The Baby Factory

On Tuesday we started our clinicals in the maternity hospital, Sotomayor. It is so interesting.

This hospital services Guayaquil and much of the surrounding area. About 25,000 babies are born there per year! I couldn't believe a hospital producing more babies than Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, but they've done it! It is very much a baby factory.

Because of the high number of births, they have a very different system from ours. It isn’t better or worse, just different. They start out in a room with about ten to twenty other women, all lying in stretchers. There are so many women that there is no room for spouses or family. Each woman is totally alone! They do not receive epidurals unless they have a special circumstance. Also, the nurses do not perform labor support.

As soon as we entered, we found a woman alone in the corner wailing in pain. I went with my instructor to see what we could do. The woman was eighteen years-old and having her first baby. We started counterpressure (pressure on the knees during contractions), massage, and just talking to her. Soon I turned into a doula for this young girl. Three times she sat up and collapsed into my arms. I had no idea what I was doing but I guess maybe it was nice just to have someone there. I turned into a cheesy, Spanish motivational speaker whispering, “Si se puede!” J She gave birth within an hour or so.

The birthing room is also neat- just a row of fifteen beds with stirrups!

 Despite the different facilities, their nursing and medical care is very up-to-date. The birth was similar to those I’ve seen in the states. After, they go into a room with twenty other women to recover and sleep. Their stretchers are just feet apart and they are all out cold snoring! It’s awesome.

The baby is not given to the mother for a few hours because it would be too hard to supervise all of them together. I felt bad for these new moms anxious to see their babies so I became the baby photographer! I would take pictures of the babies and then go to show the moms in postpartum.

Here's one of my favorite baby shots. He's not too happy about being in this world yet... 

Me with the angry cutie

All in all it was a fabulous day of clinical. We aren’t here to “save” these people- they are thriving in their own way under their difficult circumstances. I was impressed by how much they do not waste equipment. Even every wrapper for sterile gloves was used as a drape for the baby scale. Most of the nurses and doctors are also very friendly towards us, always wanting to chat and work together. I love doing clinical with them! 

Ecuadorians are tiny people! Here's us in our L&D scrubs... more like capris on us! 

And some of our friends on the L&D staff

 It’s been fun to use my Spanish and witness a world of birthing very different from a labor and delivery unit in the US. I will be there all week! 

Church in Ecuador and people watching...

Yesterday was my first day attending church in Spanish since two years ago in the Dominican Republic! I am happy to report that it went fairly well. I understood much more than I remember and I was able to get to know some of the members. They actually changed their bishopric that Sunday so it was interesting to hear from the new and old bishops. I started talking to a cute little girl, Diana, after Sacrament and attended the rest of church with her. I stumbled over my words when asked to read in Sunday School but I think they appreciated my participation!  Diana was twelve years old so we went to Mujeres Jovenes (Young Womens). It was so fun! After the lesson, the teacher asked me to tell the girls about myself. They had many questions about Utah, school in America, and nursing. Both the Sunday School teacher and Young Womens President were girls my age going to the university. They were such beautiful, sharp girls! I was totally impressed with them.

After church we took a walk on the “Malecon”- it’s like a riverwalk with restaurants and vendors everywhere. People-watching there was just fabulous. I took some pictures of my favorite moments.

So first we saw a group of people crowded around in a circle. Naturally we were curious and walked over there. What we found was a surprisingly tame squirrel being fed by a toddler! It was so strange. People gathered to watch this kid play with a rodent. It was actually quite entertaining. 

Next, I saw a woman holding up her baby in front of a poster. Yep pretty sure she was trying to take a picture so it looked like a dinosaur was eating her baby. Ten points for creativity… Looks like there are no nutrition concerns for this little one! 

Love those cute rolls...

Then being typical tourists, we had a man snap a photo of us in front of this monument but we still have no idea what the heck it is. Beautiful though…

Finally while walking home, we ran into this jolly pair! I thought they were way too cute to pass up a photo. 

Hope your Sunday was wonderful too! 

