©VSO/Ginny Lattul
Life here in Ethiopia is everything I anticipated and more. Volunteering has given me a unique opportunity to marry my love for my job with my desire to travel and help. By supporting volunteers like me, you’re playing a big part in my VSO experience – so I’d like to thank you once again for your help!
Watching and waiting
VSO advises us to observe for a few months before we jump in, so that we can appreciate the culture and what is and isn’t possible. The aim is for the changes we make to be sustainable and that is only possible if we have everyone on board.
I realised the wisdom of this advice when, about a month after my arrival, one of the nurses asked for my opinion on the hospital. I erred on the side of caution, explaining that I was still observing and that while there were some good practices, there was also room for improvement. He pushed for more information and I said I didn’t think dogs should be allowed to roam around the hospital and that I’d noticed that partograms (the form that monitors labour) were rarely filled in. He then fed this back to the staff, who got rather defensive!
But having been here a few months now, I feel I’m gaining my colleagues’ trust – and that means I can start intervening and making a difference to all the wonderful women who pass through the hospital’s doors.
My idol? My Mum
As an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, I work predominantly with women and a large part of my job involves mothers (whether that’s want to be, going to be, new or to many!)
Our mothers are our first role models in life. They instil in us good values and provide us with a safe environment. It is only since I’ve got older that I’ve realised how special my own mother is. In my medical school yearbook, we all had to write who our idol was and I wrote ‘My Mum’. She truly is the strongest, kindest, bravest woman I know.
As the mothers among you will know, having a baby - the process that probably most defines becoming a mother - is not easy. In years gone by, it was one of the commonest causes of female mortality and there is still a vast discrepancy in rates worldwide. Working here in Ethiopia, it isn’t hard to see why.
Buttering the bump
In Ethiopia, the average age for a woman to have her first child is 18 or 19. They’re frequently significantly younger - in rural areas, child marriage still happens, despite it being illegal to marry until 18.
Few mothers-to-be here plan to deliver in hospital, with many preferring to rely on traditional treatments such as drinking holy water or rubbing butter or grains on the abdomen to encourage labour.
Often, patients only arrive at hospital once difficulties have already arisen. As I mentioned in my last blog, very young women are at risk of an obstructed labour because their pelvises might be too small for a normal birth.
Early on in my placement, one of my colleagues told me that patients die here, so not to worry if we had a bad outcome. I see my role as working to improve mortality and striving to prevent these deaths. I’m trying to move my colleagues’ attitude away from that of acceptance. No woman should die while giving life.
No woman should die while giving life (©VSO/Ginny Lattul)
I’m continually striving to improve documentation and basic care - things that I took for granted in the UK. I’m also updating guidelines so that I can provide focused training, ensuring that we are all working together and singing from the same hymn sheet. I want to empower the more junior staff to take more responsibility and speak out if they feel practices are outdated.
The best feeling
The first time I really felt I made a difference was when I queried a labour management plan my counterpart had made. He hadn’t considered the option I was suggesting but agreed to try.
The result? The mother had a much less invasive delivery. She was very grateful, her baby was healthy and they had a much shorter hospital stay. The feeling of achieving something and making a real difference to someone’s life - that’s impossible to beat!
Thank you so much
It’s thanks to your support that that mother had a safe delivery and a healthy baby. I hope that reading my blog makes you feel proud of the difference your gifts are making here and in every part of the world VSO works in. I’ll be in touch again soon with more news of what you’re helping me to achieve. Thanks again!
Best wishes,
Alexa
