Last week with Maria

Now the last week with Maria has started and I am already a little sad because you can achieve and have beautiful births together compared to being alone in this hospital.

Pregnant women with HIV were more common this week and the stories they tell us are just sad. They are treated like outcasts and they really enjoy it when we take care of them, massage them, and encourage them. Of course, we protect ourselves twice with gloves and if there is a need to sew, we prefer to have a doctor do it to minimize the risk of infection.

This week we also had a few really beautiful and quick births where it was once again remarkable how much body awareness the women have and how well everything goes even without continuous monitoring of the heart tones but only listening every few minutes with a Pinard horn. In itself, this is also a really great experience without technology. For admission, we feel the abdomen, make contact with the child, notice how much amniotic fluid is still there, how well the child moves, and how it responds to my touch. We can also determine the length of the body from the pubic symphysis to the highest point of the child in the uterus to see how big the child will be - and all without ultrasound. This is midwifery work as it should be.

Of course, we also had a few not so pleasant moments. Once again, we had to wait for over an hour for an emergency cesarean section because the doctor was not available. And a woman who was in labor for hours and kept saying she was going to die, crying, and simply couldn't take it anymore, was cared for in this state for hours until she finally had a cesarean section.

On Thursday evening, we celebrated farewell. We went to Mama Iringa. It is an Italian restaurant run by an Italian immigrant. They have incredibly delicious pizza - and CHEESE. That is a rarity here. A piece of Gouda in the supermarket would cost me 8-10 euros. So when I come back in November, there will be cheese fondue or raclette or both at once.

Now Maria is gone and I will see what the weekend and the next 2 1/2 weeks in the delivery room have in store for me. But an end is approaching and I already reached halftime this week - it's incredible how quickly time flies!!!