morning test and lectures all day. started learning about eclampsia. something that you don’t hear of often but a very relevant problem in pregnancy. starts off with a high blood pressure and can lead into the women fitting. (seizure) i’ve seen a few cases here in Tanzania, only once have i actually been there while a women was fitting on the bed.... a scary situation. we are now learning how to notice it, test for it and treat it. its difficult because there is no way to know ahead of time if the women will have eclampsia, you kinda just have to know the signs that can lead up to it and educate her, and her family and make sure she is getting regular check ups.
tuesday i was not feeling well and ended up staying home. it was great to get to just rest. i slept for nearly five hours! much needed rest, and i felt much better afterward as well. wednesday was not too bad of a day, anc this week, started off the morning with doing ve’s and check ups on women. it was a holiday so that of course meant less staff. the doctor there told us not to do ve’s just on women who were having strong contractions.... well we thought that silly and just because it was a holiday these women should still get proper check ups, so with us running the show we did full check ups. it was very busy, the labour room was having overflow so we had a delivery in anc which i assisted in. (taking the baby) many women were there, some beds held over five women and there were more overflowing onto the floor. to walk through the anc side you have to literally watch each step to ensure you don’t step on someone.
i don’t usually share about the times outside the hospital, mainly because there not that much to say, filled with group prayer times, worship, some lectures, and study nights. but this particular wednesday i guess i should share. a story of God’s protection and grace. i don’t want this to be taken the wrong way of cause fear into anyone but i do think it is a great testimony of how big my God is!
the night started off as any other, i was getting ready for bed, when i heard these ‘booms’ outside, it had been raining a lot earlier that week and at first i assumed it was thunder... after it continued i told Naomi i was a little scared and thought they sounded like bombs. she ensured me it was thunder. at this time it was just after nine, and we were both scheduled for prayer chain at ten, so we thought we just rest a bit and then get up to pray. i crawled into bed with her still feeling uneasy when one of our staff knocked on our door. she explained that the armory outside of town had caught fire and all the ammunition was being shot off as a result. the government asked that everyone go outside there homes so if any of the bombs or missiles were to come in our direction we could run... not exactly what you want to hear. so we went outside with the rest of the group and everyone started praying like crazy. they had told us the armory was only 10km from us, but later we found out that it would have had to be further. but from outside you could see the red sky and watch some of the bombs and debris fly up into the sky. most stayed relatively far away but a few were heard nearer, one in particular shook the ground we stood on. we prayed and prayed, it was funny cause you never know what your gonna do in a situation like that and everyone handles it differently. some made jokes about us having to run, some grabbed their passports incase a bomb hit our home, some just continued staring at the sky and praying and me, i cried! i prayed constantly but was in no place to make jokes. around 10:30 they finally died down and we were given word that we could return into our house.
they don’t know how it caught fire, but in the last ten years this is the third time something like this has happened. apparently people in the area of the blasts were running. we have a friend who was traveling past the place and he joined in the run and just ran. trucks were overloaded with people getting away and the stadium was housing people who lived nearby. over a hundred children were split up from their parents, people lost limbs and had severe injuries from the debris that flew. some lost their homes and thirty people lost their lives that night. i’ve looked at a few newspapers and some of the pictures are terrible. the hospital that we work at had a list of all bomb victims posted on the gate so family members could locate their loved ones. some of the staff have gone to help, the red cross is also here offering help. i know they had 150 children as of thursday that had been separated, i hope by now parents have been able to locate them. please be praying for these that have lost so much because of wednesday night.
thursday and friday were insane days at the hospital. the labour ward was overfilled with women on the floor and anc continued to fill with women. friday we had three beds for checkups going on and there ended up being three more deliveries in anc. in labour ward our school did eight deliveries, never before have we done that many deliveries in one day! partly full moon this week and partly because of the bomb that can set off stress in the mom’s that can onset labour. i don’t know what the hospital would have done had we not been there. i’m sure when its that busy babies are born on their own and staff come just to cut the cord and finish up the delivery.
saturday, day off, went to a market/shopping area with some people from my team. it was a really nice day, had a grilled cheese for lunch! (delicacy here for me as cheese is pretty expensive) and looked around at the shops. went to a market and met some really nice people. one man was an artist and painted amazing portraits. i made an order with him as there was one painting that three of us really liked. so two of us ordered another and one bought it. it was of five african women with babies slung on their back. a good representation of why i am here doing what i’m doing! i’m excited to pick it up in the next couple weeks. its relatively small but colourful and its made by him.
i’m in labour ward next week for the last time hear in Tanzania.... i’m sad cause its my favorite place here, but excited for whats next!
till next time...
