Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thank you
I would really just like to add one last post to this blog to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who donated items and money, who came to my 'packing party' and ran out to buy me supplies at the last minute, who drove me to the airport despite it making them late for an appointment, who made sure my bank stuff was in order while I was away, who took care of my kitty and my plants, who ordered supplies for me while I was away, who tried to get my fridge fixed for me, who bought cat food, who wrote articles in the paper about me, who followed my blog and inadvertently supported me by doing so, who texted me on my Haitian phone so that I could have some contact with home when the internet wasn't working, who thought of me when I was sick, who lent me a sleeping bag and thermarest to take along... and to my darling co-workers who reworked their schedules COMPLETELY to let me go away to Haiti... THANK YOU.
One last thank you to Julia and Sarah and Valerye for having their babies BEFORE I left so that I could be there :-)
And thank you to Carey for waiting to have hers until I got back :-)
And to the women of Haiti - who allowed me to be a part of their lives and their children's lives.
And to Bumi Sehat for doing such a wonderful job in Haiti.
And to my clients in Vancouver who have been listening to my stories.
And to my new Haitian friends.
One last thank you to Julia and Sarah and Valerye for having their babies BEFORE I left so that I could be there :-)
And thank you to Carey for waiting to have hers until I got back :-)
And to the women of Haiti - who allowed me to be a part of their lives and their children's lives.
And to Bumi Sehat for doing such a wonderful job in Haiti.
And to my clients in Vancouver who have been listening to my stories.
And to my new Haitian friends.
Shockingly home
The universe worked in some mysterious ways in the last 2 days...
Firstly, by slipping me a NASTY stomach bug. I didn't even eat any street ice-cream. I was sick for 2 days amidst 2 births, and when the other midwives tried to start an IV on me, I nearly fainted in my chair and ended up laying on a mattress in the dining room for a couple of hours getting IV fluids and not at all enjoying my blood pressure of 76/48. Thank goodness for Ciprofloxin. Once I had healed enough to feel able to be more than 10 minutes from a washroom at any given time, Nathanael loaded me on the back of his scooter for one last trip to the beach. We drove farther this time, apparently until we were only 1 hour from the Dominican Republic by boat, and layed in the sun on the pebbly beach. It was my last swim in the insanely warm ocean :-( The sunset on the drive back was INCREDIBLE. And I can remember that it used to scare me to ride on the back of the scooter with no helmet, but on this ride, I couldn't get enough of the warm wind cooling my wet hair, and blowing dust into my eyes. I couldn't get enough of the palm trees, and corn fields, and the women carrying insanely heavy loads on their heads, and the little kids yelling 'blanc!' (aka 'white') at me. I wanted to take the whole scene and put it in an empty Prestige beer bottle and take it home.
The morning that I was to leave Jacmel at noon, I woke up, had a coffee with our new volunteers Pamela, Katherine (who is actually one of the board members for Bumi Sehat) and her sidekick Kate (a lovely and exceptionally talented 17-year old who came to Jacmel to photograph/blog about her experience). I was thinking about packing, and then Nadege, our birthing dome cleaner and washer of all birth-related laundry, came down to tell us that there was a woman in labour at the dome. We joked about whether or not I would have time to catch one more baby before leaving. We quickly gathered our things and headed up to the dome.
As we got closer to the dome, I could hear the woman pushing, and so broke out into a birth-induced sprint. Sure enough, I had enough time to put gloves on and barely catch the little baby girl that was born! Unfortunately the woman then began to bleed too much, so my last few hours in Jacmel were spent managing a PPH... but it made loading my things into the van for the road to Port-au-Prince even more surreal because of the extra dose of adrenaline I had on board!
We drove through the windy mountain roads to Port-au-Prince in the orphanage van (with air conditioning!) and I realized that I had no recollection of the trip out to Jacmel on that first day. Now Haiti had become so familiar to me. The earthquake damage in Leogane and Port-au-Prince was still shocking, and I tried my best to photograph it all while Emmanuel weaved through the traffic. It seemed like there was not much improvement in the clearing of the debris by the gigantic UN trucks since I first got in. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, just in time for torrential rains to start and for my flight to be delayed by an hour and a half.
I got to Miami and my plans to rent a hotel room and have a good night's sleep in a giant bed were somewhat thwarted by the fact that by the time my plane got in, it was already midnight with all of the delays. I got to have a hot shower (which by the way, feels like heaven when you haven't had one in awhile) and sleep for 3 hours before having the head back to the airport. The culture shock started there... or maybe it started a little bit on the plane when I realized that most of the people who could afford to leave Haiti were either Europeans, or very upper class Haitian people. I looked at the tv like it was some kind of foreign useless object in the hotel room, and turned off the air conditioning in favour of overheating myself while I slept. I was so incredibly thankful for the woman next to me on the flight from Miami to Chicago, who wanted to know every detail of my trip. And when she asked me 'how did you actually cope with everything that you saw there??', I had to think long and hard, and got a bit teary, and my only answer was that I didn't know quite yet... Then Kelly's speech when Miss U.S.A. was visiting popped into my head - that it really wasn't about me anyway, because I didn't have to continue living in the conditions that the Haitian people are living in.
When I arrived in Canada, I went to Earl's in Yaletown for some food because my fridge decided to break while I was away. I also found that slightly entertaining since I've been basically living without a fridge for a month anyway! But what made me laugh was the conversations that I was hearing while I ate dinner - about one guy's inability to do bench presses, and another person's anger at the fact that their friend didn't call them back. I think it's in hearing those kinds of things that the culture shock really sets in.
And then there was the birth shock...
Because I am crazy, I went on call last night at 6pm after just getting back. And at 6pm I headed to the hospital to be at the birth of a friend (and client). They were so incredibly sweet, asking me how I was managing! Anyhow, I had so wanted to be there for their birth, and the universe basically handed me the honour of being there. And their little girl was born at around 9:30pm. Congratulations guys :-)
Now I am sitting in my apartment looking at my 'Haitian pink' toenail polish, trying to wrap my head around all of the ways in which my life and my practice as a midwife, and the person I am, have been changed by being in Haiti. And I can't wait to get all of the photos posted for you to see.
In case anyone still wants to donate to my cause in Haiti, the organization I worked with is in need of financial help to apply for a funding grant. So I will still be accepting donations and sending them on so that the amazing birth dome can continue offering what it does to the families of Jacmel.
Thank you for following my journey...
