This is a little something for the "girls". For those of you have just delivered a child recently, soon to deliver, had a child already and still remember completely what it was like , you will appreciate this information. Just recently some our Senior Missionary Sisters from the Area Office including Sister Koelliker and Sister Parmley, the area Presidents wives, went to the largest maternity hospital in Africa. We could hardly wait to see just what it was like and when we got our eyes were opened and we thanked our lucky stars it wasn't us delivering a baby here.
1) First off as we walked in we were at the admitting desk where they asked the pregnant women to pay 25 rand for the stay, that is about $3.50 US dollars, now don't get too excited girls (and husbands, who are thinking, this is alright!). If the women don't have the money they are admitted anyway, which is truly wonderful for those who are wanting in the financial side of life. At least here they have some medical help and it's especially good for those little tykes who otherwise wouldn't have a chance due to birthing complications. The hospital is clean and though understaffed they work hard to insure the women go home with a healthy baby.
2) Next they are taken in to a room where they can change out of their street clothes and brought back into a little waiting room, that is out in the corridor where they wait and wait until the little one just can't wait anymore.
3) When the "magic moment" comes and they have either had their water break or they are in a great deal of pain they are taken back to a wall of cubicles with divider curtains where the mid-wives await. It is very dark and dreary in the corridors and not inviting at all. The wonderful thing about this hospital is that it can give emergency medical care to both mother and baby, something that most affordable hospitals in the area can not give.
4) When the baby is born if it isn't healthy they move it to the ICU unit for further and intense medical care. The mother is taken into another area where she is asked to sit on a bench made of wood, it looks like a patio bench but with one slim board and there she sits for 4 hours and then released from the hospital. In the mean time the baby is taken into a small room and checked and weighed and accessed for breathing problems. It is then put in a little isolate and returned to it's mother who with about 30+ women are sitting like cord wood on these wooden benches. I can't imagine how uncomfortable they are at this point sitting on an unforgiving bench with a sore bottom and exhausted. I remember being pampered by a good nursing staff who wanted me to be comfortable and would cater to my every need and then there was a concerned and loving husband by my side. These dear sisters received none of that special care at a very important moment in her life.
5) After 4 hours and the baby is able to leave the hospital, the mother picks up her baby, sometimes wrapped in a nice blanket or in newspaper or a sweater or shawl and we were told by a nurse that even if those lovely things are not available, wrapped in a plastic trash bag. So when your Relief Society asks you to help make newborn kits, just think of these poor sisters. Once the child is wrapped then off the women go, no one knows where she is going or how she will get back to her settlement, she just goes, that was the hardest thing for me knowing what they had just gone through and not knowing how they would get home.
6) If you have to have a C-section you are allowed to stay in the hospital for 4 days and have a luxury vacation. The ward you stay in will be have about 30 beds and not much attention at all, well not any.
7) If the baby is having breathing problems they do have Neonatal ICU that is for the very sick babies. The death rate is very high in that hospital due to underweight babies and ill babies born with Aids or other diseases attributed to Aids and not having any pre-natal care.
8) Last year 26,200 babies were born in this hospital alone (that's even more than in Utah)with a death rate of 700 stillbirths and 300 baby deaths after birth, per year.
So girls thank your lucky stars that you are living in America and that you have good medical care. The African women adore their babies, just like us and they take very good care of them. They carry them around with them almost all the time and the babies love the closeness to their mothers. A child is the most precious gift that the Lord sends to women and that love between mother and child is the same all over the world.
Keep them close!
Jan
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