Monday, February 14, 2011
week thirty two - labour ward
another full week, as it usually is, especially when i’m in the labour ward. monday was all day lectures including learning suturing, practicing on fabric and next week on meat.... yes should be interesting! i already have been able to suture before so its good to continue to practice and learn more of a technique. tuesday we headed out to the hospital.
tuesday was a busy day, its funny how as i sit to write this on sunday, trying to recall the week the days just seem to mesh together. i remember i did a delivery on tuesday, little girl! the mom was so excited! thats my favorite after the baby’s out and you place them on their mamma’s tummy and you look at her face and she’s all smiles so excited! thanking you and thanking God for her baby! it was so busy that day that my partner wasn’t able to help me right away so the baby just chilled on its mom throughout the rest of the delivery till someone could come and take the baby for her vitals and to be weighed. i think its neat when everything goes well and the baby and mom can just be together for a bit. she needed only a few sutures and i got to do them! went relatively well. some difficulty getting started because at first we didn’t have any of the drug that freezes the women. and many women needed suturing that day. terrible thought to suture without freezing first. the women are in so much pain, all cuz the hospital has ran out of supplies. i don’t know how but we were able to obtain some so she was able to be frozen, thank you God!
wednesday i stayed and monitored a women for the entire day. she had been in labour for quite some while and i was getting concerned cuz her contractions weren’t progressing very well. by the end of the day she still wasn’t getting any further so after discussing things with the doctor we put an IV in her to give her body more energy, they were gonna continue monitoring her after we left, all i could do was pray that she would be able to deliver her baby and it would be okay. (the baby’s heart rate had dropped since earlier that morning) i went back the next day and checked the paperwork and she had delivered a healthy baby boy!
thursday, was a good day. i was able to monitor a women early on then do the delivery mid morning! another little girl. its neat cuz i felt that morning a name for a little girl, (whenever a baby is born we pray over them and ask God if he has a specific name for them) and on the way to the hospital i felt there’d be a little girl and her name was to be Angelina Faith. so as soon as i saw she was a girl, i thanked God that i could give her this name. (the name is for us to be praying for them, its not necessarily the name the parents give. sometimes they ask us but most of the time the baby isn’t named for a few weeks after birth) it was a really good and quick delivery. spent the rest of that day taking vitals of mom and baby and doing paperwork!
friday was another really busy day. right off the hop i went to monitor a women and she was asking me to push. i had been told she was only 8cm dilated and usually you don’t encourage pushing quite yet cuz she can tear, but this women was 40 years old and it was her sixth child. you’d think she’d know her body and when to push, also because she’d had so many babies her body will dilate a lot faster. i was told just to check and make sure it was okay to push but when i went to check she was done with asking to push and just started pushing. so as i’m trying to feel for any reason not to push (trying not to use words that some may not want to hear!) that baby was moving down quickly. within one push she had gotten its head and shoulders out. baby didn’t even turn as they usually do so the shoulders can come out in the right way, and before i knew it one big baby boy was born! she was very happy and enjoyed holding him on her tummy. everything went really good. the rest of the day was chaos, helping others in their births. a breech baby born, and just babies coming all over the place! lots of paperwork and vitals to take, beds overflowing and women needing to be transferred. one of those days that when you leave you feel like you still need to be moving and doing things.... a good day though, i prefer them busy over slow. makes things exciting!
saturday was a chill day. watched a lot of movies and hung out with people. power was out for some time in the evening and is out right now as i right this. this morning (sunday) we went to church as a team. the same church we went to last week although this time EVERYBODY came! it was a good service and during it started pouring rain. so nice after it being over a month where it hasn’t rained at all. it poured and filled the streets as we drove home it was slow going but we made it fine. i’m thinking about taking a nap before dinner and before another full week! thanks for your prayers!
till next time...
tuesday was a busy day, its funny how as i sit to write this on sunday, trying to recall the week the days just seem to mesh together. i remember i did a delivery on tuesday, little girl! the mom was so excited! thats my favorite after the baby’s out and you place them on their mamma’s tummy and you look at her face and she’s all smiles so excited! thanking you and thanking God for her baby! it was so busy that day that my partner wasn’t able to help me right away so the baby just chilled on its mom throughout the rest of the delivery till someone could come and take the baby for her vitals and to be weighed. i think its neat when everything goes well and the baby and mom can just be together for a bit. she needed only a few sutures and i got to do them! went relatively well. some difficulty getting started because at first we didn’t have any of the drug that freezes the women. and many women needed suturing that day. terrible thought to suture without freezing first. the women are in so much pain, all cuz the hospital has ran out of supplies. i don’t know how but we were able to obtain some so she was able to be frozen, thank you God!
wednesday i stayed and monitored a women for the entire day. she had been in labour for quite some while and i was getting concerned cuz her contractions weren’t progressing very well. by the end of the day she still wasn’t getting any further so after discussing things with the doctor we put an IV in her to give her body more energy, they were gonna continue monitoring her after we left, all i could do was pray that she would be able to deliver her baby and it would be okay. (the baby’s heart rate had dropped since earlier that morning) i went back the next day and checked the paperwork and she had delivered a healthy baby boy!