Firstly, by slipping me a NASTY stomach bug. I didn't even eat any street ice-cream. I was sick for 2 days amidst 2 births, and when the other midwives tried to start an IV on me, I nearly fainted in my chair and ended up laying on a mattress in the dining room for a couple of hours getting IV fluids and not at all enjoying my blood pressure of 76/48. Thank goodness for Ciprofloxin. Once I had healed enough to feel able to be more than 10 minutes from a washroom at any given time, Nathanael loaded me on the back of his scooter for one last trip to the beach. We drove farther this time, apparently until we were only 1 hour from the Dominican Republic by boat, and layed in the sun on the pebbly beach. It was my last swim in the insanely warm ocean :-( The sunset on the drive back was INCREDIBLE. And I can remember that it used to scare me to ride on the back of the scooter with no helmet, but on this ride, I couldn't get enough of the warm wind cooling my wet hair, and blowing dust into my eyes. I couldn't get enough of the palm trees, and corn fields, and the women carrying insanely heavy loads on their heads, and the little kids yelling 'blanc!' (aka 'white') at me. I wanted to take the whole scene and put it in an empty Prestige beer bottle and take it home.
The morning that I was to leave Jacmel at noon, I woke up, had a coffee with our new volunteers Pamela, Katherine (who is actually one of the board members for Bumi Sehat) and her sidekick Kate (a lovely and exceptionally talented 17-year old who came to Jacmel to photograph/blog about her experience). I was thinking about packing, and then Nadege, our birthing dome cleaner and washer of all birth-related laundry, came down to tell us that there was a woman in labour at the dome. We joked about whether or not I would have time to catch one more baby before leaving. We quickly gathered our things and headed up to the dome.
As we got closer to the dome, I could hear the woman pushing, and so broke out into a birth-induced sprint. Sure enough, I had enough time to put gloves on and barely catch the little baby girl that was born! Unfortunately the woman then began to bleed too much, so my last few hours in Jacmel were spent managing a PPH... but it made loading my things into the van for the road to Port-au-Prince even more surreal because of the extra dose of adrenaline I had on board!
We drove through the windy mountain roads to Port-au-Prince in the orphanage van (with air conditioning!) and I realized that I had no recollection of the trip out to Jacmel on that first day. Now Haiti had become so familiar to me. The earthquake damage in Leogane and Port-au-Prince was still shocking, and I tried my best to photograph it all while Emmanuel weaved through the traffic. It seemed like there was not much improvement in the clearing of the debris by the gigantic UN trucks since I first got in. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, just in time for torrential rains to start and for my flight to be delayed by an hour and a half.
I got to Miami and my plans to rent a hotel room and have a good night's sleep in a giant bed were somewhat thwarted by the fact that by the time my plane got in, it was already midnight with all of the delays. I got to have a hot shower (which by the way, feels like heaven when you haven't had one in awhile) and sleep for 3 hours before having the head back to the airport. The culture shock started there... or maybe it started a little bit on the plane when I realized that most of the people who could afford to leave Haiti were either Europeans, or very upper class Haitian people. I looked at the tv like it was some kind of foreign useless object in the hotel room, and turned off the air conditioning in favour of overheating myself while I slept. I was so incredibly thankful for the woman next to me on the flight from Miami to Chicago, who wanted to know every detail of my trip. And when she asked me 'how did you actually cope with everything that you saw there??', I had to think long and hard, and got a bit teary, and my only answer was that I didn't know quite yet... Then Kelly's speech when Miss U.S.A. was visiting popped into my head - that it really wasn't about me anyway, because I didn't have to continue living in the conditions that the Haitian people are living in.
When I arrived in Canada, I went to Earl's in Yaletown for some food because my fridge decided to break while I was away. I also found that slightly entertaining since I've been basically living without a fridge for a month anyway! But what made me laugh was the conversations that I was hearing while I ate dinner - about one guy's inability to do bench presses, and another person's anger at the fact that their friend didn't call them back. I think it's in hearing those kinds of things that the culture shock really sets in.
And then there was the birth shock...
Because I am crazy, I went on call last night at 6pm after just getting back. And at 6pm I headed to the hospital to be at the birth of a friend (and client). They were so incredibly sweet, asking me how I was managing! Anyhow, I had so wanted to be there for their birth, and the universe basically handed me the honour of being there. And their little girl was born at around 9:30pm. Congratulations guys :-)
Now I am sitting in my apartment looking at my 'Haitian pink' toenail polish, trying to wrap my head around all of the ways in which my life and my practice as a midwife, and the person I am, have been changed by being in Haiti. And I can't wait to get all of the photos posted for you to see.
In case anyone still wants to donate to my cause in Haiti, the organization I worked with is in need of financial help to apply for a funding grant. So I will still be accepting donations and sending them on so that the amazing birth dome can continue offering what it does to the families of Jacmel.
Thank you for following my journey...
Friday, May 7, 2010
Birth announcement for birthing centre cat!
This morning at about 6:30am, I awoke to our resident pregnant kitty Jorshie meowing at the top of her lungs and wandering aimlessly around the house. Just a little bit of background: Jorshie arrived one day at the Bumi Sehat house full of midwives, totally pregnant, but too far along to get a kitty termination (said the vet). At first she didn't like anyone, but then warmed up quickly when the ladies here began feeding her, and soon enough she was spending most of her time sleeping in our laps! She's just a young kitty and was so skinny when I first got here!
So, the next thing that happened was that I fed her some leftover Kraft dinner which Tanya had made the night before and was apparently really gross because milk in 30 degrees heat is just not milk... She ate about half a cup of the stuff in 30 seconds but was still meowing away. So after putting the Kraft dinner back in the fridge and getting electrocuted by it (this is what happens with our fridge, in particular if you are not wearing shoes and standing in a puddle of water), I strolled back up the stairs to my bed. Kitty followed me up, hung out in my bed for awhile but kept getting restless and sliding out under the mosquito net. I went back downstairs, gave her more Kraft dinner, then as I was in my puzzled and half-awakened state and heading back up the stairs again with her meowing at my feet, I ran into Tanya in the hallway. She was asking me to go to the dome to assess a woman with ruptured membranes who had just come in. She asked me if the kitty was in labour, and I said, 'no, she's ok, she's just acting weird!', then as luck would have it, her water broke on the floor in the hallway! And so it all began... While I attended to a labouring woman at the dome, Tanya sat with Jorshie as she delivered her 3 kittens! Unfortunately one kitten died right after the birth, but the other two survived and are super cute! And as some of you might know, my midwife career began attending cat deliveries so this was a blast from the past...
