Who's Who in the Zoo..

Because we landed running in our respective hospital sites, we haven't done a great job of introducing ourselves. In case it hasn't been clear, there are three regional hospital sites we are split between while here in Uganda. Each site has at least two students and one BC Registered Midwife (who have also been registered locally to practice here in Uganda during our placements).

Our three sites are cities in the southern half of the country: Masaka, Jinja, & Mbale. The country of Uganda is said to be a similar size to the state of Oregon, and has a population of ~33 million. Each of the hospitals we are at are referral hospitals. This means that not only do we see women from that particular city, but we also receive women who have traveled from a rural area -usually due to complications they have encountered in labour. This partially explains the high number of complex or emergency births that we have been involved in. Other factors leading to complications include malaria, anemia, HIV, malnutrition, poverty, distance and cost of traveling to the hospital, and usually a combination of these factors.

One other potential complication that we are learning about here is women with contracted, or very small, pelvises. This can be due to malnutrition in childhood and adolescence that then prevents proper bone growth in women. For some women, this can be so extreme that they require cesareans in order to give birth as their pelvis is too narrow to deliver vaginally. This is something we consider when a woman arrives from a rural area and has been in labour for multiple days without progress. Although not overly common, for at least some women who have this situation, a cesarean delivery is what can save the life of both the mother and baby.

So, here's who's who in the zoo:

Lorna, Cathy, Grace, Shannon, Joanne, Angela, Natalie, Babil
Elizabeth, Tanya, Quinn, Claire

Masaka-Joanne, Tanya, Babil and Claire (medical anthropology student) with Cathy RM, Lorna RM, and Mickey MD.

Jinja-Elizabeth and Shannon with Grace RM

Mbale-Quinn and Natalie with Angela RM