thursday, was a good day. i was able to monitor a women early on then do the delivery mid morning! another little girl. its neat cuz i felt that morning a name for a little girl, (whenever a baby is born we pray over them and ask God if he has a specific name for them) and on the way to the hospital i felt there’d be a little girl and her name was to be Angelina Faith. so as soon as i saw she was a girl, i thanked God that i could give her this name. (the name is for us to be praying for them, its not necessarily the name the parents give. sometimes they ask us but most of the time the baby isn’t named for a few weeks after birth) it was a really good and quick delivery. spent the rest of that day taking vitals of mom and baby and doing paperwork!
friday was another really busy day. right off the hop i went to monitor a women and she was asking me to push. i had been told she was only 8cm dilated and usually you don’t encourage pushing quite yet cuz she can tear, but this women was 40 years old and it was her sixth child. you’d think she’d know her body and when to push, also because she’d had so many babies her body will dilate a lot faster. i was told just to check and make sure it was okay to push but when i went to check she was done with asking to push and just started pushing. so as i’m trying to feel for any reason not to push (trying not to use words that some may not want to hear!) that baby was moving down quickly. within one push she had gotten its head and shoulders out. baby didn’t even turn as they usually do so the shoulders can come out in the right way, and before i knew it one big baby boy was born! she was very happy and enjoyed holding him on her tummy. everything went really good. the rest of the day was chaos, helping others in their births. a breech baby born, and just babies coming all over the place! lots of paperwork and vitals to take, beds overflowing and women needing to be transferred. one of those days that when you leave you feel like you still need to be moving and doing things.... a good day though, i prefer them busy over slow. makes things exciting!
saturday was a chill day. watched a lot of movies and hung out with people. power was out for some time in the evening and is out right now as i right this. this morning (sunday) we went to church as a team. the same church we went to last week although this time EVERYBODY came! it was a good service and during it started pouring rain. so nice after it being over a month where it hasn’t rained at all. it poured and filled the streets as we drove home it was slow going but we made it fine. i’m thinking about taking a nap before dinner and before another full week! thanks for your prayers!
till next time...
Monday, February 7, 2011
week thirty one-base group
being a part of the ‘base group’ this week is very different now that we’ve moved and are also in lecture phase. we now get to spend tuesday and wednesday in the ICU ward at the hospital. after monday lectures thats exactly what happened. tuesday was my first full day in ICU. it went really well. as a student we have to do four different case studies, all to do with the four main problems in pregnancy (eclampsia, obstructed labour, puerperal sepsis and PPH (postpartum hemorrhage)) and being in the ICU is the perfect place to be able to learn more and get information for a case study. when we first got there we spent some time cleaning down bed frames and window ledges etc... and then took vitals on the women. the one side is all pre eclampsia/eclampsia and the other is post cesarian. i worked in the eclampsia side, one of the side effects of eclampsia is extremely high blood pressure. and i soon learnt how high it can go. some of these women were 180/120 and with the normal range being 110/60 - 140/90 this is extremely high and dangerous. i also got to interview one women for a case study gathering basic information about her and her pregnancy and labour experience. it was such a sad story.
she had woken up in the hospital the day before (monday) and had to ask ‘where am i and when did i get here?’ she was told she’d been here since last friday and that she had delivered her baby friday but it was born dead..... can you even imagine? first off i didn’t know that one can deliver being unconscious, second, to wake up and find out you’ve been in the hospital for four days and you’ve lost your baby..... she didn’t seem too upset but sometimes the mom’s don’t show too much emotion. we prayed for her and she was discharged that day. she is fortunate that her family brought her to the hospital when she did because she was still alive, but i can’t imagine how she must be feeling after such a traumatic labour experience.
there was another women brought in while we were there who was having difficulty breathing. it was painful to watch her take huge gasps of air. she was only seven months pregnant the but the hospital staff were administer drugs to her to help mature the baby’s lungs and then induce labour in hopes of saving both mom and baby. the next day when we got there she was still there, she had delivered a tiny little girl who seemed to be doing well. the mom however was still not doing any better with her gasping for air. since the baby was so little we wrapped it onto her chest (kangaroo care) to help ensure the baby’s temperature stayed stable. well she ended up falling asleep (mom) and after some time one of the girls on my team tried to wake her and she would not wake up. even the hospital staff had a difficult time waking her up. she did finally wake but was so distraught and confused saying the baby on her was not hers. we tried to re-account the details of whats been happening to her but she continued to deny the child being hers. we eventually had to remove the baby from her in hopes that later she would ‘come to’ more. it was agreed that she needed a higher level of care than the hospital could give her and she would be transferred later that day.