The lady who came into the dome delivered her baby (her 2nd) roughly an hour after she got there, once again in Haitian multip style, by having only 30min total of contractions. Finally a baby girl was born, we've had so many boys in the past few weeks. Too bad we couldn't just spend the rest of the day sitting around with the new kittens and staring at them, but it's been only Tanya and I doing all of the clinics and all of the births for the past few days since Amy left, so we had to do a FULL day of prenatal visits today in the extra scorching heat. The volunteers coming in the coming months are going to have to be hard workers, because we have roughly 20-30 due dates each month right now, and many women who just walk in in labour for care.
My other stories of the past few days involve cutting off an extra digit off a baby's hand... (yes, there are photos, and yes, the baby was fine! And for the record, Tanya did the cutting, I just gave her emotional support and did the photography). And the other story is the pretty much 20 hours that I spent with a 19-year old having her first baby, and sadly she decided to go to the hospital in the middle of the night while we were sleeping because she was just too tired to go and wanted an augment. I had spent the entire day with her and when I went to take a break, she cried because she didn't want me to leave. We didn't speak the same language, but somehow we had managed to connect... I spent a good part of the night with her when I came back from my break, rubbing her back with every single contraction, until it seemed like her contractions had slowed and it would be ok for us to sleep. This morning she was gone :-( Maybe I'll make a trip to St. Michel to see if she is doing alright.
I'll admit I am getting to be a bit sacked... probably a combination of being at a billion births in Canada just before leaving to come here, then going to something like 14 births in the 2.5 weeks that I've been here. Only 3 more days... wow, it's going to be really wild to be home. I can predict now how it's going to feel to be home - all of this will so easily seem like a dream.
Hope everyone out there is doing well back home. Hope Julia and Sarah and their new babies are doing amazingly. And congrats to Sarah in Campbell River for having her baby girl too!
Births all around.
So, the next thing that happened was that I fed her some leftover Kraft dinner which Tanya had made the night before and was apparently really gross because milk in 30 degrees heat is just not milk... She ate about half a cup of the stuff in 30 seconds but was still meowing away. So after putting the Kraft dinner back in the fridge and getting electrocuted by it (this is what happens with our fridge, in particular if you are not wearing shoes and standing in a puddle of water), I strolled back up the stairs to my bed. Kitty followed me up, hung out in my bed for awhile but kept getting restless and sliding out under the mosquito net. I went back downstairs, gave her more Kraft dinner, then as I was in my puzzled and half-awakened state and heading back up the stairs again with her meowing at my feet, I ran into Tanya in the hallway. She was asking me to go to the dome to assess a woman with ruptured membranes who had just come in. She asked me if the kitty was in labour, and I said, 'no, she's ok, she's just acting weird!', then as luck would have it, her water broke on the floor in the hallway! And so it all began... While I attended to a labouring woman at the dome, Tanya sat with Jorshie as she delivered her 3 kittens! Unfortunately one kitten died right after the birth, but the other two survived and are super cute! And as some of you might know, my midwife career began attending cat deliveries so this was a blast from the past...
The lady who came into the dome delivered her baby (her 2nd) roughly an hour after she got there, once again in Haitian multip style, by having only 30min total of contractions. Finally a baby girl was born, we've had so many boys in the past few weeks. Too bad we couldn't just spend the rest of the day sitting around with the new kittens and staring at them, but it's been only Tanya and I doing all of the clinics and all of the births for the past few days since Amy left, so we had to do a FULL day of prenatal visits today in the extra scorching heat. The volunteers coming in the coming months are going to have to be hard workers, because we have roughly 20-30 due dates each month right now, and many women who just walk in in labour for care.
My other stories of the past few days involve cutting off an extra digit off a baby's hand... (yes, there are photos, and yes, the baby was fine! And for the record, Tanya did the cutting, I just gave her emotional support and did the photography). And the other story is the pretty much 20 hours that I spent with a 19-year old having her first baby, and sadly she decided to go to the hospital in the middle of the night while we were sleeping because she was just too tired to go and wanted an augment. I had spent the entire day with her and when I went to take a break, she cried because she didn't want me to leave. We didn't speak the same language, but somehow we had managed to connect... I spent a good part of the night with her when I came back from my break, rubbing her back with every single contraction, until it seemed like her contractions had slowed and it would be ok for us to sleep. This morning she was gone :-( Maybe I'll make a trip to St. Michel to see if she is doing alright.
I'll admit I am getting to be a bit sacked... probably a combination of being at a billion births in Canada just before leaving to come here, then going to something like 14 births in the 2.5 weeks that I've been here. Only 3 more days... wow, it's going to be really wild to be home. I can predict now how it's going to feel to be home - all of this will so easily seem like a dream.
Hope everyone out there is doing well back home. Hope Julia and Sarah and their new babies are doing amazingly. And congrats to Sarah in Campbell River for having her baby girl too!
Births all around.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Haitian birth experience
I thought that I would take a moment today to write about the amazing experience of birth for Haitian women. I've noticed that every culture has their own 'way' of birthing and this culture is definitely keeping me on my feet!
The first time moms here tend to have very long labours, most of the time they are at the dome for at least one day. One woman yesterday was 7-8cm dilated for pretty much the whole day. But the brilliant thing about being nowhere near any interventions, is that you just get to sit and watch and listen to the women labouring and there are no timelines. The mother yesterday had her contractions completely stop at 7cm and then she had a nap, and then they restarted. But they were never regular contractions, nor were they very long, and then all of a sudden, there she was pushing her baby out! The same thing happened today, I went up to the birth dome at 5am to check a woman who was 3cm dilated and having her first baby. She was having irregular, short contractions, and then the next call I got from the night nurse, was that the head was crowning at 7:45! I ran up the hill as fast as one can in flip flops on an uneven street surface, and got there in time to find one of our translators catching the baby. The brilliant thing is also that there seems to be a correlation between the fact that we don't interfere, and the fact that these women do not have tears. Maybe it's just that they have incredibly healthy perineal tissues, or smaller babies, or they just seem to know that perfect positions to push in... who knows, but I have not sutured once since being here, and I've been to something like 12 births now. Even when I have had to coach them to push really hard as the baby is coming, because of the baby's heart rate dropping, they still have not had a tear! Anyway, I digress about the tearing...
