Mzee na mchanga

Mzee na mchanga

Our week has begun with the delivery of our first baby. After being brought to the medical centre in the morning, the labour quickly progressed and the mother was taken into the delivery room - a stark white-tiled room with only a wipe clean bed. The mothers in Kenya give birth without any pain medication. As doctors and nurses with so few resources to hand, you must hope that the delivery is unenventful and straight forward. Thankfully this was the case and the only difficulty was checking the dilation of the cervix which was incredibly painful for the undertsandably reluctant mother. During the labour itself there was little to do other than offer encouragement and support, as well as a hand to hold. Talking to this brave lady, she mentioned that this was her second child but that the pain of labour was different each time. It was important for the labour to progress quickly as we had few tools in which to monitor the welfare of the baby and we were therefore all keen for things to happen rapidly.

On the arrival of the baby, there was much to be done, including cutting the cord and the delivery of the placenta - which we won't go into too much detail about here! The placentas are disposed of in the 'placenta icinerator' in the grounds of the medical centre (which sounds rather ominous). We were rewarded with plenty of cuddles with a very cute baby girl before we ruefully handed her back to her mum.

Our afternoon has been spent with a local group of women who have come together to support one another through difficult times. Many of these women are widows or have been struggling to find work and have therefore turned to sex work and alcohol brewery - putting themselves at risk and often turning to drink as a result. They gather together every Tuesday to hear others speak, educate themselves, trade produce and support one another emotionally as well as financially. We were asked to speak to them about issues regarding womens health at their weekly meetings and decided to talk about the HPV vaccine. This has only been introduced in the last year in Kenya and is often met with suspiscion due to fears that it will cause infertility and the constant taboo around sex and sexual health. We were honoured to be able to talk to these ladies and answer their many questions on the subject- we hope that by educating the matriarchs of these families that the younger generations will be able to access the healthcare they need.