toughest place to be a midwife

[lizzybeltane]

Hi just noticed that this is on tonight on BBC2 at 9pm looks very interesting.

lizziexx

[MrsBanks]

I am hoping they will show this here

[peru]

My God! How babaric!
I was brought up in Africa and as my family were expats we went to private hospitals if we had a problem.
This hospital in Liberia had no pain relief, antibiotics etc etc.
How Suzanne managed to cope with the horrors that she saw on a daily basis in the two weeks that she was there I cannot imagine.
The lack of concern for new borns, picking them up from their ankles to be weighed, no s2s.
The poor Mums, no pain relief, pushing flat on their backs with fundal pressure, still birth, breech,abortion all naked with no dignity or privacy.
I am not easily shocked, I think over the years I have seen the "worst" births on an NHS ward but this was something else.
I unfortunatly have been present during a still birth, a breech and also anencephalic baby that lived two hours but still found this shocking.
Also the lack of medical supplies during a pph, blood on floor, no measuring, septicemia due to abortion with out any antibiotic to save mums life!
We are all so lucky in this country to have the resources at our fingertips and to be informed and have choice!
I felt for Suzanne she was very brave.

[Dappy]

I caught this on iplayer. And well it's not how I expected it would be, I suppose I had the same image as suzzane that things would be more natural. I was quite surprised when it wasn't. A very different way of doing things.

Would any of you go and do something like this? I suppose that's the beauty of elective placements.

[Mama]

i saw the opening sequence to the show and couldn't watch it! Looked too barbaric and scarey!!! :(

[crossfire]

HAving seen the presentation at the ARM conference last year by a midwife in Uganda I wasn't quite as shocked as I think I would have been had I not had an awareness of what it was like. It is so different from our privilidged lives here, things we all take for granted. Not even a matter of finding money to pay for things as in many countries, the equipment and drugs are simply not there to be had.
One point about the nakednes though. I know it strips women of their dignity and we wouldn't do it, but apart from not knowing any other way, the women go home in the same clothes they come into hospital in. We change out of our clothes, into a nightie or something but they haven't got anything to change into. Many women throw out soiled undies or clothes rather than taking them home here, the women in Liberia do not have that option. Its very easy to criticise everything but some of it has to be viewed within their culture and how they live and work with what they have. The worst thing for me was not all the medical stuff, it was when the 39 year old that had had a pph then asked suzanne to take one or two of her children,because now she had paid for the blood she so desperately needed she couldn't afford food or schooling for them. We are so fortunate.
And then suzanne's closing comment about resenting women who demanded xyz in the nhs when she'd just been with women who in a decade of sundays could never afford it or even have the option of requesting such things. Very interesting programme though. Almost didn't watch it.

[Mama]

why was she crying outside? I couldn't bring myself to watch it but felt so sad for her x

[Dappy]

Something to do with fundal pressure If I remember correctly.

I think they were pushing down on the womens stomach really hard to push the baby out, I can imagine it probably looked quite brutal.

[Delilah]

I missed this, i will catch up hopefully at some point with it though!

[Mama]

Oh right :( looked awful from the clip I saw.

[MrsBanks]

Can anyone find a link (not iplayer) where I can watch this?

[rchilvers]

Hi,

In line with this discussion, I am currently working on a project to highlight the midwifery in countries with high maternal mortality and this includes Liberia. As part of this, we are lookign to produce an online interactive website that highlights issues such as that shown in this programme. We are looking for developers and designers to join us in Exeter in the first weekend of April to bring the data together (called the data mash-up) in a meaningful way to make a difference to the resources available in these countries and boost the midwifery workforce. If any of you can help or know anyone who can, I would really appreciate it if you could let them know about our event. There is more information on http://forward25.eventbrite.com/

Also for general interest, there is more information about the report on:
- http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/press_materials/pr/2011/201101_midwiferyreport/en/index.html

- with a PDF fact sheet available on http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/press_materials/pr/2011/sowm_report_pres.pdf

Please do contact me if you would like any further information on this.

[MrsBanks]

That looks very interesting rchilvers, and welcome to the forum :)