Women who have had babies before are a whole other story! We've had many women just walk in, have one contraction that we've seen and the baby's out. Or some have given birth in the street on the way to the birth dome. The usual story is that they have some contractions that look mildly uncomfortable at best, for awhile, and then one or two strong ones and the baby is coming. Births here have been nothing like back home, and my mind is trying to wrap itself around the possible reasons why. Definitely there is a peacefulness in being a midwife here, just laying around in the excrutiating heat with a fan pointed at you, reading a book and listening to the women's songs echo through the dome. They surround themselves with their mothers, sisters, cousins, husbands, and my job has really just been to give them the best care I can and catch their little babies - they are amazed to have anyone cleaning their bedpans. I haven't really done a lot of midwifing the way it seems I do in Canada, or maybe I am realizing that even though I like to think that I don't interfere in birth, I actually do! I love not cutting the cord, and just letting the placenta come when it does. The great thing about the way things work here, is that we also don't seem to have complications. Despite our lack of intervention, virtually every woman so far has just pushed out their placenta with no oxytocin, in a reasonable time frame, then not bled a drop after. I laughed when another midwife from Canada was afraid to tell anyone that she had to open the birth instruments and use them to help get a placenta to deliver! The ol' birth instruments package had a fine coating of dust on it...
I'm sure that I won't be able to apply what works for these women's bodies in this culture, to our situation in Canada, but I hope that I've learned some tricks about investing in an even greater degree of patience and faith in women's bodies and in babies to just find their way.
The first time moms here tend to have very long labours, most of the time they are at the dome for at least one day. One woman yesterday was 7-8cm dilated for pretty much the whole day. But the brilliant thing about being nowhere near any interventions, is that you just get to sit and watch and listen to the women labouring and there are no timelines. The mother yesterday had her contractions completely stop at 7cm and then she had a nap, and then they restarted. But they were never regular contractions, nor were they very long, and then all of a sudden, there she was pushing her baby out! The same thing happened today, I went up to the birth dome at 5am to check a woman who was 3cm dilated and having her first baby. She was having irregular, short contractions, and then the next call I got from the night nurse, was that the head was crowning at 7:45! I ran up the hill as fast as one can in flip flops on an uneven street surface, and got there in time to find one of our translators catching the baby. The brilliant thing is also that there seems to be a correlation between the fact that we don't interfere, and the fact that these women do not have tears. Maybe it's just that they have incredibly healthy perineal tissues, or smaller babies, or they just seem to know that perfect positions to push in... who knows, but I have not sutured once since being here, and I've been to something like 12 births now. Even when I have had to coach them to push really hard as the baby is coming, because of the baby's heart rate dropping, they still have not had a tear! Anyway, I digress about the tearing...
Women who have had babies before are a whole other story! We've had many women just walk in, have one contraction that we've seen and the baby's out. Or some have given birth in the street on the way to the birth dome. The usual story is that they have some contractions that look mildly uncomfortable at best, for awhile, and then one or two strong ones and the baby is coming. Births here have been nothing like back home, and my mind is trying to wrap itself around the possible reasons why. Definitely there is a peacefulness in being a midwife here, just laying around in the excrutiating heat with a fan pointed at you, reading a book and listening to the women's songs echo through the dome. They surround themselves with their mothers, sisters, cousins, husbands, and my job has really just been to give them the best care I can and catch their little babies - they are amazed to have anyone cleaning their bedpans. I haven't really done a lot of midwifing the way it seems I do in Canada, or maybe I am realizing that even though I like to think that I don't interfere in birth, I actually do! I love not cutting the cord, and just letting the placenta come when it does. The great thing about the way things work here, is that we also don't seem to have complications. Despite our lack of intervention, virtually every woman so far has just pushed out their placenta with no oxytocin, in a reasonable time frame, then not bled a drop after. I laughed when another midwife from Canada was afraid to tell anyone that she had to open the birth instruments and use them to help get a placenta to deliver! The ol' birth instruments package had a fine coating of dust on it...
I'm sure that I won't be able to apply what works for these women's bodies in this culture, to our situation in Canada, but I hope that I've learned some tricks about investing in an even greater degree of patience and faith in women's bodies and in babies to just find their way.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Random thoughts
Hello again! I am taking advantage of the fact that I still have internet to write again! Just wanted to write a couple of things about Haiti before I forget:
- I hate cockroaches, especially when they fly in your hair.
- I also hate ants that bite. Though I found them quite interesting when they walked in a little line up my mosquito netting and ate the dead mosquito that I killed there a couple of days ago.
- Haitian rum and Haitian coffee are two beautiful things.
- Buying a huge bag of mangoes on the street for something like $2 rocks.
- There is no such thing as multigrain bread, hot water showers, or vegetarianism here.
- Virtually all volunteers have developed some kind of bad habit while here - for some it is smoking, but for me, I am now the diabetic who drinks the occasional Coca Cola! What??!! Bad, bad diabetic. Though I have to say that since being in Haiti in this scorching heat, I've become mostly non-diabetic. Only 1-2 insulin injections per day, instead of 4-5. In some kind of weird way, despite the copious amounts of fried food, refined sugar and lack of vegetables in our diet here, I have actually become more healthy!
- It is not unusual to receive daily marriage proposals from Haitian men. They are very, very persistent.
- My dorm room now seems eerily quiet with Amy gone and Tanya sleeping in her own room! I've lost Elleana and Amy all in one week! Luckily a new volunteer is coming soon... Until then I will play musical beds.
Please read more about the Haiti earthquake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
Ok, back to work... just wanted to write this down before I forgot!
xo
- I hate cockroaches, especially when they fly in your hair.
- I also hate ants that bite. Though I found them quite interesting when they walked in a little line up my mosquito netting and ate the dead mosquito that I killed there a couple of days ago.
- Haitian rum and Haitian coffee are two beautiful things.
- Buying a huge bag of mangoes on the street for something like $2 rocks.
- There is no such thing as multigrain bread, hot water showers, or vegetarianism here.
- Virtually all volunteers have developed some kind of bad habit while here - for some it is smoking, but for me, I am now the diabetic who drinks the occasional Coca Cola! What??!! Bad, bad diabetic. Though I have to say that since being in Haiti in this scorching heat, I've become mostly non-diabetic. Only 1-2 insulin injections per day, instead of 4-5. In some kind of weird way, despite the copious amounts of fried food, refined sugar and lack of vegetables in our diet here, I have actually become more healthy!
- It is not unusual to receive daily marriage proposals from Haitian men. They are very, very persistent.
- My dorm room now seems eerily quiet with Amy gone and Tanya sleeping in her own room! I've lost Elleana and Amy all in one week! Luckily a new volunteer is coming soon... Until then I will play musical beds.
Please read more about the Haiti earthquake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
Ok, back to work... just wanted to write this down before I forgot!
xo
Monday, May 3, 2010
Life in a sarong
Oh my gosh, after a LONG week of no contact with home, the internet is back!!! Hopefully for long enough for me to write this post!
