Mamma!

Hey folks,
takes for ever but here is a little photo for you. This lady delivered this morning at 9:30 am but sadly I slept in and missed it thanks to a very noisy neighbour listening to drum and bass till 5am! Spoiling the peace!
Anyway, i'm sorry to say this is not the multiparas woman I told you about. She very sadly delivered a pre-term still born. I was told this and assumed the baby was in the morturary but sadly not, I came upon the baby in the linen room which was quite a shock! This meant it was amazingly lovely to meet THIS little baby boy who is wonderfully healthy and very cute and lacking clothes so I will be taking them some down this afternoon. The students here are 2 3rd years and one 2nd who all helped this lady acheive a normal delivery but with bilateral episiotomy due to her circumcision scarring.
I was making my way to labour ward with Cath on saturday evening when we were greeted by an entourage. They were discussing that a woman had come in bleeding she was 4 months pregnant and the were saying she needed to go to theatre. Wouldn't have been a problem but the electricity had cut out and the hospital generator wouldn't go on until 10 pm, it was only 9:10pm. Cath and I couldn't understand why they wouldn't switch it on if a life was in danger, regardless of cost, surely it was worth it?! They could just switch it off earlier tomorrow surely?! But no body would switch it on because the person who gives permission for such things was in
Nairobi and they were afriad. After about 3 mins of discussion regarding this we were quite annoyed! Anyway, we asked the staff (the qualified ones were outside the students were looking after this woman) What her obs were but no body could tell us!!! How ridiculous. So we went to see for ourselves. We rushed to the labour ward and couldn't see this woman. Then we discovered it was in fact the lady who was sitting up talking to her partner and looking very well!! (We had expected the worst, after all the staff were talking about how they didn't want another maternal death on their hands!) We took her obs for ourselves and discovered she was stable and showing no signs of shock. When we took a history, with Nancy as translator, we discovered that this woman was 8-12 weeks pregnant and had passed lots of clots at home and her bleeding was now minimal. A sad miscarriage that has now finished? That was the most likely story. We were no longer so worried about the lack of electricity although the doctor refused to do a speculum in the dark even though he had avery good torch, we know because we gave him it! GRR!!!
Anyway, the conclusion is this was an early miscarriage and this woman was now stable and stayed in for observation for 2 days before going home. Nancy says there has been an increase in spontaneous abortion in Ortum and, if she gets permission, she will be studying it for her research project (like our dissertation but no word limit although they try and keep it short as it costs less to print then!)
This was a very frustrating experience and not one I ever wish to see again. I am going to make a poster reminding people of the importance of taking observations and put it up in the labour room!
On a lighter note I went to Marich Pass Field Study Centre sunday and it was so lovely I stayed overnight and came back monday. I spent some time talking to the owner Mrs Roden who was widowed, her husband David, an Englishman, was killed in a car accident 3 years ago. He had lived in Marich Pass for decades and was carrying out research for an English university whilst building a lot of infrastructure for the local people. He was all round an extremely good man. His last project was to build a clinic for the locals. He was inspired to do this after watching a young woman die in childbirth locally unable to get to the nearest hospital which is in fact Ortum (30 miles along a truely awful road!) Mrs Roden was completing this clinic in his name and it is called the Marich Pass Village Project. I believe it has a website. They are due to open in 2 months so sadly I will miss the opening for which they have hired local dancers etc. anyway, this clinic will have a maternity unit along with outpatients department, and wards for males, female and children. They will be employing a doctor but hope to staff the rest of the clinic with volunteers. If anyone fancies it I have the address and would love to tell you more on my return! She is a great lady and you will be guaranteed amazing accomodation and hospitality! I wish I was here long enough!
Cath and I have also been to Kapenguria seeking some statistics on maternal and neonatal outcomes, circumcision rates and ensuing complications but we have to wait until friday for them to be compiled as someone has to read through the paperwork to find it- no such thing as a computer spreadsheet!!
Overall things are good here. Quiet at times but that leaves plenty of opportunity to talk to staff and patients. I enjoy it when it's busy, as always.
Thank you for all your comments, I have read and enjoyed them. Jan: yes to more detail on my return as internet availability is limited here. And i'm definately being careful in the sun! Rachel, I'm sorry about the texting. I tried to text you but it's obviously not worked so I will try again. I have a phone number here in Kenya so I can stay in touch with the leaders here, it is cheap for me to text you but it won't let me ring you, but I don't know what the costs are like for you. I will try again then please pass the number around, it's great to hear from people. As most people have said this place is indeed a learning curve for me and for others. Cath and I are contemplating that maybe we could start this as enxchange programme and help someone from here come visit the UK. What do you think?! The thought is it mnight get poeple out of some very old habits, like performing an episitomy because they think some one might have a rigid perineum, and only allowing 20 minutes for second stage!!! YIKES!! No time for decent there. They could also teach us a lot, like breech delivery. I really hope to see one before I leave but no luck yet. Anyway, please keep in touch. I love to have comments to read when I return to my blog. THANK YOU!!
Love always, Sarah x
P.S. Sorry, I can't get the photo to work. Will try and put some on facebook now.