Two days before returning to Nepal for some more midwifery,
and I feel an update to this blog is much overdue. It’s been about five months
since I returned from my last trip, and I've managed occasional updates from
the nurses there regarding happenings in the APS Birth Centre in Kalanki,
Kathmandu. The birthing ball is being used, and I've been informed there has
been another ‘home birth’ of a westerner, attended by the lovely Rashmi didi
and colleagues.
Much has happened here with regard to worldwide midwifery,
too. Royal College of Midwives have twinned with Nepal, Uganda and Cambodia.
This ‘Global Twinning Project’ is funded by the government organisation, THET,
to take around 72 UK midwives to these countries, over a 3yr period, for short
spells of volunteering. It is hoped that while supporting the 3 countries’
attempts to increase midwifery and its regulation, and therefore the maternal
and neonatal survival rates, it brings benefits to the UK midwives also.
What does a trip like this do to benefit my NHS midwifery?
For one, I am so much more grateful for what we have here in UK. I also have so
much more appreciation for the excellent training I’ve had here. These three countries
have few facilities. I have my eyes, my hands and my heart, to use along with
the clinical knowledge I have gained; skills appropriate to the rural settings
of these countries. I have exercised my leadership, mentoring, problem solving,
communication, and cultural awareness skills to name but a few. What NHS trust
WOULDN’T want to encourage their midwives to expand their skills in such a way?
The day will maybe come when trusts will second midwives for volunteering work
again, and ensure pension, etc, is covered during their stay. Two or three
weeks of volunteering is really valuable, but three months??? That would be really
invaluable.
So, this trip.... I’m flying with two midwife volunteers coming
from Scotland. We have different missions depending on the skills we can offer.
We are to be placed in a pleasant hotel in central Kathmandu. There is running
water (Yay!), even a swimming pool... if the website is to be believed. But I
wonder if it will ever be able to equal the wonderful memories I have of
staying within the birth centre at Kalanki. My flight, accommodation, and agenda
have all been arranged by RCM and Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON). I’m left
twiddling my thumbs a tad at the lack of organizing and arranging I’ve had to
do for this visit.
I’ve been trying to
read up about the state of world midwifery, but local working shifts and under-staffing has meant I’ve had little time to spare. I don’t, for one minute,
feel this desire to support world midwifery is going to go away. From midwives being
burnt at the stake not too long ago, to being locked up for supporting a woman
to safely birth her baby in a way that she chooses (see plight of Hungarian
midwifery and midwife Agnes Gereb’s work for women’s rights; truly awe
inspiring), midwifery is still in dire straits. World midwifery is crying out
for the skills we UK midwives have, and exercising our skills and supporting
our sisters will have untold benefits to midwifery and women in general.
I’m not sure what internet connection I will have during my
stay. I now know how to get my photos onto this site, but they may have to wait
until my return. I’ll get packing, and be in touch. x