What a week it's been! The pace has definitely been steadily picking up as far as births go at the dome since it first opened. We are averaging about 1-2 births a day, and since we do back up for each other for the deliveries, I feel like I've been at nearly every birth. Overall the babies and moms have been healthy, with the exception of 2 babies admitted to hospital for fevers/infection (we have since decided that because the temperature in the dome is something like 38.5 degrees celcius, we are not doing anymore baby temperatures during the day unless they are outside - we figure we can avoid some 'fevers' this way...). And we had 2 moms admitted to hospital for inductions - both were apparently 45 weeks pregnant (aka 5 weeks past their due dates!) but then again we actually have no idea when anyone's due date is most of the time. I feel like I'm really falling into the swing of things, now that I only have 1 week left here!
Other than that... 2 really nice days this past week - one at Bassin Bleu, a canyon with beautiful cold freshwater swimming holes, but a nasty bumpy motorcycle ride up to it through a garbage dump. On the way home we literally had to ride through a pile of flaming garbage - I felt like some kind of stunt woman. I wish I could post photos up here but the internet is too slow... I'll show you all on Flickr once I'm back!
The other really nice day recently was Jacmel Day, the annual party for the city that we are living in. We went and walked down by the beach through Belair, the old port which apparently was quite the amazing site in the 60's. The buildings were so amazing - all in wood and painted in beautiful bright colours. It's too bad that it's all deserted now. Little known facts - Jacmel was one of the first ports to get electricity and was the major port for Haiti initially. We also walked through some areas that were really hit hard by the earthquake and as someone explained to me, all of the crumbled houses are still holding the bodies of the many of the victims. In graphic detail, the whole city smelled like what you can imagine immediately after the quake with the heat. It was also explained to me that the smell is no longer there as the bodies have decomposed by now. What a powerful vision to carry around when walking through the streets. It's especially powerful to think about given that Port au Prince got hit with a 5.2 scale 'aftershock' today resulting in more deaths. Don't worry - we are staying in a wooden house here - most of the houses still standing after the quake were wooden because they could bend with the tremors. Apparently we are getting small aftershocks often, though I have never felt one.
We spent Jacmel day splurging on pastries, buying jewellery made from coral and taking heaps of pictures of the partying going on. I had a fun time watching the swimming races they had at the beach - basically a boat fills up with people and dumps them off some distance of the beach and they all swim back as fast as they can! Interestingly every Haitian person I know here does not feel comfortable swimming. I thought about doing the race myself but the water here is so incredibly salty and burns my eyes so much that I would probably end up dropping out to cry.
I am nearing the end of my trip now... and I can't get over how much I have learned in such a short time. I have so many more stories to tell you but will have to sign off for tonight because another lady is in labour and their is much work to be done in terms of creating better charting/educational materials for the birthing centre.
I'm hoping to get a few more stories about people and what their experiences of the earthquake were before I go. Certainly we see on women's charts often that their husbands/boyfriends had died in the earthquake.
Tomorrow Amy leaves back to the U.S. and the next day we get a new midwife joining us. This has been such a surreal experience, and it's interesting that I feel that every midwife who's come, for whatever short time we overlapped, will always be on my mind for what we've done here together.
Sweet dreams to you all.
What a week it's been! The pace has definitely been steadily picking up as far as births go at the dome since it first opened. We are averaging about 1-2 births a day, and since we do back up for each other for the deliveries, I feel like I've been at nearly every birth. Overall the babies and moms have been healthy, with the exception of 2 babies admitted to hospital for fevers/infection (we have since decided that because the temperature in the dome is something like 38.5 degrees celcius, we are not doing anymore baby temperatures during the day unless they are outside - we figure we can avoid some 'fevers' this way...). And we had 2 moms admitted to hospital for inductions - both were apparently 45 weeks pregnant (aka 5 weeks past their due dates!) but then again we actually have no idea when anyone's due date is most of the time. I feel like I'm really falling into the swing of things, now that I only have 1 week left here!
Other than that... 2 really nice days this past week - one at Bassin Bleu, a canyon with beautiful cold freshwater swimming holes, but a nasty bumpy motorcycle ride up to it through a garbage dump. On the way home we literally had to ride through a pile of flaming garbage - I felt like some kind of stunt woman. I wish I could post photos up here but the internet is too slow... I'll show you all on Flickr once I'm back!
The other really nice day recently was Jacmel Day, the annual party for the city that we are living in. We went and walked down by the beach through Belair, the old port which apparently was quite the amazing site in the 60's. The buildings were so amazing - all in wood and painted in beautiful bright colours. It's too bad that it's all deserted now. Little known facts - Jacmel was one of the first ports to get electricity and was the major port for Haiti initially. We also walked through some areas that were really hit hard by the earthquake and as someone explained to me, all of the crumbled houses are still holding the bodies of the many of the victims. In graphic detail, the whole city smelled like what you can imagine immediately after the quake with the heat. It was also explained to me that the smell is no longer there as the bodies have decomposed by now. What a powerful vision to carry around when walking through the streets. It's especially powerful to think about given that Port au Prince got hit with a 5.2 scale 'aftershock' today resulting in more deaths. Don't worry - we are staying in a wooden house here - most of the houses still standing after the quake were wooden because they could bend with the tremors. Apparently we are getting small aftershocks often, though I have never felt one.
We spent Jacmel day splurging on pastries, buying jewellery made from coral and taking heaps of pictures of the partying going on. I had a fun time watching the swimming races they had at the beach - basically a boat fills up with people and dumps them off some distance of the beach and they all swim back as fast as they can! Interestingly every Haitian person I know here does not feel comfortable swimming. I thought about doing the race myself but the water here is so incredibly salty and burns my eyes so much that I would probably end up dropping out to cry.
I am nearing the end of my trip now... and I can't get over how much I have learned in such a short time. I have so many more stories to tell you but will have to sign off for tonight because another lady is in labour and their is much work to be done in terms of creating better charting/educational materials for the birthing centre.
I'm hoping to get a few more stories about people and what their experiences of the earthquake were before I go. Certainly we see on women's charts often that their husbands/boyfriends had died in the earthquake.
Tomorrow Amy leaves back to the U.S. and the next day we get a new midwife joining us. This has been such a surreal experience, and it's interesting that I feel that every midwife who's come, for whatever short time we overlapped, will always be on my mind for what we've done here together.
