Last night I actually slept well…..let’s hear it for Benadryl, earplugs, and Nancy’s little travel fan that she graciously loaned me. Day two of training begins with Helping Babies Survive: Helping Babies Breathe and ends with the ceremonial handing out of certificates of completion. Teaching neonatal resuscitation in a low-resource country as a NICU nurse is emotionally difficult. At home, there is so much by way of medicines and technologies and procedures that we rely on that simply are not available here. So many of the babies that are lost here could be saved if….if it wasn’t so hard to get to a hospital…..if those hospitals had enough trained medical personnel……if birth attendants in remote areas were better trained. For me personally, it was incredibly difficult to butt up against limitations that I’m not used to hitting in my everyday practice and then having to be ok with that.
On a happier note, Training Day 2 is also graduation day and its exciting for everyone, trainers and midwives alike. It was really wonderful to see the expressions of pride and accomplishment on the faces of the comadronas as they come up and receive their certificates from us. There is lots of laughter, lots of selfies and lots of fun! We went out for pizza to celebrate another successful training in the books and it was delicious!
We head back to Guatemala City tomorrow so Nancy and Karen can attend a Rotary International meeting, leaving me in the company of the menfolk. Menfolk who wanted McDonald’s for lunch. Tune in tomorrow to see how that went down.
Supporting Safe Birth 