A little bit about work

I have learnt a lot from my colleagues about maternal and new born health especially as I am helping with the data collection systems for the new programme. It is indeed a fascinating and sometimes shocking arena to work in. A lot of my colleagues have been going out to the field to collect information on current practices in regards to birthing, pregnancy and child care and come back with stories that make your jaw drop!

There are of course government facilities which are available for women to give birth in; however that depends if you can get there. Some of the roads are impassable and when you’re giving birth time, as they say, is of the essence. Also some people chose not to give birth in the facilities for reasons such as trust in the local healers and family practices which mean women are forced to give birth in their home.

The key is education. Local healers (however crazy we perceive some of their practices) have been working in villages for 100s of years. There is a level of trust which has been maintained and after all they do probably make some people better. No matter how many health facilities are available if the trust and the benefits of using them aren’t understood people simply aren’t going to use them. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

My colleague was telling me a story of an NGO worker who went out to talk about and demonstrate contraceptives to a village. On returning to the village 4 to 5 years later he was approached by a gentleman who said that condoms didn’t work. He asked him if he had been putting them on correctly and he informed him that he had been using them exactly as they had been demonstrated (you can see where this is going) unfortunately said NGO representative had demonstrated how to put condoms on using his… thumb. Now whilst this is an amusing story (apart from the poor gentleman and wife with 3 extra children) it just goes to show that no matter how clearly you think you’ve communicated something the message may not always be understood!