Sweet dreams to you all.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Update from Candace - by Mom
I just got off the phone with Candace. Very, very difficult to get through. We were lucky to have about 20 minutes and then the line went dead. She wants everyone to know that she is doing very well. Unfortunately, there is no internet service and the phone lines come and go. Texting appears to be working, so if you want to try to communicate that way, here is the number: 011 509 3436 4730
She is very busy - doing about 2 births a day. While we were talking there was a mom waiting to deliver. It's very hot - no rain yet. They can cool off by taking a dip in the ocean.
I was going to send her some powdered Gatorade, but unfortunately, due to the earthquake, Canadian and US postal service is not forwarding any mail. Even FedEx is not sending anything to Haiti. They could have service back sometime in May.
So, she says a big HELLO to everyone. She is thinking of family and friends back home but is doing really good. So, if you want to communicate briefly with her - try texting.
Krys
She is very busy - doing about 2 births a day. While we were talking there was a mom waiting to deliver. It's very hot - no rain yet. They can cool off by taking a dip in the ocean.
I was going to send her some powdered Gatorade, but unfortunately, due to the earthquake, Canadian and US postal service is not forwarding any mail. Even FedEx is not sending anything to Haiti. They could have service back sometime in May.
So, she says a big HELLO to everyone. She is thinking of family and friends back home but is doing really good. So, if you want to communicate briefly with her - try texting.
Krys
Friday, April 23, 2010
49 mosquito bites
That's the going count on just my lower legs... Good thing is that it is not yet the rainy season! It's been sunny here every single day. Mmmmmmm.
Two nights ago, I went to my first 2 birthing dome births! They were both having their 5th babies so things went relatively fast, I think they were only an hour long each! Both babies were in the early 6lb range which is the normal birthweight here. It's been so really fascinating to learn about chinese medicine/homeopathy remedies for different pregnancy or labour-related things - here they use Yunnan baiyao as a herb to stop bleeding after the birth and rarely have to use oxytocin (all you birthing folks will know what that means). We also do cord burning rather than clamping and cutting cords, since it cauterizes the cord and prevents infection from tetanus and other bacteria since most babies are going home to tents right now and are much more exposed to infection. The process involves 2 people burning an area on the cord with candles, and eventually the cord breaks away. Virtually no cord is clamped and cut before the placenta is delivered (which happens also very fast here from what I've heard and seen). It was really quite serene to be in the birth dome with Eliana with the new mom and baby and sit quietly in the darkness only lit up by our two candles and two lanterns and wait patiently for the cord to bun through. The babies don't seem to mind either! They are SO incredibly cute by the way.
Yesterday was a day off, so Eliana and I and one of our many friends and helpers here at the house (Ambroise) headed out to the beach again, this time on scooters. They are pretty much the craziest drivers ever! But the trip was awesome - wind blowing through my dusty hair, past the corn fields and banana trees... Everything outside of Jacmel was fairly untouched by the earthquake, and I had never envisioned Haiti to be so lush and green given all of the images of broken down cities and debris and rubble that are everywhere on the internet. We ate fish and plantain chips on the beach, and swam in the most beautiful ocean EVER. The water was so warm and salty that you could just float around in the sunshine for hours probably. There were heaps of local children swimming around, and fishing. I think it's funny that when I tell the local women to swim in the ocean to help with their swollen feet, they always laugh at me! The other trend on my two beach days so far has been that we eventually get squeezed out of the main beach area in favour of the soccer players.
Today was another prenatal clinic day. The workers set up a tent outside for all of the women who were waiting today to shield them from the blistering sun! I'm sure it was already 30 degrees when we headed up there at 9am... Their patience is astounding- some women wait 3 hours to be seen, and don't ever complain. Virtually everyone here is anemic but we don't have much to give them besides prenatal vitamins and a bit of Floradix which we will run out of soon. (On a side note, my mosquito bites are SO itchy right now that I am scratching my legs off!!)
So now I am off for a nap and maybe some Haitian shopping. They have beautiful dresses here.
I hope you are all well and enjoying the cool, rainy weather! I am missing it just a bit right now... xo
Two nights ago, I went to my first 2 birthing dome births! They were both having their 5th babies so things went relatively fast, I think they were only an hour long each! Both babies were in the early 6lb range which is the normal birthweight here. It's been so really fascinating to learn about chinese medicine/homeopathy remedies for different pregnancy or labour-related things - here they use Yunnan baiyao as a herb to stop bleeding after the birth and rarely have to use oxytocin (all you birthing folks will know what that means). We also do cord burning rather than clamping and cutting cords, since it cauterizes the cord and prevents infection from tetanus and other bacteria since most babies are going home to tents right now and are much more exposed to infection. The process involves 2 people burning an area on the cord with candles, and eventually the cord breaks away. Virtually no cord is clamped and cut before the placenta is delivered (which happens also very fast here from what I've heard and seen). It was really quite serene to be in the birth dome with Eliana with the new mom and baby and sit quietly in the darkness only lit up by our two candles and two lanterns and wait patiently for the cord to bun through. The babies don't seem to mind either! They are SO incredibly cute by the way.
Yesterday was a day off, so Eliana and I and one of our many friends and helpers here at the house (Ambroise) headed out to the beach again, this time on scooters. They are pretty much the craziest drivers ever! But the trip was awesome - wind blowing through my dusty hair, past the corn fields and banana trees... Everything outside of Jacmel was fairly untouched by the earthquake, and I had never envisioned Haiti to be so lush and green given all of the images of broken down cities and debris and rubble that are everywhere on the internet. We ate fish and plantain chips on the beach, and swam in the most beautiful ocean EVER. The water was so warm and salty that you could just float around in the sunshine for hours probably. There were heaps of local children swimming around, and fishing. I think it's funny that when I tell the local women to swim in the ocean to help with their swollen feet, they always laugh at me! The other trend on my two beach days so far has been that we eventually get squeezed out of the main beach area in favour of the soccer players.
Today was another prenatal clinic day. The workers set up a tent outside for all of the women who were waiting today to shield them from the blistering sun! I'm sure it was already 30 degrees when we headed up there at 9am... Their patience is astounding- some women wait 3 hours to be seen, and don't ever complain. Virtually everyone here is anemic but we don't have much to give them besides prenatal vitamins and a bit of Floradix which we will run out of soon. (On a side note, my mosquito bites are SO itchy right now that I am scratching my legs off!!)
So now I am off for a nap and maybe some Haitian shopping. They have beautiful dresses here.
