On Friday the health group had the honor of visiting on of the best public hospitals in Teguc. First, we met with the director of the hospital and she gave us an overview of the structure of the Secretary of Health for Honduras. It seems to be fairly centralized and hierarchical.
Second, we had a tour of the hospital, which has 400 beds and 7 departments: ophthalmology, diabetes, pediatrics, internal medicine, maternity, physical therapy and general medicine.
Last, we toured the maternity ward and talked to an Obstetrician. Overall, Honduras is trying to encourage women to give birth in hospitals instead of at home with a midwife. In and around the cities this is fairly reasonable, but for those who live in more rural areas it is much more difficult. Although San Felipe makes it a little easier by trying to keep prices low (about $50). We viewed three rooms in the maternity ward. First, we went in a large room with about 20 beds where women stay with their babies after they are born for 12-24 hours. Their families are able to visit them during visiting hours. Second, a group of 5 volunteers (including myself), were lucky enough to view the labor and delivery rooms. The labor room is a large room with about 10 beds where the women stay until just before they are ready to give birth. When we arrived there were two women there and three more came in as we were leaving. There is one or two nurses attending the women intermittently. They are alone at this point, husbands and families are not allowed to be with them because it is not a private room and the hospital needs to respect the privacy of the other women. We happened to time it well because after about 15 minutes the doctor said that one of the women was ready to go. They moved her to one of the delivery rooms next door and within 5 minutes she gave birth to a little boy. I was amazed at how fast it came out once it was ready. This was the first live birth that I have ever seen and am thankful for the opportunity to have seen it. The level of physical and emotional support for the women, the level of privacy and the level of sanitation were all very different from the US.
2 comments:
Thanks for the updates. I know you may sometimes feel like no one cares what you are doing down there, but I eagerly follow your travels and discoveries.
Thanks for reading my blog, I think it is such a great way to keep in touch and keep a record of my experiences. Unfortunately I don't recognize your display name, help me out.
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