I love the babies
Anne and I had a small victory today with the nurses. This week we have spent time teaching some of the nurses on the maternity ward how to use an incubator. This incubator had been donated from a hospital in France some time ago, but it had never been unwrapped it or plugged in because the staff was never instructed how to use it. Since the hospital has no capacity to care for critically sick newborns - no appropriate medicine, no ventilator, no monitoring devices - we are using the incubator as a warmer for the babies born by cesarean section until they can go to their mothers. When we came, the nurses would keep the baby in a hard wash basin in the corner of the nurse station, unmonitored, covered with a thin sheet. Now, they have a nice warm place for the baby where they can monitor his temperature and keep an eye on his breathing. Well, when we arrived this morning, the incubator had been turned on to warm up in preparation for a c-section baby, just as we had instructed them to do! This, for us, was very exciting, because we can never tell just how effective our instructions are, so the fact that they listened to us and wanted to use this equipment is encouraging.
We went to the OR for the c-section, for the delivery of a 31-week preterm baby boy. In this hospital, they give the mothers general anesthesia, so I think the babies' respiratory systems are affected, because every baby born by cesarean here must be resuscitated. So we resuscitated him, put him in the incubator with oxygen and watched him for two hours. We noticed some physical birth defects, and we can assume that he has internal abnormalities as well. Anne and I learned today that mothers will often suffocate their babies if they have physical defects, so even if this baby fights and survives, he may not have much of a chance at home. Our education tells us that without the proper medical care, he will not survive, but we wanted to give him everything we could. So we baptized him, prayed for him and his mother, and showed him all the love we could. The doctor came by, and the plan will be to see if the baby can breastfeed. If not, they can place a feeding tube and hope for the best. It is possible to refer the baby to a pediatric hospital, but the mother has to approve and pay for the transfer. Honestly, I don't think this baby has a chance of surviving even if they can feed him, because his lungs are not mature enough at 31 weeks without intensive medical care, which is simply unavailable here. But as we cared for this baby today, many nurses and nursing students came to see him, giving us another chance to teach. If only our efforts here could create miracles! But we have faith that God is with this beautiful baby boy right now and His plan will prevail. And we will continue to fight for miracles here, because we refuse to lose hope.
We had a very special experience yesterday on the maternity ward. Here, it seems that the nurses do not want to give the baby to the mother until he has been bathed, so we jumped at the opportunity to give a tiny, handsome baby boy his first bath. The babies here all have that little head of soft curly hair and some of them have the cutest big lips! It is really difficult for me not to wrap them up and run away with them, something I have contemplated more than once! How is it possible that they are all so cute?
Anne and I are looking forward to a small vacation next week to Mole National Park, a natural game reserve with big African elephants and monkeys. We will spend a long weekend there with some of the other volunteers that are working with the SVG organization here in Ghana. There is some speculation about whether we will be staying in a tent, which I think is crazy when there is wildlife running around, so I'm voting for a hotel or hostel with a shower! We are excited to go make friends with the monkeys.
Although we have seen no monkeys or elephants here on the mountain, we do come into daily contact with families of goats and chickens, as well as the occasional turkey. The baby goats are cutest, and Anne thinks we should bring one home for my brother Adam. So what do you think, Adam, you've always wanted a dog, right? There are also many bugs, spiders, caterpillars, and lizards of all sizes, so my fear of bugs has been dulled over the last month.
The weather here is still nice, cool in the mornings and evenings with a little sunshine during the day. Since it's still the rainy season, we have seen rain many mornings and it is usually fairly humid here. I've been suprised some evenings when I've been outside and I've actually been cold... in Africa. I like it.
The women here are amazing. They carry huge jugs of water on their heads, jugs that I have trouble lifting! Starting at about the age of 7, children will carry water in small buckets with lids, eventually carrying more as they grow. Men and women will carry everything from baskets of food for sale, baskets of cloth, and huge tree trunks! Yes, really long tree trunks on their heads. I'm not sure where they're taking the trees or what they plan to do with them, but wow these people are awesome. I tried to carry a box on my head at the hospital and I couldn't do it without dropping it, so I'm pretty sure I won't be trusted with a bucket of water anytime soon. Anne and I cooked spaghetti last Sunday for her host family, something for which we were able to find the ingredients at the market. They didn't really know how to eat the noodles, so we were in business once we taught them how to twist the noodle around the fork. The family enjoyed it and asked us to cook again for them this weekend.