that same day there was a women with an extremely high pulse and bp. she was in labour and we had been monitoring her and it was time for her to deliver. i was preparing to do the delivery and was with her for quite some time when it was realized that she would not be able to deliver. the head was not advancing no matter how hard she was pushing, and also by now the baby’s heart rate had dropped to 100 (110-160 normal) after calling the doctor it was decided a vacuum extraction would be done. it was a bit of a challenging situation, the doctor decided to fix her IV line as there were clots in it and that took some time, including him banging the end of the line against her bed frame spraying blood all over the wall and floor where her water and food were being stored. i was quite upset, blood is not something you want going ‘everywhere’. he began the vacuum and it took four tries for the cup to stay suctioned to the baby’s head. he was finally pulled out and only needed rubbing on his back and baby began crying! beautiful little boy. the mom however now had a pulse of 180, nearly double what it normally should be. and she had severe tears that were causing her to continue to bleed. another frustrating thing then happened, this women is laying on the table, exposed and bleeding, needing immediate care and the doctor decides to answer his phone! there are some things culturally that have now become acceptable but this is not one of them. most all staff carry their phones on them and will answer them no matter what it is that they are doing in that moment. we’ve even seen them do it during a cesarian, yes an operation, they simply have another staff member hold the phone to their ear while they continue to cut open a women's belly. ridiculous eh? anyways, in the end she was sutured and bleeding did stop. it was the end of our work day and we had to leave but i talked to one of the doctors about her pulse and they said they would go and make sure she was taken care of. so i can only pray she received the care she needed. and i do believe she did, most of the doctors in ICU are really amazing. it was a good experience apart from the vacuum moment but i learnt a lot and the staff their are really good and knowledgable. and besides the one answering his cell, he did a very good job at suturing her up.
thursday my group traveled back to the base clinic that we would work at before the move. i spent the entire morning doing antenatal care. take bp, check fundal height(measure belly), feel for position of baby, check hear rate and all done. the staff would take my results and go from there. i probably got to check almost twenty women! it was a fun morning, its nice that we’re all more confident in our skills and so are the staff at the clinic. they nearly let me do everything on my own. and when they didn’t quite believe me they’d re-check, but they always got the same as what i had! one staff even told me ‘hongera’ which means ‘congratulations’ haha! it was a good day apart from one of the bus rides we took where i’m pretty sure the driver didn’t know he was driving a bus and mistaken it for a race car. at one point he slammed on the breaks and because i was sitting in the middle seat in the very back i had nothing but isle to stop me and i flew forward two rows. if it weren’t for Celia grabbing my arm i would have kept going.... a little scary but i was fine!
friday i got the opportunity to go to labour ward because one of the girls wasn’t going. it was a really good day, started off a little rough with a breech baby born with a low apgar who still was not entirely stable when we left. but the rest of the day was great. i was asked to monitor one women who was just brought in from ANC and was told she was 7cm and this was her third child.... i thought okay, sure i’ll check her vitals and such. i went to check her bp but she was having a contraction so i thought i’d wait, then i noticed she was pushing and i thought, 7cm? not a good time to push she’ll tear or wear herself out. so i tried telling her to breath and not push but she was in no way acknowledging my existence. so i thought, i should check her then and pulled away the khonga she was wearing and there was the bulging membranes with the head directly behind out to its nose already! (i should know not to trust the 7cm we’re told by now but i did not this time!) i fumbled with gloves and someone broke the membranes and i got my hands ready just in time to deliver the body and slip the cord around him. a beautiful baby boy, let out a strong cry right away! i let him lay on his mama’s tummy for a while until she made it clear she wasn’t a fan of this anymore! haha! and clamped and cut the cord and handed him off to Naomi to weigh and do a vital check. after that everything continued to happen very quick and third stage was done before i knew it. she was cleaned and sitting on a postnatal bed with baby beside her only half an hour after she originally came into the labour ward! the quickest and cleanest delivery i think i’ve ever done! it was good because it was early on in the morning so i was able to monitor both of them and help out Naomi when she did a delivery later on that morning. it was a great way to end the week!
the weekend also went well, sleeping in and going to Shoppers Plaza to develop some pics, buy a few snacks for the week and hang out at the bookstore, kinda makes you feel like your at home! sunday four of us tried out a new church. it was really good! they meet at the cinema’s and it was english speaking. pastored by an American who has lived here for the past ten years. we met his family and a few others and everyone seemed really kind. our entire team is going next week! hopefully they’ll have enough seats! the rest of the day i worked on homework and studied for the monday test. and just relaxed. oh also got a bit of a haircut. one of my staff can cut hair so it was nice to be able to get a trim. but yes i suppose thats about it.... i’m in labour ward next week, only five more hospital weeks left and six in Tanzania.... pretty crazy to think i’m halfway (or just over) outreach.....
till next time....
she had woken up in the hospital the day before (monday) and had to ask ‘where am i and when did i get here?’ she was told she’d been here since last friday and that she had delivered her baby friday but it was born dead..... can you even imagine? first off i didn’t know that one can deliver being unconscious, second, to wake up and find out you’ve been in the hospital for four days and you’ve lost your baby..... she didn’t seem too upset but sometimes the mom’s don’t show too much emotion. we prayed for her and she was discharged that day. she is fortunate that her family brought her to the hospital when she did because she was still alive, but i can’t imagine how she must be feeling after such a traumatic labour experience.
