Impressions impressions impressions

Hi to you all!

I am writing this from a little Belgium cafe in Masaka. This weekend we are off for Christmas. I will tell you about the first days at the hospital.

On Thursday we had our first on the Maternity ward, we start at 8 am. We met one of the midwives, Christine, she showed us around the ward. There is a hallway where there are seperate rooms for antenatal, post c section and postnatal. There 10 women who have had a c section (they stay for 7 days) and 2 other women who had a normal birth (they stay for 24 hours). One of the post c section woman had triplets (3 girls), they only expected 2 babies. We spoke to her husband and he told us to choose a name, I just told him my name don't think they will use it. Next to the hallway are 3 labour rooms and and an admission room.

The chief of the maternity ward is really nice, she started nursing in 1959 and midwifery in 1972. She is still working and loving it. It was very quiet at the beginning of the day so we helped her to make gauze (cut it and fold it) and cotton balls (turning cotton in to balls), they sterilize it after. They were all very surprised that we don't have to do that at home.

There was an elective c section and Lisanne went with the woman to help midwife Kathy. The baby was born without breathing, so Lisanne had to ventilate and give heart compressions to the baby. They baby and mother are now doing well. Eline and I went to help at the antenatal checkups. Midwife Angel is in charge of that, she showed us a very different way of palpations. They secure the fundal height, the belly button is 20 weeks and then they count with their fingers. One finger is 2 weeks, so if you can put 4 fungers above the belly button the woman is 28 weeks pregnant. I need to get used to it and practice, because out of 4 patients I only had 1 correct.

It was still quiet, so we just talked with midwife Kathy, who is really nice. She is really interested, asks us a lot of questions. She only 20 years old and graduated midwifery training last month. She already asked for our numbers to stay in contact. When she heard I was already 25, she asked me when I was getting married to my boyfriend and then I should have babies. ;)

In the afternoon a woman with contractions walked in, she already had 2 c sections in her history. So she was going for a c section. They prepared her and she looked so scared. Eline and I were amazed by the lack of empathy. The woman was in pain and they just did their job well, but not really explaining what they were doing and not comforting the woman. It is really hard not to compare with what we are used to. I decided to walk up to the woman, she didn't speak English so I just hold her hand and it felt like she was happy with that. Eline went with her to the c section.

On Friday we started our day with round with the doctor. He checked all the patients on the ward and told us some about the protocols. We went to the labour rooms and there were already 2 women, one of them would go for c section. It was my turn for a delivery. The woman spoke English and I talked with her before she was going in. My job in theatre was to help the midwife when she would receive the baby. A beautiful baby boy was born and everything went great. After a few hours I went to check on her and she told me: "Hi Irene, I am fine and thank you for helping". It felt so good to have a connection and it was really nice of her to tell me that.

Eline and LIsanne were both helping a woman in labour, both didn't progress well and both turned into a c section. Eline went with one of them. At one point another lady walked in and I went with the midwife to do the admission. The midwife told me she was a G5 (G=gravida, the amount of pregnancies) and P4 (P=para, the amount of births). The woman spoke very little English, so I asked about her children and she told me that the last two had died. She was now going for elective c section, because she already had two. I went with midwife Kathy in theatre. When the baby was born he wasn't breathing and looked grey. Together with the midwife I ventilated the baby. This was the first time I had to do this. I was very glad I was trained so well in school, because the midwife looked nervous. All the steps you have to do were going through my mind. After some time (which felt like ages) the baby started to cry and I felt relief. They don't have all the facilities that we have in the Netherlands and I think we are more skilled in resuscitation, but they do the best they can and try to teach us.

After two days of work we already delivered 5 babies (only boys). We decided to make a list with all the babies that we help deliver. They don't get a name right away, on our list we are naming the babies. We are following the alphabet. So far we have: Albert, Bob, Constantijn (named after Eline's boyfriend), Dick (named after Eline's stepfather) and Evert (named after Lisanne's father).

When we were back at the house some of the students called us outside. They got a yak fruit from one of the trees and gave us a piece to try. It is very sweet, tastes like passionfruit mixed with banana but the smell is very bad.

These first days I have had so many impressions. I am amazed by a lot of things, positive and negative. I am learning a lot from the midwives, because they are doing their job with the things and knowledge theY do have. I realise how well the health care in our country is and that I am so lucky to have that priviledge.

Now I am going to enjoy the sun (already getting a tan) and a coke with Belgian fries. Merry Christmas to all of you!