impressions of Motta

Hi everybody,

I am out of service today – involuntarily –and so I have time to write a bit.
This morning I woke up and didn’t feel too well. Later we had to rush to the hospital for an emergency and while we were there I got terribly nauseated… just made it back home right in time.
Now, I am lying in my bed, slightly risen temperature and feeling very weak. But don’t worry, I already checked my books for and dangerous diseases and I think it is nothing serious. Surely I will be up and about again by tomorrow.
The last day have been calm at the hospital. Only yesterday was more rushing. We had to deliver a dead baby… it was so big, I weighted it (which is no common practice around here) and it was 4,5 kg. Maybe the mother had pregnancy induced diabetes which can cause big babies. For the midwives among you: normal babies here in Ethiopia weight something between 2,3 and 3,2 kg, even boys in healthy multips. No wonder this boy did not fit through his mothers pelvis. But she lives in a place that is a few hours from here, if you have a car. So when in the middle of the night they realized that the delivery would be different from the 3 deliveries she’s had before they had to wait until sunrise to get her to the main road (30 minutes) and hope that some passing by car or bus would take here to the hospital. By the time she arrived, we could not rescue the baby.
We have those sad stories around here very often. But after all especially the families are always just happy that we could save the mother (without a nasty procedure called craneotomie she would have died as well after days of trying to push that baby out) The people here never take the dead babies home. The mothers never look at them either. It is so different from what we are used to.
But there are also happy endings. 3 days ago a pregnant woman came in. We listened to the heartbeat of the baby which was terribly low (about 50 beats per minute, while it should be at least 120). She had lost her 3 former children at the ages of 3,2 and 45 days. We needed an cesarean section to save the baby. But first we had to convince the mother that this was our only possibility and that she herself would most probably not die during the operation. She was so scared about it. Then it took another 30 minutes to get the theatre ready (I still do not know why it takes so long) and after the mother was asleep we operated her. Out came a baby with no breathing and no pulse. Probably partly to the anesthesia of the mother, but there are no antidotes available here. After about 5 minutes the little girl would start to take some gasps of her one. By the time she was breathing more regularely she was terribly cold (it gets as cold at night as the days are hot). So I put her into my shirt for some skin to skin contact and warmth. After about 30 more minutes she was breathing normally and passed some warm urine onto me :). I took here to an aunt who was waiting and propped her into aunties dress for some more skin to skin contact. This is the only way of getting babies warm here. We have no couveuse, no warm water bottles (and if we had, there is no possibility to get warm water). The next day I saw a happy mother and a normal child (though I will never know if there will be long term problems).
And that day we also went on a beautiful hiking tour to a waterfall and had some fantastic views off the cliffs into the valleys and mountains. The landscape here is breathtaking. Only the dusty air in the dry season is a bit irritating. (But still better than the mosquitoes in the rain season, I suppose…)
It was fun to hang around we the students from our compound and have some laughs. I have my hat to protect me from the sun, but the people here often use umbrellas. It gave the scene a very romantic touch with the small groups of people, wandering through the beautiful landscape with their umbrellas. Just like an African version of a Jane Austin movie.
The coming days will be filled with work, because the head of midwives is on training and the other Bsc midwife as well. So we will be alone with 3 midwives who only graduated some months ago and half a dozen students. Let’s see how it goes. Anyway it is an important reason for me to get better and back to work.
On the pictures below you can also see a little wonder… who says a baby cannot suck proberly at mummy’s breast if born at 32 weeks?!?! He did nothing else the last 14 days!!
Thank you all for your emails and messages on the blog.
Big Hug,
Anna