there was another women brought in while we were there who was having difficulty breathing. it was painful to watch her take huge gasps of air. she was only seven months pregnant the but the hospital staff were administer drugs to her to help mature the baby’s lungs and then induce labour in hopes of saving both mom and baby. the next day when we got there she was still there, she had delivered a tiny little girl who seemed to be doing well. the mom however was still not doing any better with her gasping for air. since the baby was so little we wrapped it onto her chest (kangaroo care) to help ensure the baby’s temperature stayed stable. well she ended up falling asleep (mom) and after some time one of the girls on my team tried to wake her and she would not wake up. even the hospital staff had a difficult time waking her up. she did finally wake but was so distraught and confused saying the baby on her was not hers. we tried to re-account the details of whats been happening to her but she continued to deny the child being hers. we eventually had to remove the baby from her in hopes that later she would ‘come to’ more. it was agreed that she needed a higher level of care than the hospital could give her and she would be transferred later that day.
that same day there was a women with an extremely high pulse and bp. she was in labour and we had been monitoring her and it was time for her to deliver. i was preparing to do the delivery and was with her for quite some time when it was realized that she would not be able to deliver. the head was not advancing no matter how hard she was pushing, and also by now the baby’s heart rate had dropped to 100 (110-160 normal) after calling the doctor it was decided a vacuum extraction would be done. it was a bit of a challenging situation, the doctor decided to fix her IV line as there were clots in it and that took some time, including him banging the end of the line against her bed frame spraying blood all over the wall and floor where her water and food were being stored. i was quite upset, blood is not something you want going ‘everywhere’. he began the vacuum and it took four tries for the cup to stay suctioned to the baby’s head. he was finally pulled out and only needed rubbing on his back and baby began crying! beautiful little boy. the mom however now had a pulse of 180, nearly double what it normally should be. and she had severe tears that were causing her to continue to bleed. another frustrating thing then happened, this women is laying on the table, exposed and bleeding, needing immediate care and the doctor decides to answer his phone! there are some things culturally that have now become acceptable but this is not one of them. most all staff carry their phones on them and will answer them no matter what it is that they are doing in that moment. we’ve even seen them do it during a cesarian, yes an operation, they simply have another staff member hold the phone to their ear while they continue to cut open a women's belly. ridiculous eh? anyways, in the end she was sutured and bleeding did stop. it was the end of our work day and we had to leave but i talked to one of the doctors about her pulse and they said they would go and make sure she was taken care of. so i can only pray she received the care she needed. and i do believe she did, most of the doctors in ICU are really amazing. it was a good experience apart from the vacuum moment but i learnt a lot and the staff their are really good and knowledgable. and besides the one answering his cell, he did a very good job at suturing her up.
thursday my group traveled back to the base clinic that we would work at before the move. i spent the entire morning doing antenatal care. take bp, check fundal height(measure belly), feel for position of baby, check hear rate and all done. the staff would take my results and go from there. i probably got to check almost twenty women! it was a fun morning, its nice that we’re all more confident in our skills and so are the staff at the clinic. they nearly let me do everything on my own. and when they didn’t quite believe me they’d re-check, but they always got the same as what i had! one staff even told me ‘hongera’ which means ‘congratulations’ haha! it was a good day apart from one of the bus rides we took where i’m pretty sure the driver didn’t know he was driving a bus and mistaken it for a race car. at one point he slammed on the breaks and because i was sitting in the middle seat in the very back i had nothing but isle to stop me and i flew forward two rows. if it weren’t for Celia grabbing my arm i would have kept going.... a little scary but i was fine!
friday i got the opportunity to go to labour ward because one of the girls wasn’t going. it was a really good day, started off a little rough with a breech baby born with a low apgar who still was not entirely stable when we left. but the rest of the day was great. i was asked to monitor one women who was just brought in from ANC and was told she was 7cm and this was her third child.... i thought okay, sure i’ll check her vitals and such. i went to check her bp but she was having a contraction so i thought i’d wait, then i noticed she was pushing and i thought, 7cm? not a good time to push she’ll tear or wear herself out. so i tried telling her to breath and not push but she was in no way acknowledging my existence. so i thought, i should check her then and pulled away the khonga she was wearing and there was the bulging membranes with the head directly behind out to its nose already! (i should know not to trust the 7cm we’re told by now but i did not this time!) i fumbled with gloves and someone broke the membranes and i got my hands ready just in time to deliver the body and slip the cord around him. a beautiful baby boy, let out a strong cry right away! i let him lay on his mama’s tummy for a while until she made it clear she wasn’t a fan of this anymore! haha! and clamped and cut the cord and handed him off to Naomi to weigh and do a vital check. after that everything continued to happen very quick and third stage was done before i knew it. she was cleaned and sitting on a postnatal bed with baby beside her only half an hour after she originally came into the labour ward! the quickest and cleanest delivery i think i’ve ever done! it was good because it was early on in the morning so i was able to monitor both of them and help out Naomi when she did a delivery later on that morning. it was a great way to end the week!
the weekend also went well, sleeping in and going to Shoppers Plaza to develop some pics, buy a few snacks for the week and hang out at the bookstore, kinda makes you feel like your at home! sunday four of us tried out a new church. it was really good! they meet at the cinema’s and it was english speaking. pastored by an American who has lived here for the past ten years. we met his family and a few others and everyone seemed really kind. our entire team is going next week! hopefully they’ll have enough seats! the rest of the day i worked on homework and studied for the monday test. and just relaxed. oh also got a bit of a haircut. one of my staff can cut hair so it was nice to be able to get a trim. but yes i suppose thats about it.... i’m in labour ward next week, only five more hospital weeks left and six in Tanzania.... pretty crazy to think i’m halfway (or just over) outreach.....
till next time....
