Friday, May 30, 2008

Less than 24 hrs now

Lydia, Georgia and I leave tomorrow ... Oh my! Everyone asks me if I am excited, but honestly, I've been too busy to be excited. I think though that I just might want to scream with excitement once I'm on the airplane tomorrow evening.

I checked in online this evening; managed to get the seats I wanted, but discovered that my flight home from London to Vancouver has been cancelled and I haven't been booked on an alternate flight! Guess what I'll be trying to sort out tomorrow before I leave?

My dear friends, Tina and Jalana, gave me a "flight care package" yesterday. An armload of trashy magazines, a couple of good novels and a bag of trail mix. Who luvs ya?

Lydia, Georgia and I have each picked up a large suitcase full of supplies from UBC. Lydia tells me that she has another suitcase full of donated baby clothes collected by friends in Squamish. We have a last minute meet tomorrow to collect a couple of blood pressure cuffs and then we are off!

Thanks to everyone who's helped collect supplies and who have wished us well. I hope we will be able to update our blog often. Celina, Lydia & Georgia have yet to add their voices to this blog, but I'm going to make sure that they post too! - Jan
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Saturday, May 10, 2008

21 days and counting!

Departure day is fast approaching. We've all been to the travel clinic to get the necessary vaccinations; we've scrounged, borrowed or discount purchased the white scrubs/uniforms that we are required to wear when we are in the Ugandan hospitals; and we are busy trying to organize and pack everything else that we will need to bring for 6 wks in Uganda. Can I mention that we are all currently in clinical placements in the meantime?

Lydia, Georgia and I are booked on the same flight leaving Vancouver on May 31st in the evening. We will arrive in London on June 1, some 9 hours later. We have 7-1/2 hours to chill out at Heathrow before we take the 2nd leg of our journey to Entebbe - another 8-1/2 hours of flight. We will arrive in the morning of June 2 and our instructor, Cathy, will have arranged to have a driver to bring us to Kampala where she promises to let us sleep before orientation.

Sal (Celina) will repeat the journey a few days later.

We've also been trying to collect supplies to take with us. We have had some generous donations. I would like to thank Fort Langley Midwives, Natasha and Shelley, for donating a pediatric laryngoscope. Many thanks to the Midwives of Ridge Meadows Midwifery who tucked a box of sterile gloves, and a box of 100 needles and syringes under my arm as I finished my practicum with them. Special thanks to my preceptor Jennesse who has been so helpful organizing donations from local hospitals; she's been an incredible help. Many thanks to the RNs and aides at the local hospitals who have thoughtfully collected items for us. It is so inspiring to have our community support us in this journey.

I'm excited to have this blog to be able to keep in touch with everyone at home. Please read the paragraphs below to find out more about our global placement. Stayed tuned and enjoy this adventure with us! - Jan
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UBC Students for Global Citizenship

The Midwifery Education Program at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has created a global midwifery placement option for students. This year, two midwifery faculty members and a family physician will accompany the students for part of their practicum and then local midwives, nurses and physicians will continue supervision.

For the past 4 years, UBC Midwifery students have participated in this 6 - 8 week global placement at the end of the 3rd year of their midwifery education. This year Midwifery is pleased to have colleagues from Medicine and Nursing join us.

In these placements students attend births and experience the ways that health care workers deal with normal and difficult births in a low-resource setting. These skills are especially relevant to student accouchers as they prepare to respond to the critical shortage of skilled maternity providers in rural and remote areas of British Columbia. In exchange, students and faculty share ways of practice taught at UBC with the global midwifery community.

Students return energized by their global experience and have a deeper understanding about women’s health issues, women’s rights and birthing practices, and with new friendships across borders.

Uganda. Maternal mortality is high in rural Uganda. Over 510 per 100,000 women die in childbirth. There are few trained attendants to assist women in childbirth, and transportation problems as well as social customs prevent many women from attending health centres and hospitals for deliveries. Those who attend hospitals for delivery often have risk factors and complications rarely seen in Canadian maternity practice.

Students and faculty take donations of gloves, delivery instruments, medication to prevent and treat hemorrhage, and academic articles and books on continuing education topics. Midwifery faculty work in collaboration with local staff to present continuing education topics on maternity subjects requested by the local nurse-midwife managers and medical directors. This year we raised funds to buy supplies for maternity wards and to bring a Ugandan Midwife to B.C. for an educational visit this past April.