Rosaries and Hogar de Cristo

Monday was our first day out in the community! So we have three areas we're working in- the maternity hospital, medical-surgical floor of Vernaza (the beautiful hospital with a courtyard), and in the community. On Monday, we went to a few locations to plan and prepare for our assignments in the community.

We will be working with an organization called Hogar de Cristo. They have been here for almost 40 years and are very well-established. It is a Catholic-based organization but they are still excited to work with some "Mormon" nurses! :) They actually gave us all rosaries, which was super cool. They focus on housing, health, microcredit, and education. All their programs are very well structured and foster self-reliance of the people. They only work with the "poorest of the poor" so for Ecuador that means only families who make less than a dollar a day per family member. 

They started with housing and that is definitely still their largest program. I snapped a few photos of their large "planta" or house factory. They can make a house in just a few hours! It was incredible to watch these skilled workers throw a house together in no time at all. The families actually pay for their own homes entirely by making payments of $15-20 each month for three years. Also, they must pay for their own land before getting a house. 

Their microcredit work is also quite amazing. They make groups of 10-15 women and give them a small loan. Each woman must pay her part. If they do not pay, there is a head woman who deals with them. They have found this method to be quite effective! The group of women meets and decides what they want to invest in. The incredible thing is that the loans are paid back 98% of the time! 

We, obviously, are working with the health part of the organization. We met Monday to find out what Veronica (head of the health part) wanted us to do. One huge project is screening the children of various schools for illnesses and malnutrition. We are actually hoping to use the data we collect as a baseline in a study regarding the use of soy milk in their diet. About 50% of the children in the community are mildly or severely malnourished. 

The other project we're working on is forming support groups for those with chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension. Many people do not go to the doctor for chronic illnesses because they don't want to pay or don't see the need. They rarely understand the disease or what they can do to prevent complications and improve their health. Veronica wants us to go door-to-door screening a list the doctor has prepared of those at risk. We're also going to teach their volunteers how to check blood sugar and blood pressure so that they can do screenings on their own in the future. I think it's a great idea of a way to help these people and increase their knowledge of health. Knowledge really is power! If they understood their diseases and had a support group of friends to encourage them, changing health habits would be that much easier. 

Don't worry Mom we ended up not riding in the back of the truck :) 

At FHE trying passionfruit with Sonya and roomie Katie! 

Dinner at "Cafe Rio"- no joke that's what it's called! The owner's son actually goes to BYU so maybe that's where they got the idea. I don't mind though because the food was delicious!

Here's the URL for Hogar de Cristo if you're curious.... 

http://www.hogardecristo.com/navegacion/home.asp

Thanks for reading! 

Los Hospitales y El Parque Historico de Guayaquil

So today was our first whole day in Ecuador! We had the pleasure of sleeping in because of our late arrival last night. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant- yummy fruit, breads, eggs, and yogurt. At ten o’clock we jumped in two vans and headed to the oldest hospital in South America, the Luis Vernaza General Hospital, built in 1564. Don’t let the old age fool you! It’s still quite the hospital! We toured various areas including the emergency room, three levels of Intensive Care Units, cardiology unit, and post-operative recovery area. The hospital is divided based on funding- the private part and the “Junta.” The private area was noticeably nicer, although the patients pay a bundle for it. The “Junta” is an organization, which funds their care through a lottery in Ecuador. Patients who come to the “Junta” area pay based on what they can afford and the lottery covers the rest. Their care was still pretty remarkable. One brand new ICU was comparable to one in the United States. They are very advanced in some ways- they even had a whole area for stem cell implants. 

Sign on the door for the stem cell implant wing... 

I love stem cell in Spanish- mother cells :)

An interesting aspect was the lack of privacy. There were six to twenty patients in each room lying on stretchers within arms distance of each other. They did not seem put off by this though. The patients were very friendly and excited to see us. I got to use my Spanish quite a bit with the patients and our tour guide. The courtyard of the hospital was sooo beautiful and included a little cathedral. 

Courtyard of the Luis Vernaza Hospital

Courtyard again.... so pretty!

Here's all my pals... 

