Day 6 - The Fulera Experience

Hello! I'm Kaitlyn, an honors/nursing student.  Today, Alyssa, Marcia and I had the amazing opportunity to delve deeper into the healthcare component of the trip.  After dropping the engineering and honors students off at the children's home, we were then dropped off at Madame Fulera's Maternity Clinic.  We had been sitting out back for a little bit while the nurses prepared for the day, when one nurse let us know that a woman in labor had come in.
The three of us quickly made our way into the labour ward, where Sister Dorris, Sister Jane, and Sister Gladys (the three nurses) were scrambling around trying to figure out what to do and trying to put on gloves.  The midwife, Madame Fulera, who started the clinic had not arrived yet so one nurse phoned her to come quickly.  They actually expected Alyssa--and even Marcia at one point--to know what to do.  One nurse broke the woman's water with a syringe, which I found very interesting.  I also noticed throughout this process that the woman made hardly any sound, which was pretty incredible considering that she had no epidural.  Eventually the head began to come out.  When the head was fully exposed, we noticed that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.  The nurses were screaming and shouting to PUSH and one nurse even slapped the mother.  The baby soon came out, limp and very pale.  I was certain that the baby was dead, making it very difficult to watch, however the nurses were able to resuscitate him!  He was very weak but eventually gained some color.  We were pretty much all in shock at that point.  The women then had us weigh him and help clean him off and wrap him up.
When that was all over, we decided to head out into the nearby village to do outreach.  As we were leaving another woman who believed she might be in labor came into the clinic.  We walked through the streets to this village and went to various houses to give treatment to those who might need it.  What we found was that most of the people had health insurance cards, but they had been expired for up to 6 months.  For those who had current health insurance cards, we took blood pressure and gave them medication.  One man really stuck out to us in one of the homes.  He had just been discharged from the hospital after 4 months, with pain in his side, swollen legs, and a catheter.  He was in pretty bad shape, but there was nothing we could do.
When we arrived back at the clinic, the second woman who had come in had begun to have contractions.  We helped to deliver that baby as well.  Shockingly, the baby girl also had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.  She was okay, though, after the cord was removed from around her neck.  The nurses went through the same processes as before.
As if the day weren't intense and exciting enough, another woman came hopping in with blood dripping from her foot.  Apparently she had been in a motorbike accident that left her with a huge gash in her toe and a missing toenail.  The women flushed the wound out with what looked to be alcohol and put gauze on it, but they could not suture it because the numbing medicine was not able to be found.  At that point we had to leave, as our bus had just arrived.
The whole experience at Madame Fulera's today taught me several things.  I observed the lack of sanitation methods as well as the lack of careful handling and techniques and was able to relate that to the lack that exists in other areas, such as water, strong government support, and education.  My initial response of shock and frustration was altered when I realized that the healthcare people in Ghana do what they can with the minimal resources that they have.  In order to advance and improve the healthcare, the people would need clean water, more and updated supplies, educated faculty, and better, more reliable government support.  I also learned that the women in Ghana are very strong and tough.  They had no pain medication what-so-ever, and hardly made any noise while giving birth.  They gave birth very quickly and were out of the clinic within two hours after.
I cannot believe we were able to experience so many incredible events today.  It was really eye-opening to see the differences between healthcare in Ghana and the United States.