I hope you are all well and enjoying the cool, rainy weather! I am missing it just a bit right now... xo
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Miss U.S.A. comes to Haiti
I found it most interesting that on my second day in Haiti, I woke up to find out that Miss U.S.A. and Miss Dominican Republic were planning to fly into Jacmel in their own private jet, deliver an ultrasound machine from the 60's to the clinic, and then eat lunch with us and fly away! Their team, including their photographers and film-makers from Vancouver, arrived at 2:30pm at the clinic after walking through the tent city where 15 000 Haitian people now live until their homes can be rebuilt. Apparently Miss U.S.A. was quite lovely, I didn't actually do more than introduce myself to her! The team came to the Bumi Sehat birthing dome (which I LOVE by the way... it is so super space age!), did a bit of a photo shoot, and then literally had their private jet fly into the small aiport in Jacmel and took off to their next destination in Africa. The funniest part of all was when we opened the boxes that the ultrasound machines were in, only to find some kind of ancient ultrasound therapy machines, not at all an obstetrical ultrasound machine! Oooopsies. Apparently the real deal is on the way, and will arrive soon, which I hope is true since women are showing up every day to get access to ultrasound. Right now in Jacmel, women can pay around $30 US for an ultrasound, which might not sound like a lot, but is probably more than 1 family's income for the month.
That day was also my first day of doing the pediatric clinic at the dome. We see children up to the age of 3, once a week. There were lineups Zambia-style, all along the wall leading up to the dome, and likely 2 hour waits for the families. Most of the women and children spoke some French, but more spoke Creole so we have translaters who help us out. We saw mostly cases of impetigo (bacterial skin infections), lots of diarrhea and fever, and one hemorrhoid. One woman who had walked for likely 45min+ to get to the clinic with her sick 5-year old on her back and a ~6-month old in her arms, ended up having to be loaded onto a 'taxi', which here is actually a scooter, to take her sick son to the local hospital for a crazy high fever. Amazing! She carried her sick son down the hill to the road from the clinic while I carried her baby, and I can't even imagine what it was like to trek to us in the first place. Anyhow, it was a crazy day of pushing boundaries of my comfort zone in attempting to diagnose children's skin conditions and the sources of their diarrhea, and learning SO MUCH. The midwives here have been amazing and so patient with teaching me the ways of healthcare in Haiti! I've also been learning a lot about natural/chinese medicine treatments for different conditions, and starting to learn the ins and outs of distributing antibiotics. We gave out a lot of vitamins but unfortunately could not help the families with food.
Dinner was the feast that Miss U.S.A. was not able to eat with us due to her international engagements. I made friends with the chickens we were to eat that day and we all helped out with meal preparation. The food here rocks, I can't get enough rice and beans (but ask me again in about a week). So far so good, no gut issues for me yet!
Today we had a morning of some prenatal visits, including a woman 31 weeks pregnant with twins who was having some cramping. We saw her later on the street and luckily all had settled since we can't really deliver twins at that gestational age at the birthing centre. We then took a walk through the tent city - now housing 15 000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake. It was impressive. A sea of green army tents, each family allocated to an approximately 6ft x6ft space to live in. They had beds, and little campstoves. Various NGO's had tents set up to distribute food, and there was even a play area set up for the children. Shower tents were also set up. The situation was however quite grim - the tent interiors were stiffling and obviously not as clean as they could be. Children played with garbage bags and twine in the pathways and for some reason they kept running up to us and wanting to hold our hands or hug us. They call us 'blancs' ('whites'). We visited with a woman who gave birth on Friday in the night with a traditional birth attendant, in her tent. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Joseph. He was perfect when we examined him. I can't even write down here all of the stories that people stopped to tell us, about losing partners/family members/children in the earthquake. Despite it all, they had the biggest smiles on their faces! Incredible.
We ended the day today by taking a 'tap tap' (decorative bus!) out to the ocean. We swam in the incredible clear and warm water and soaked up some mood-boosting sun. The sand was white and soft and if you didn't know any differently you'd think you were at an expensive caribbean resort! It was amazing to relax and have time to digest all that the past 2 days have brought for me.
Tomorrow is the first day I'll be working at the prenatal clinic from 9-12, but apparently more like 9-3... Should be fun and interesting... Hope you are all well out there, I am doing just fine and meeting heaps of wonderful people.
That day was also my first day of doing the pediatric clinic at the dome. We see children up to the age of 3, once a week. There were lineups Zambia-style, all along the wall leading up to the dome, and likely 2 hour waits for the families. Most of the women and children spoke some French, but more spoke Creole so we have translaters who help us out. We saw mostly cases of impetigo (bacterial skin infections), lots of diarrhea and fever, and one hemorrhoid. One woman who had walked for likely 45min+ to get to the clinic with her sick 5-year old on her back and a ~6-month old in her arms, ended up having to be loaded onto a 'taxi', which here is actually a scooter, to take her sick son to the local hospital for a crazy high fever. Amazing! She carried her sick son down the hill to the road from the clinic while I carried her baby, and I can't even imagine what it was like to trek to us in the first place. Anyhow, it was a crazy day of pushing boundaries of my comfort zone in attempting to diagnose children's skin conditions and the sources of their diarrhea, and learning SO MUCH. The midwives here have been amazing and so patient with teaching me the ways of healthcare in Haiti! I've also been learning a lot about natural/chinese medicine treatments for different conditions, and starting to learn the ins and outs of distributing antibiotics. We gave out a lot of vitamins but unfortunately could not help the families with food.
Dinner was the feast that Miss U.S.A. was not able to eat with us due to her international engagements. I made friends with the chickens we were to eat that day and we all helped out with meal preparation. The food here rocks, I can't get enough rice and beans (but ask me again in about a week). So far so good, no gut issues for me yet!
Today we had a morning of some prenatal visits, including a woman 31 weeks pregnant with twins who was having some cramping. We saw her later on the street and luckily all had settled since we can't really deliver twins at that gestational age at the birthing centre. We then took a walk through the tent city - now housing 15 000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake. It was impressive. A sea of green army tents, each family allocated to an approximately 6ft x6ft space to live in. They had beds, and little campstoves. Various NGO's had tents set up to distribute food, and there was even a play area set up for the children. Shower tents were also set up. The situation was however quite grim - the tent interiors were stiffling and obviously not as clean as they could be. Children played with garbage bags and twine in the pathways and for some reason they kept running up to us and wanting to hold our hands or hug us. They call us 'blancs' ('whites'). We visited with a woman who gave birth on Friday in the night with a traditional birth attendant, in her tent. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Joseph. He was perfect when we examined him. I can't even write down here all of the stories that people stopped to tell us, about losing partners/family members/children in the earthquake. Despite it all, they had the biggest smiles on their faces! Incredible.
