The stats were out a few weeks ago.
Canada’s birth rate is so low, demographer David Foote (Boom, Bust & Echo) says we cannot be competitive in the global market place. In order to be competitive in the coming years, our government needs to attract more skilled immigrants. Or else, ladies, we all need to do our part and have more children! And at my age, that may require an angelic visit!
Uganda does not have this problem. Making babies seems to be the natural thing to do.
Before I begin with a story, I need to give you some insider information. My family take bets on how long it will take me to find someone who needs help. Whether a young mother in distress over her newborn baby in ER while I’m waiting for my son to be admitted to a floor, a lost child in the mall or an elderly man having chest pain in a parking lot, I find them.
So is it any wonder that as my family disembarked in Entebbe, I noticed a Ugandan woman, kneeling on the floor of the plane. She looked up at me in obvious distress. I looked down at her and saw her tear streaked face, swollen belly and laboured breathing. She was all alone and the airplane staff didn’t know what to do because she kept insisting that she would be okay.
I’m not a nurse or a doctor but I know that a woman in labour, at any stage of pregnancy, should go to a medical facility. This woman was expecting her third child and was only 27 weeks along. All the more reason to get her to a hospital immediately.
Two of the ground staff who helped us get her off of the plane were also pregnant as was the staff member who later helped me find my family in the terminal once we had our patient in the ambulance.
As we rode through Entebbe to Kampala, we saw numerous pregnant women. I do not think I’d be stretching things to say that almost every young woman we saw was pregnant and with a young child…or two…or three…trailing behind her.
I don’t want this post to be about falling or rising birth rates. My personal opinion about procreation probably flies in the face of popular thought as I believe all children are gifts from God! And if all children are gifts, shouldn’t their delivery be heralded, maybe not by angels, but angelic like conditions?
In the hills between Kampala and Jinja there is a hospital; one of the fortunate hospitals in Uganda since Save the Mothers (STM) has entered into a pilot project to make this hospital and 4 others, mother-friendly hospitals under the direction of Dr. Eve Nakabembe.
A team of Master Advisors (specially trained graduates of the STM MPHL program–Dr. Henry and Betty Muggah from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON conducted the training last November) work together with the nursing sisters to improve the lives of mothers.
As my daughter and I stepped into the hospital, we were, to say the least, in shock. There was no electricity, where there was paint it was peeling and the floors were bare cement. The humidity was overwhelming and of course, there was no A/C! Can we ever complain about our hospitals after experiencing this?
We told Dr. Jean how we felt seeing the less than angelic conditions and she was taken aback. This is after all a mother-friendly hospital. She assured us that things had changed and were changing and that the priority was NOT cosmetic. The pilot phase has just begun with this hospital to make it mother-friendly. It will take five years to improve the physical conditions and standards of care.
However many things have not changed.
1. The majority of women have 3 modes of transport to a hospital–public bus, the back of a bodo-bodo (motorbike) or on foot on the rough roads.
2. Woman wait to be seen for pre and post natal care but at least they wait under coverings from the hot Ugandan sun.
3. Extended families who come to visit still do the bulk of care. In fact, it is a requirement that all expectant mothers come to the hospital with their own personal caregiver.
And then it is hung or laid to dry in the sun.
6. Chickens peck in the yard.
Changes may be slow but staff are embracing and prioritizing life-changing innovations needed to save the mothers.
Signs have been posted to insure privacy and respect.
And potable water for hand washing and drinking is now available.
Several large water tanks are outside thanks to Water For All. The nursing sister told us that now she can make a cup of tea and not wonder if it will make her or her patients ill.
Why is this hospital with conditions that are appaling to western women so mother friendly? After viewing the photos, surely like me, you think the name, mother-friendly, is a misnomer?
Let me show you some reasons why this hospital is what women need.
We met and congratulated moms who survived C-sections…..
…..giving birth to not one baby but SURPRISE! two baby girls!
In fact, there are many happy endings from twins to this Canadian woman feeling true joy–joy that can never be forgotten.
But probably the greatest joy in this mother-friendly hospital is the scene below. Mommy is alive to let her daughter meet and hold her new baby sister!
The population of Uganda is similar to Canada but unlike Canada, Uganda does not need more people. They need more mothers to live to look after their precious gifts from God.
Too many babies, not enough mothers.
In a month where our hearts turn to the birth heralded by a host of angels, let us consider what we can do to make the developing world a more mother-friendly place for all.
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