We are still doing well here, facing challenges daily, and we are learning the value of patience. No matter how difficult our task is here, we know that with patience and persistence we can be successful. God willing, may we be successful.
We went to the OR for the c-section, for the delivery of a 31-week preterm baby boy. In this hospital, they give the mothers general anesthesia, so I think the babies' respiratory systems are affected, because every baby born by cesarean here must be resuscitated. So we resuscitated him, put him in the incubator with oxygen and watched him for two hours. We noticed some physical birth defects, and we can assume that he has internal abnormalities as well. Anne and I learned today that mothers will often suffocate their babies if they have physical defects, so even if this baby fights and survives, he may not have much of a chance at home. Our education tells us that without the proper medical care, he will not survive, but we wanted to give him everything we could. So we baptized him, prayed for him and his mother, and showed him all the love we could. The doctor came by, and the plan will be to see if the baby can breastfeed. If not, they can place a feeding tube and hope for the best. It is possible to refer the baby to a pediatric hospital, but the mother has to approve and pay for the transfer. Honestly, I don't think this baby has a chance of surviving even if they can feed him, because his lungs are not mature enough at 31 weeks without intensive medical care, which is simply unavailable here. But as we cared for this baby today, many nurses and nursing students came to see him, giving us another chance to teach. If only our efforts here could create miracles! But we have faith that God is with this beautiful baby boy right now and His plan will prevail. And we will continue to fight for miracles here, because we refuse to lose hope.
We had a very special experience yesterday on the maternity ward. Here, it seems that the nurses do not want to give the baby to the mother until he has been bathed, so we jumped at the opportunity to give a tiny, handsome baby boy his first bath. The babies here all have that little head of soft curly hair and some of them have the cutest big lips! It is really difficult for me not to wrap them up and run away with them, something I have contemplated more than once! How is it possible that they are all so cute?
Anne and I are looking forward to a small vacation next week to Mole National Park, a natural game reserve with big African elephants and monkeys. We will spend a long weekend there with some of the other volunteers that are working with the SVG organization here in Ghana. There is some speculation about whether we will be staying in a tent, which I think is crazy when there is wildlife running around, so I'm voting for a hotel or hostel with a shower! We are excited to go make friends with the monkeys.
Although we have seen no monkeys or elephants here on the mountain, we do come into daily contact with families of goats and chickens, as well as the occasional turkey. The baby goats are cutest, and Anne thinks we should bring one home for my brother Adam. So what do you think, Adam, you've always wanted a dog, right? There are also many bugs, spiders, caterpillars, and lizards of all sizes, so my fear of bugs has been dulled over the last month.
The weather here is still nice, cool in the mornings and evenings with a little sunshine during the day. Since it's still the rainy season, we have seen rain many mornings and it is usually fairly humid here. I've been suprised some evenings when I've been outside and I've actually been cold... in Africa. I like it.
The women here are amazing. They carry huge jugs of water on their heads, jugs that I have trouble lifting! Starting at about the age of 7, children will carry water in small buckets with lids, eventually carrying more as they grow. Men and women will carry everything from baskets of food for sale, baskets of cloth, and huge tree trunks! Yes, really long tree trunks on their heads. I'm not sure where they're taking the trees or what they plan to do with them, but wow these people are awesome. I tried to carry a box on my head at the hospital and I couldn't do it without dropping it, so I'm pretty sure I won't be trusted with a bucket of water anytime soon. Anne and I cooked spaghetti last Sunday for her host family, something for which we were able to find the ingredients at the market. They didn't really know how to eat the noodles, so we were in business once we taught them how to twist the noodle around the fork. The family enjoyed it and asked us to cook again for them this weekend.
We are still doing well here, facing challenges daily, and we are learning the value of patience. No matter how difficult our task is here, we know that with patience and persistence we can be successful. God willing, may we be successful.
posted by Sarah @ 6:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home