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
week thirty- ANC
lectures as usual on monday and then thursday night as well. but thursday we had clinical practice in blood taking and IV’s, and who is it we practice on? well each other of course! i was pretty impressed that i allowed others to stab me with needles but it actually went fairly well, a few bruises and a bit of swolleness but all was well. i think taking blood is my favorite! getting to draw back and see the blood in the syringe. such a moment of proudness!
i was in anc this week. it was challenging and at times frustrating but was able to spot a few fevers and pre-eclampsia (a disease that entails extremely high bp, and can lead to fits, extremely dangerous for mom and baby). but caught early enough both mom and baby have a higher rate of living. one day i took several women to ultrasound. the ultrasound tech’s are not a fan of it when we come with many women so i went ahead of time to warn them i was bringing three, possibly four women with me. they said, ‘only three’ but who am i to say no to a women in need of ultrasound? i did end up only needing to bring three. but one of whom was terribly weak. Celia (one of the other students) came with me and had to help her onto the examining table and the women nearly collapsed. her HB levels were so low (blood) and she had no energy. she needed fluids but there were no IV lines. also we had a women who needed an indwelling catheter and the nurse says ‘she needs a catheter’ me ‘okay do we have any?’ nurse ‘no we don’t have’...... not very helpful when women are in need of these simple things. who knew going to the toilet during labour was so important for the whole process to continue safely. after delivery the women's uterus needs to contract to a certain size. if there her bladder is full then it can not contract properly and the women will continue to bleed. this particular women was getting ready to go home when i noticed her getting into the cab having to be escorted by family because she appeared in so much pain she could not walk. to top it off she was deaf. we grabbed a staff who communicated with the family that she can not go home in this state and they assisted her back into the hospital. it was her who needed an indwelling catheter.... we did manage to find a canula (for IV) for her so we could begin to put fluids into her. that was the story this past week, ‘this women needs this but there are no supplies’ when this happens either the women's’ family goes to buy them and if that is not possible the women is left without the care she needs. our team bought several canula’s and catheters for the hospital this week and are trying to figure out a way to be able to provide more supplies for the hospital. it is government ran but its not the ‘highest level of care’ hospital and things are not provided well.
friday i was able to go with Celia to a different hospital were the mom’s we can not treat get transferred to. apparently the mom i delivered a week ago with the baby who was not doing well but was better the next day, she again was not doing so well and her mom brought her to this hospital. i was able to find the mom after much searching and we also found four other moms we had in some way or another helped at the hospital where we work. we were told that their babies were kept on the floor below in a separate ward. we entered the hallway and asked permission to find these babies. the staff there were quite confused why we were there. they kept asking ‘what is it your dealing with?’ we had to explain that we had delivered/helped these babies/women and we only wanted to check up on them. they thought it was neat that we would come and do that and were granted permission to search the rooms for the particular babies. there were six rooms, four of which were filled with babies, some sick and some okay. it was neat but also sad to see the sick ones fighting for life and then to see two with charts labeled ‘new orphans’ i think that got to me the most. to see this little girl squirming and knowing that there was no one who would come to hold her. we located four out of the five we were looking for. the only we could not find was the one i had delivered. i was disappointed but had searched the rooms twice. (the other two rooms were the primi rooms. with such little ones unlike anything you’ve seen. some could have fit in my hand) i said goodbye to my mom and told her i couldn’t find her daughter, she explained where she was but it was past visiting hours and we weren’t allowed back in. i have her phone number and she mine, so i will be staying in touch to see what is happening.
this weekend has been relaxing, which is really nice. next week i’m in icu. i’m a little nervous, not sure what i’ll see but i like being able to learn more about cases that are more serious.
till next time...
i was in anc this week. it was challenging and at times frustrating but was able to spot a few fevers and pre-eclampsia (a disease that entails extremely high bp, and can lead to fits, extremely dangerous for mom and baby). but caught early enough both mom and baby have a higher rate of living. one day i took several women to ultrasound. the ultrasound tech’s are not a fan of it when we come with many women so i went ahead of time to warn them i was bringing three, possibly four women with me. they said, ‘only three’ but who am i to say no to a women in need of ultrasound? i did end up only needing to bring three. but one of whom was terribly weak. Celia (one of the other students) came with me and had to help her onto the examining table and the women nearly collapsed. her HB levels were so low (blood) and she had no energy. she needed fluids but there were no IV lines. also we had a women who needed an indwelling catheter and the nurse says ‘she needs a catheter’ me ‘okay do we have any?’ nurse ‘no we don’t have’...... not very helpful when women are in need of these simple things. who knew going to the toilet during labour was so important for the whole process to continue safely. after delivery the women's uterus needs to contract to a certain size. if there her bladder is full then it can not contract properly and the women will continue to bleed. this particular women was getting ready to go home when i noticed her getting into the cab having to be escorted by family because she appeared in so much pain she could not walk. to top it off she was deaf. we grabbed a staff who communicated with the family that she can not go home in this state and they assisted her back into the hospital. it was her who needed an indwelling catheter.... we did manage to find a canula (for IV) for her so we could begin to put fluids into her. that was the story this past week, ‘this women needs this but there are no supplies’ when this happens either the women's’ family goes to buy them and if that is not possible the women is left without the care she needs. our team bought several canula’s and catheters for the hospital this week and are trying to figure out a way to be able to provide more supplies for the hospital. it is government ran but its not the ‘highest level of care’ hospital and things are not provided well.
