I’ve seen a recurring theme going through my fellow BTB interns’ minds: time in Malawi has seriously flown by. I agree 100% with this.
On my first day working at St. Gabriel’s I was amazed at the organized structure and tidiness of the hospital. A thorough tour of the facilities reinforced my initial thoughts. The hospital is small, but widespread with a long hallway that has wards on both sides . Additional buildings are found and attached to the main building through covered walkways. All the hallways are open to the outside with a number of gardens in between each ward. The hospital takes great pride in its gardens as they are very well kept.
In the back of the hospital is a long building that is available to any patient and his/her family members. This building contains spaces to sleep and is free of charge. Next to this housing is another building which is full of furnaces and stoves. Here, the residents cook for themselves. The hospital staff does nothing except for supply the firewood. The residents are responsible for making sure their space is tidy. Almost all residents are pregnant woman because many of them are not from neighboring villages. In the late stages of their pregnancy, they come to stay here so that once they are ready to give birth they will not have to travel the long distance. Like Dr. Mbeya, the hospital director, said, “It’s a home away from home”.
This free housing was provided to encourage pregnant women to come to the hospital, rather than try to go into labor without any medical attention. To come to St. Gabriel’s from distant villages can be difficult and costly, and this solution keeps St. Gabriel’s labor ward busy.
However, after speaking to a few pediatric doctors, it is obvious that solutions like these are needed in other wards as well. The absence of babies in the neonatal ward is due to the difficult and costly visits to hospitals. Today, St. Gabriel’s received another incubator from the Netherlands. When a pediatric doctor brought us to see the incubator in the kangaroo care ward, I couldn’t help but notice the entirely empty beds. There was not a single child or mother in there. The two incubators, two bililights, and one phototherapy bed were unplugged and sat pushed to the wall. Mirroring my thoughts, the pediatric doctor explained to us that because of low patient health literacy, parents of premature children do not see that it is necessary to come to St. Gabe’s for treatments. St. Gabe’s hopes that in the future this problem will be lessened by their outreach clinics and patient education teachings.
On another note: This past weekend we went to visit Blantyre. We had donations and also technology supplies to bring to the other BTB interns. Blantyre was very modern and had great craft and food markets. It was a great weekend trip!
