Going back for more...

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