First day of work in Africa

I am sitting here. Staring ahead. A thousand thoughts in my head. But how should I describe it..

Flerimo Hospital. 10am. 4 nurses on duty (as I learn, there is practically no additional training for midwives) Some of them are friendly towards me, others are skeptical - I understand that. One can sense that they are afraid of being criticized by a 'white' person. Since I am still young, they see me as being in training. I explain that I have three years of professional experience, and the ice slowly breaks.

Karibu! Welcome! (in chaos)

On the counter: mother and child passports everywhere (A4 sheets folded twice), child health records, birth register, birth announcements, birth reports - I am familiar with it in a different way, but it is essentially the same.

I am supposed to take care of the birth announcements. In front of us, visible outside on the stairs and in the dirt, sit the waiting mothers. They have given birth 8 to 24 hours ago.

And now they sit there on the street, tightly wrapped in cloths, their newborns close to their bodies, waiting to be picked up. Unbelievable.

So I sit in front of a book, one page per woman.. all in Swahili. I ask around, try to understand the connections between pre-filled pages, constantly have to ask for help. I make my way through. Papers are constantly thrown from right to left - there is absolutely no system visible. Typical Tanzania, I have to think. Whether it's at home or here: there simply doesn't seem to be any order or systems.

Difficult! Especially for someone like me who loves order 😅

The thin papers suffer from this and I will show you an example picture of the birth register.

We sit at the counter for about 2 hours and I think to myself.. don't we have any women in labor? Yes, three! They are now being examined for the first time and we come to the point that I simply cannot process in my head right now..

The way the nurses treat the women!

With us, there are applications and interviews before the training. Basic requirements for practicing a medical or social profession are:

Empathy, helpfulness, thoroughness, conscientiousness, confidence/optimism, reliability, resilience, sense of responsibility

I'm sorry. But I can't find any of these qualities in these nurses right now.

I stand there. I don't understand a word, but I can feel that the woman has no chance to express her position, no help is offered to her (there are things on the floor, one woman is vomiting, another is bleeding - I rush over and the nurse tells the heavily pregnant woman in labor to clean it up herself)

When asked why she doesn't help her, she answers: Because it's not my mess

I stand there in disbelief.

I don't need words to see the gratitude in the woman's eyes as I help her anyway.

It's not the fault of anyone in this room that the women don't have nice rooms, pain medication, or materials for their childbirth. But at least we can alleviate the pain with loving care and encourage the women, instead of making it even more difficult for them with this strict manner.

There was no birth during my shift anymore and I have the feeling that starting tomorrow, I will have to handle all the births myself to protect the women from the nurses there. I hope this is just the first impression and that there will be different shifts in the future.

Already now, I am wondering how I can explain to them that the women will give birth just as well, and probably even better, if they give them space and accompany them lovingly..

Fortunately, I went for a run in the morning, so now I can fall into bed exhausted, and tomorrow is a new day.

Because only today, after my run, did I realize and think about the fact that exercising at an altitude of over 1500m is more strenuous for the body than in my flatland in Leipzig.

Good night!