            Our next stop was the children’s hospital in another part of town. It was really nice and reminded us of Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake. It is also funded by the "Junta."The babies and children were so cute! I am so sad we won’t be doing clinicals there, but it was fun to tour it. I guess the nurses there get too nervous when we're around. Quite unfortunate because the children were ADORABLE and I would be so good at lovin them up! :) 

Riding in the air conditioned van! We're spoiled... 

We spent the afternoon at “El Parque Historico de Guayaquil.” It was a history park with a bunch of different areas. We had tour guides lead us through. First, in the wildlife portion we saw a bunch of crazy animals like crocodiles, parrots, tapirs, sloths, monkeys, and crabs. It totally reminded me of our trip to Manaus, Brazil last summer. One monkey entertained us thoroughly as he tried to crack open a nut on three different surfaces. The other areas had restored buildings like a bank, restaurant, farm, etc. We took a bunch of cute pictures on the cable cars outside just like San Francisco!  

Pretty parrot... I didn't even mess with the colors of the photos!

Cheesy cable car photo- a must. 

Restored urban buildings

Trisha! You would be so proud of their recycling.

 In the park they used old soda bottles to grow plants in! 

For those of you who don't know, I have crazy reactions to mosquito bites. They swell up and turn white within a few minutes and I get hives all around them. Well this was my first one worth documenting. By the end of the park tour I had five bites on my arms and I was starting to swell! I'll have to be better about using my repellant... 

By the end I was pretty tuckered out from the humidity, lack of sleep, and bites. We stopped by the MegaMaxi grocery store to pick up some water and food. Here we are with our huge jugs! 

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll have some more exciting stories to dish on soon. :)

Love, Allie

Bienvenidos a Guayaquil, Ecuador!

Well I made it! I'm currently blogging it up in my hotel room while the roomies sleep. Mind you it's 2:41 AM here... I must have slept for a coon's age on the plane because I am not even tired!

So I had a cutie group of friends take me to the airport! Tyler, Lisa, and Katie all rolled out of bed at 6:30 to drive me up. I'm so lucky to have such sweet friends/brother! I think I just blabbed and cracked jokes the whole way while they were half asleep.... 

The only exciting/stressful thing happened when I went to check in. I walked up rather cheerfully and told the agent how tan she looked. We instantly bonded. Then she looks up my flight and told me I wouldn't make it as it left in ten minutes! What the.... So my instructor came over to talk with her and sure enough I had been booked on the earlier flight. The lady started typing and clicking away but she said I would probably have to leave the next day! The travel agency hadn't told my teacher that I was leaving earlier than everyone else. I was super sad but tried to be flexible. The standby list was super long, the flight the rest of my group was on was full, and any other connecting flight wouldn't get me to my next leg on time. I was contemplating who could come get me and take me back to Provo when tan Delta airline lady (Wendy was her name) says, "Oh we got you on the flight!" YAY. I don't know what she did but seriously it was a miracle. I think it was something kinda shady or against the rules because she stopped talking about it when her supervisor came by. I told Wendy thanks no less than bout ten times. I was so glad I had been friendly from the get-go and that Heavenly Father decided to give me a little tender mercy. 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Oh on my flight from Atlanta to Ecuador I got a whole row of seats to myself! That's pretty neat. 

It was interesting to see how many people were wearing masks to prevent the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu. My friend Megan and I snapped a photo with a cute airport worker in Ecuador with hers on. One flight actually got delayed because Ecuador did not want to let anyone fly in that had originated in Mexico. We had to wait while the passenger and her luggage were taken off the plane. I believe Ecuador still hasn't had any cases reported yet... so far so good!

We got in pretty late and just checked in! Tomorrow we're going to orient at some of our clinical spots. I'm pretty much ecstatic to start using my Spanish and nursing skillz..... Wish me luck! Love you guys! 

Wifey goes to Romania :(

Trisha baby left last Monday for Romania! Lisa and I took her out to yummy IHOP at 5:30 in the morning and then up to the airport. We were sad to see our little girl go but we know she’s going to give all the kiddos in the orphanage some much-needed love! 

You go Glen Coco.