Hello, and welcome to my blog! Firstly, a big thank you for choosing to follow my placement as I share my nursing skills with midwives in Myanmar to save babies’ lives and give pregnant women better care.
I’ve definitely got the ‘volunteering bug’; this will actually be my fourth time volunteering with VSO! After my first placement in Malawi I was hooked – there’s no better feeling than making lasting change in a community with knowledge I’ve picked up in my career as a nurse.
Photo: One of the babies I helped deliver in Malawi. Often they were born weak and under nourished, so we’d put woollen hats on them to keep them warm in their critical first days of life.
Although I am well prepared for the challenges I’ll face on my placement - like a lack of medical equipment - this is the first time I have volunteered in Myanmar. I’m really excited to live and work in a country that has opened to visitors once more after a very tough history.
Not much is known about the condition of healthcare in the country. One heartbreaking piece of information I have found though is that infant mortality rates are 12 times higher than in the UK. This is because many communities live in remote areas, so women are not able to give birth in hospitals and have a health professional nearby in case anything goes wrong.
That’s just not right. I strongly believe every woman should be able to get pregnant without fear for her health, and hold her gorgeous bundle of joy nine months later. By improving practices amongst midwives during my placement, they will be more confident to deal with emergencies when attending home births.
With just a week to go before I leave I am in a frenzy getting myself packed and spending as much time as I can with my husband, family and cats before I head off. I’ll be in touch soon to share my first impressions when I am settled into my placement. In the meantime, I’d like to say a big thank you again for your support; VSO couldn’t send volunteers like me to tackle poverty without you.
Speak soon,
Carol