friday i was able to go with Celia to a different hospital were the mom’s we can not treat get transferred to. apparently the mom i delivered a week ago with the baby who was not doing well but was better the next day, she again was not doing so well and her mom brought her to this hospital. i was able to find the mom after much searching and we also found four other moms we had in some way or another helped at the hospital where we work. we were told that their babies were kept on the floor below in a separate ward. we entered the hallway and asked permission to find these babies. the staff there were quite confused why we were there. they kept asking ‘what is it your dealing with?’ we had to explain that we had delivered/helped these babies/women and we only wanted to check up on them. they thought it was neat that we would come and do that and were granted permission to search the rooms for the particular babies. there were six rooms, four of which were filled with babies, some sick and some okay. it was neat but also sad to see the sick ones fighting for life and then to see two with charts labeled ‘new orphans’ i think that got to me the most. to see this little girl squirming and knowing that there was no one who would come to hold her. we located four out of the five we were looking for. the only we could not find was the one i had delivered. i was disappointed but had searched the rooms twice. (the other two rooms were the primi rooms. with such little ones unlike anything you’ve seen. some could have fit in my hand) i said goodbye to my mom and told her i couldn’t find her daughter, she explained where she was but it was past visiting hours and we weren’t allowed back in. i have her phone number and she mine, so i will be staying in touch to see what is happening.
this weekend has been relaxing, which is really nice. next week i’m in icu. i’m a little nervous, not sure what i’ll see but i like being able to learn more about cases that are more serious.
till next time...
Monday, January 24, 2011
week twenty nine - Labour Ward
believe this will be the first blog that i’ll write on sunday, and upload sunday as well! (okay monday, but close enough!) a tad sunburnt at the moment from spending the day yesterday hanging out by a pool and tired from a night spent awake. why? you might ask was i awake all night long? well, African’s are party people. they also LOVE to to play LOUD music. and this loud music lasts alllllllllllll night long. therefore i was awake alllllllllll night long. but i was grateful that i could sleep in this morning. its choose your own church. so me and naomi had home church and listened to a sermon together. other than church i’ll need to get online to upload this, and then study for my test and do pre-reading for lectures tomorrow. but for now let me give you an update on this past week.
monday- lectures once again. still focusing on obstructed labour. then it was my week in the labour ward! and what a week it was. first day i delivered while the women was on all fours. usually the hospital staff do not approve of this and they very assertively request the women to be on her back. but i suppose because i was there beside her and she was in so much incredible pain laying down that they left her. during one of her contractions i felt the need to ‘check’ and see if anything was coming, and yes indeed the head was on its way, i gloved up and called for my staff and she came just in time as i was helping the little girl come into the world! a lot of more details i could include but i won’t for the sake of those reading who prefer not to hear all those yummy details! tuesday as well i delivered a beautiful baby girl, although her apgar was not good. (apgar is a score we give the baby based on how there doing after 1 min/5 min birth. the score is out of 10, with 2 points given to ‘colour/heart rate/reflex & irritability/muscle tone/respirations’) this baby had an apgar of 4. she had no cry, was terribly limp and slightly blue/gray. her heartbeat was stable and strong but for some reason her lungs would not allow her to have proper resps. while i finished up the mom some of my teammates did resus on her. we left her with a more stable resps rate but she was still on oxygen and hadn’t cried yet. the mom was amazing though. she spoke english and our first encounter of that morning was her asking me to take her to theatre (operation room) and get the baby out she said, ‘please madam i can not do it anymore, just get it out. take me to theatre’ i explained that it would be very soon and she could not go to theatre because there was a line up for theatre and by the time she got in the baby would be out, plus also they can not take someone to theatre whose baby is already fully engaged. then she says ‘ please madam just cut me, just get it out i can not do it anymore’ i explained that i could not just cut her and put my hand up her and pull it out and that the time it was taking is allowing her time to stretch so she won’t have to tear or be cut. she was not impressed but we prayed together and she seemed to trust me. well it was only twenty minutes later that her baby girl was born! it was sad leaving her not knowing how the baby would handle the rest of the day or night but the next morning i went to postnatal and she was there holding her girl! she see’s me and smiles and says ‘she cried last night!’ such a happy mommy! it is my blessing and privilege to help these women.
