View from our hotel
Mothers and babies waiting outside the labJune 20
This morning I enjoyed a hot bath and it was wonderful. Breakfast was the same - lovely. Le and Miranda and I went to the dress shop and picked out fabric for a dress to be made for the wedding tomorrow. Apparently being "Muzunga" or white people, we paid about twice the normal price.
We then went back to the hotel and prepared to take the supply trunks and donations to the hospital. The local media was there when we arrived at Kibagabaga with TV cameras. I felt so anxious to get going and we finally were given the go-ahead to go to the maternity area.
Le, Miranda, Pam and I went to the labor ward and introduced ourselves. There are 3 labor beds and they move people in and out when new women arrive.
People seem very concious about infection risk, but the gloves pretty much shred when you put then on. We quickly dove into work and got some of our gloves from the supply that we brought. The way it works is that basically the women labor in the hall and then they pretty much decide amoungst themselves who needs to go into the delivery area. They come in and the blood pressure is taken, fetal heart tones auscultated and the cervix examined. They have 3 beds with curtains between them but the curtains are open and shut ad lib. There is no privacy. The beds are not cleaned between patients, but a large green drape is changed. They have an anti HIV drug that they give to all the new babies.
People seem very concious about infection risk, but the gloves pretty much shred when you put then on. We quickly dove into work and got some of our gloves from the supply that we brought. The way it works is that basically the women labor in the hall and then they pretty much decide amoungst themselves who needs to go into the delivery area. They come in and the blood pressure is taken, fetal heart tones auscultated and the cervix examined. They have 3 beds with curtains between them but the curtains are open and shut ad lib. There is no privacy. The beds are not cleaned between patients, but a large green drape is changed. They have an anti HIV drug that they give to all the new babies.
The women overall are very stoic and they know what to expect. They get up onto the labor tables and immediately start untying all the beautiful wraps to be examined. Some women arrive with notes from the outlying clinics, and some are just women from the city. The main doctor, Monique, is Kenyan and very soft spoken, her english is excellent. I scrubbed a cesarean with her and she had many questions about how we did things in the US. When I scrubbed there was a man that poured water over my soapy hands to rinse because the water tap was not working. The surgery tray had about 1/3 of the amount of insturments on them. We have become very concious about waste- Monique used every inch of suture. She had many questions about how things were in the US- and she couldn't believe the epidural rates, of course. She did comment that she wanted to have her babies in the US so she could have an epidural. We were invited back to work with Dr Mark and Dr Monique on Sunday.
After our work in the labor area, we had the first encounter with the hospital public toilet--- there are a couple at the hospital that are multi-purpose. They have showers and the women wash clothes for thier families. The management of cases is different here and some people are getting frustrated. The culture is much slower and very indirect, so no one really says straight out what they think or need. Its hard to know how to help without forcing your way in and to respect the way things are done here.
Tomorrow is the wedding of Dr Joseph and some of us are hoping to go downtown in the morning to do a little shopping. The restaurants we are eating at are wonderful, but not as inexpensive as we thought they would be- prices here seem to be fluid depending on who you are.
I am happy that today was a more hands-on day and I am eager to get back at it!
