I think I did briefly mention the midwifery school that opened here last month and that brevity does not do it justice as it's been a really big thing. There is only one other training school for midwives in SL and that is in Freetown over 100 miles away. It is very difficult to get any qualified staff to stay anywhere outside of Freetown; they all flock there and consequently there are hardly any qualified health workers in the provinces/regions and still fewer in the remoter parts. I think there are only 95 qualified midwives in this whole country (pop. around 6 million with a high birth rate and, as you may know, the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the world); our school is currently training 75 and we have another intake in July. Lots of them have problems finding accommodation here, as they come from all over the country, and we have not built our student hostel yet. They are bonded to work in the outlying districts for 2 years after qualifying, where they will find themselves probably the most educated and highly qualified person around for miles. They will be expected to deal with all sorts of problems with very little support. Maybe a mobile phone. They have my utter admiration for being prepared to do that. I have added some photos of the students on the day of the opening.
The school itself is a new building and quite extensive. It sits fairly high up in Makeni, so we get some breeze, and is next door to a hospital; I think it was built on the site of an old hospital. We have a wonderful skills lab. which is much better than anything I had when I was training, and computers and a library. Most of the funding has come from the Netherlands. We do need more textbooks, so if anyone can help get us some, please get in touch. We have only one copy of a standard midwifery textbook for all of our students and tutors. I have been teaching anatomy and physiology and also computer studies. This latter will make my children laugh, but as most of the students had never sat in front of a computer before, I have managed to teach them some useful things. Like how to switch it on and off.
We had the official opening a couple of weeks after the students started. The students were all there in their mauve uniforms (which they have to wear in class too) and I was very proud of them. They did what they called a 'skit' which was a mini play about a labouring woman in the bush going to a traditonal birth attendent (TBA), who referred her to the health post, who referred her to the hospital where the staff all ignored her, but too late anyway; she bled to death. There was supposed to be a countering positive story about going to hospital in good time, but time was, unfortunately, not on the students' side so it was jettisoned. One of the students was sitting near me throughout the proceedings with a bottle of whisky and a bottle of water on a tray on her lap. They were heating up nicely in the boiling sun and I wondered who would be suffering them later. I saw something on the programme called 'libation'; the Paramount Chief and someone else poured of these liquids over the front step. I suppose it was the equivalent of breaking a bottle of champagne over the door. The President's wife, who cut the ribbon, and the Vice President's wife came as well as the Paramount Chief, so it was very high-profile. I took a photo of the PC in all his finery, which I would love to show you and him (as he wanted a copy) but can't manage it. Probably best to try to stay on good terms with him as far as I can, though.... We also had some traditional drummers in costume, who kept starting too early with the drumming, such was their enthusiasm but finally they were allowed to do their stuff around libation time. And we got to eat, too, so a good time was had by all. Then the hard work started.
People often, very kindly I think, tell me my blogs are funny and make them laugh. This one is not one of those, as the work ones cannot be either. This school is so badly needed, the midwives are so badly needed too and it is possible to turn their appalling mortality stats around. We have a British booklet in our library which describes how this was done over a 6 year period in a Lancashire town which had the worst maternal mortality rates in the UK in the 1920s and early 1930s. Over that relatively short period they reduced it by about two thirds by using every opportunity for education about the importance of ante natal care and looking critically at their own practices. We have 4 male students; one of them told me that he decided to do this course after his sister died last June, giving birth to her twins, who also died.
So next time, maybe a bit lighter ...
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