thursday and friday i delivered two more healthy girls. four girls in a row! thursday was so busy my staff only made it there for a moment to see me get the head out and slip the cord over the baby’s shoulder and guide the rest of her out. i’m becoming more and more confident in deliveries and enjoying being able to handle situations on my own. a hospital intern stayed with me for the rest of the delivery and helped out in the third stage of labour as it got a little complicated, but ended up good. while i was finished the delivery, a women was brought in from ANC and we were told she had a pre-mature baby and it was coming. it was delivered by one of us and was the tinniest thing i’ve ever seen. it was terrible sad to see this little life cut short. and even sadder to see the mom is utter agony over her lost child. friday was even busier. there were four students and two staff and everyone did a delivery and one student did two. there were also many born by the hospital staff as well! every where you looked babies were coming into the world! i got to learn something new as well. my lady tore pretty bad and so my staff taught me how to suture. she did the first 3 and i finished the last 5. the women was so chill about everything, which is good cuz we gave her a lot of freezing, but even with freezing you’d still feel the initial piercing of the needle and she would wince, but the best part was when her cell rang and she answered it! can you imagine ‘hello, yes i’m just being sewed up right now...’ we had that earlier this week as well, with a women wanting her ringing phone while pushing!!!! craziness.
a busy week, but a good one as well. saturday was a great day of hanging out by a pool. theres this hotel a bit out of town that you can pay to hang out by the pool and so thats what three of us did. it was lovely. took an hour and a half to get home but it was worth it! next week i’m in ANC!
till next time.....
monday- lectures once again. still focusing on obstructed labour. then it was my week in the labour ward! and what a week it was. first day i delivered while the women was on all fours. usually the hospital staff do not approve of this and they very assertively request the women to be on her back. but i suppose because i was there beside her and she was in so much incredible pain laying down that they left her. during one of her contractions i felt the need to ‘check’ and see if anything was coming, and yes indeed the head was on its way, i gloved up and called for my staff and she came just in time as i was helping the little girl come into the world! a lot of more details i could include but i won’t for the sake of those reading who prefer not to hear all those yummy details! tuesday as well i delivered a beautiful baby girl, although her apgar was not good. (apgar is a score we give the baby based on how there doing after 1 min/5 min birth. the score is out of 10, with 2 points given to ‘colour/heart rate/reflex & irritability/muscle tone/respirations’) this baby had an apgar of 4. she had no cry, was terribly limp and slightly blue/gray. her heartbeat was stable and strong but for some reason her lungs would not allow her to have proper resps. while i finished up the mom some of my teammates did resus on her. we left her with a more stable resps rate but she was still on oxygen and hadn’t cried yet. the mom was amazing though. she spoke english and our first encounter of that morning was her asking me to take her to theatre (operation room) and get the baby out she said, ‘please madam i can not do it anymore, just get it out. take me to theatre’ i explained that it would be very soon and she could not go to theatre because there was a line up for theatre and by the time she got in the baby would be out, plus also they can not take someone to theatre whose baby is already fully engaged. then she says ‘ please madam just cut me, just get it out i can not do it anymore’ i explained that i could not just cut her and put my hand up her and pull it out and that the time it was taking is allowing her time to stretch so she won’t have to tear or be cut. she was not impressed but we prayed together and she seemed to trust me. well it was only twenty minutes later that her baby girl was born! it was sad leaving her not knowing how the baby would handle the rest of the day or night but the next morning i went to postnatal and she was there holding her girl! she see’s me and smiles and says ‘she cried last night!’ such a happy mommy! it is my blessing and privilege to help these women.
thursday and friday i delivered two more healthy girls. four girls in a row! thursday was so busy my staff only made it there for a moment to see me get the head out and slip the cord over the baby’s shoulder and guide the rest of her out. i’m becoming more and more confident in deliveries and enjoying being able to handle situations on my own. a hospital intern stayed with me for the rest of the delivery and helped out in the third stage of labour as it got a little complicated, but ended up good. while i was finished the delivery, a women was brought in from ANC and we were told she had a pre-mature baby and it was coming. it was delivered by one of us and was the tinniest thing i’ve ever seen. it was terrible sad to see this little life cut short. and even sadder to see the mom is utter agony over her lost child. friday was even busier. there were four students and two staff and everyone did a delivery and one student did two. there were also many born by the hospital staff as well! every where you looked babies were coming into the world! i got to learn something new as well. my lady tore pretty bad and so my staff taught me how to suture. she did the first 3 and i finished the last 5. the women was so chill about everything, which is good cuz we gave her a lot of freezing, but even with freezing you’d still feel the initial piercing of the needle and she would wince, but the best part was when her cell rang and she answered it! can you imagine ‘hello, yes i’m just being sewed up right now...’ we had that earlier this week as well, with a women wanting her ringing phone while pushing!!!! craziness.
a busy week, but a good one as well. saturday was a great day of hanging out by a pool. theres this hotel a bit out of town that you can pay to hang out by the pool and so thats what three of us did. it was lovely. took an hour and a half to get home but it was worth it! next week i’m in ANC!
till next time.....
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