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Hello!

Have had an interesting last few days :) One of the big highlights was this beautiful baby girl all wrapped up blinking up at me brand new from a C-section. I love new life. Keep popping into labour ward (3 beds with dolphin shower curtains and a big gutter all the way round) waiting for someone to be pushing so I can deliver a baby but I think most mothers deliver at home here, we get all the difficult ones so there’s not many normal deliveries.

I thought I would see some tragic stuff here but you can never be prepared. I’ve seen some disturbing sthings before in medicine and a lot of people in pain but nothing like here. So much of the obstetrics here wouldn’t even exist in England.

They have hardly any resources, no one gets pain relief in labour and at least half the section/hysterectomy wounds go septic. Patients get left for hours and hours, someone was admitted with peritonitis last night and had had no pain relief by the round this morning.

Spare you too many details but a lady was admitted yesterday whose baby had died at term (quite common here) so she had to give birth to it. At about 2:30pm we went to see her and the baby was stuck with its head out. The doctor tried and failed to deliver the rest of the baby but he had to leave to do something else so gave the relative some gloves. We found out the next day that the rest of the baby was delivered at 9pm that night. No one thought to deliver the placenta so by the ward round the next day the lady still had a retained placenta and the uterus had contracted around it. I’m writing this at 8pm and she still has a retained placenta which is now septic because the doctor hasn’t had time to manually evacuate it. She is getting more and more ill but there are so many patients to see, even before her on the list.

One of those is a woman with a ruptured uterus whose baby has died at term. She was in shock and they couldn’t feel the pulse or find her blood pressure. She was foaming at the mouth and breathing was really laboured. The only thing they could give her was saline and oxygen while they wait for a transfusion. They can’t take her into surgery until they’ve resuscitated her, so she might die. I went back later and her saline and blood had run out and no one was with her. I prayed for her and then her relatives came. There are 4 o&g doctors here, 3 are in theatre and 1 is covering all the wards including labour ward.

There is another lady who’s had a miscarriage which has gone totally septic as she’s been left for 2 days. She needs a manual evacuation as well but she’s even further down the list. It’s crazy that this is happening. Here the mothers’ lives are at risk whereas in the UK even the babies would probably be saved. And this is a good hospital that people get referred to from all around.

It really makes you think. Now I know what limited resources means. The flip side is it’s brilliant that they are getting any medical care at all. A lot more people would die if no one did a manual evacuation even though it has to be done with diazepam.

I love being here and I think I really need to see what goes on here. We live in such a cosy world as students in some ways. You can get so cut off from reality for the rest of the world. Here, for me, to have an eternal perspective is so important. These women may have very little hope medically but we trust in a God who can heal and gives new life and hope for the future. I really believe that. It’s lovely doing a ward round with a gorgeous little boy holding your hand. And it’s lovely seeing all the brand new babies all wrapped up.

A load of Irish students arrived yesterday, two second year medics, two midwives and three nurses. We’re all off out for dinner and to watch the England match in Masaka tonight, going to walk there through the villages. So blessed to be healthy and to be here. The Ugandans keep saying it’s so easy for us to come here but they have no chance of getting a job in England, they can’t even cross the border to Tanzania or Kenya. Feeling really grateful for a British passport.

Hopefully this weekend we’re going to visit one of the sister’s families up country and she’s going to show us how they make all their traditional food. Also planning to go to the pentecostal church in Masaka, apparently they really go for it, awesome.

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the British summer :)

Christine