Maseno and Maternity

The girls have now arrived in Maseno and they have jumped right in. The very first night Annemarie got to witness her first birth. We thought it going to be a C-section, but the surgeon refused because there wasn't any blood available in case he couldn't control the bleeding.

So we did a type and screen to determine her blood type, and ran it over to the lab and tracked down the tech to run it. As luck would have it, she was the same blood type as Aryan, so after a lengthy hunt for a blood bag, Aryan donated a pint. Then we had to send the driver out again to get the surgeon. Take into account, between each of these steps was a trip between the lab/maternity ward/men's ward/etc in the dark, with a headlamp. While we were trying to get the surgeon to pick up his phone, I heard the nurse in the delivery room say, "scuma!"' Which means push, so I tossed a pair of rubber boots and a apron to my student and she got to see the delivery. Talk about jumping right in :).

The girls are not only sharpening their nursing skills, but they are learning to do it by headlamp light when the power is out, as pictured above (all pictures including patients were only taken after asking permission). A lot of them are interested in going into something maternity related, so they that is where they have been spending their first 2 days. Most deliveries here are conducted by. Ursing students or nurses, but doctors are rarely called unless they need to assess for a C-section. Quite a bit different from the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy and the students also put on a seminar with the Maseno School of Nursing using Mama Natalie, which is a simulator designed for developing countries to teach simulations of birth complications and post-partum hemorrhage. Both groups of students really seemed to enjoy it and learn from it.

We also spent some time sorting through the plethora of donation the girls brought, the most exciting being several hundred cloth, reusable maxi-pads. There are quite a few schools in the area wanting us to come and talk and include their girls in our pad program. And it that isn't cool enough, the pads come in pretty patterns and colors :). Sweet! If you would have told me a year ago I'd be up to my elbows in pink flannel maxi-pads when I came back to Kenya, I'd have scoffed......life is funny that way sometimes:)

Jessie

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