We ended the day today by taking a 'tap tap' (decorative bus!) out to the ocean. We swam in the incredible clear and warm water and soaked up some mood-boosting sun. The sand was white and soft and if you didn't know any differently you'd think you were at an expensive caribbean resort! It was amazing to relax and have time to digest all that the past 2 days have brought for me.
Tomorrow is the first day I'll be working at the prenatal clinic from 9-12, but apparently more like 9-3... Should be fun and interesting... Hope you are all well out there, I am doing just fine and meeting heaps of wonderful people.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Safe arrival
Today at about 12pm, I arrived in Port-au-Prince. The heat and humidity hit me with certain familiarity (maybe from being in Australia in the fall?). There were musicians playing their instruments and colourfully singing on and on while we waited to get on the bus that would take us through the Haitian customs. Out on the airstrip there were soldiers from a country I couldn't pin down, and U.S. Army planes taking off and helicopters landing with supplies to unload... The airport didn't have any signs of the destruction that I was soon to witness.
I picked up my bags which were miraculously totally intact despite having been searched (thank you to U.S. customs for leaving me the little 'note'). My 'team' picked me up, and I got so incredibly excited seeing my little name on a little sign with 'Bumi Sehat' written underneath! We piled into the hot car and started our journey into Port-au-Prince. All I could think to myself was 'this is worse than Zambia'. And if you would have asked me when I got home from Africa if I felt that things could get worse somewhere, I probably would have given you a definitive no. The similarities were there - women and men selling their items on the street - cd's, dvd's, fruits, clothing, water bottles. Every time the car stopped someone would walk up and try to sell us something. The difference though is that here in Haiti, the streets were in shambles. The air was thick with dust, the piles of rubble were EVERYWHERE. The palace lies toppled over to one side, an amazing site. Everywhere there are NGO's putting up tents, clearing rubble, working in the hospitals and tent clinics. I kept remembering that 250 000 people had been killed when the disaster struck, including one team member's good friend - an artist who made it out of the museum but went back in to get her laptop and was killed. He himself had a block of cement land on his leg, but he managed to heal and described his experience of bonding together with so many of the other people who were left homeless and in despair after the earthquake.
The road to Jacmel was 2.5 hours in the heat and sun along a windy mountain road. We could see the beautiful ocean and some areas of lush brush, which didn't seem to fit in with the little tent villages we ran into along the way and the constant piles of rubble that lines the roads, where houses and businesses once stood. I kept falling asleep and getting jolted awake by giant potholes. The volunteer housing is beautiful - a big pink building on the main road. I haven't been to the birth centre dome yet, but tomorrow is the first day. Tomorrow will be a prenatal class about the third trimester and signs of labour. Then a children's clinic where I will attempt to diagnose health concerns in kids over 6 weeks of age (Oh my gosh, so out of my comfort zone!!). I guess I'll do my best.
I have met my lovely co-workers - 4 other midwives from Canada and the U.S. We have awesome house helpers as well, one 15-year old named Rousseau who is planning to teach me labour words in French. I happened to fall upon this group just as they went through a huge tragedy today - losing a baby to GBS infection. The mother was 18 and lost her partner in the earthquake. He died of DIC, a bleeding disorder where the blood can't clot and results from infection. A very heavy day to arrive, but as they all informed me, this is what it means to work in this birthing centre in Haiti.
I will send another update soon.
I picked up my bags which were miraculously totally intact despite having been searched (thank you to U.S. customs for leaving me the little 'note'). My 'team' picked me up, and I got so incredibly excited seeing my little name on a little sign with 'Bumi Sehat' written underneath! We piled into the hot car and started our journey into Port-au-Prince. All I could think to myself was 'this is worse than Zambia'. And if you would have asked me when I got home from Africa if I felt that things could get worse somewhere, I probably would have given you a definitive no. The similarities were there - women and men selling their items on the street - cd's, dvd's, fruits, clothing, water bottles. Every time the car stopped someone would walk up and try to sell us something. The difference though is that here in Haiti, the streets were in shambles. The air was thick with dust, the piles of rubble were EVERYWHERE. The palace lies toppled over to one side, an amazing site. Everywhere there are NGO's putting up tents, clearing rubble, working in the hospitals and tent clinics. I kept remembering that 250 000 people had been killed when the disaster struck, including one team member's good friend - an artist who made it out of the museum but went back in to get her laptop and was killed. He himself had a block of cement land on his leg, but he managed to heal and described his experience of bonding together with so many of the other people who were left homeless and in despair after the earthquake.
The road to Jacmel was 2.5 hours in the heat and sun along a windy mountain road. We could see the beautiful ocean and some areas of lush brush, which didn't seem to fit in with the little tent villages we ran into along the way and the constant piles of rubble that lines the roads, where houses and businesses once stood. I kept falling asleep and getting jolted awake by giant potholes. The volunteer housing is beautiful - a big pink building on the main road. I haven't been to the birth centre dome yet, but tomorrow is the first day. Tomorrow will be a prenatal class about the third trimester and signs of labour. Then a children's clinic where I will attempt to diagnose health concerns in kids over 6 weeks of age (Oh my gosh, so out of my comfort zone!!). I guess I'll do my best.
I have met my lovely co-workers - 4 other midwives from Canada and the U.S. We have awesome house helpers as well, one 15-year old named Rousseau who is planning to teach me labour words in French. I happened to fall upon this group just as they went through a huge tragedy today - losing a baby to GBS infection. The mother was 18 and lost her partner in the earthquake. He died of DIC, a bleeding disorder where the blood can't clot and results from infection. A very heavy day to arrive, but as they all informed me, this is what it means to work in this birthing centre in Haiti.
I will send another update soon.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Here goes everything!
Well, time to departure is now 28 hours...
I am blown away by how many people have donated to my cost and so thrilled at how many supplies I've been able to buy to bring along! Too bad my bags will already weigh more than me, otherwise I would bring more. Rumour has it that sending stuff by freight may not get there, so loading myself up is the only way to get it there.
I only have time for a short post today, but stay tuned for an update as soon as I can when I get to Haiti. Or maybe tomorrow after my packing/breakfast party!
Now off to clinic because in typical Candace style, I am working right up until the day I leave.
I am blown away by how many people have donated to my cost and so thrilled at how many supplies I've been able to buy to bring along! Too bad my bags will already weigh more than me, otherwise I would bring more. Rumour has it that sending stuff by freight may not get there, so loading myself up is the only way to get it there.
I only have time for a short post today, but stay tuned for an update as soon as I can when I get to Haiti. Or maybe tomorrow after my packing/breakfast party!
Now off to clinic because in typical Candace style, I am working right up until the day I leave.
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