We are staying at St. Gabriel’s hospital in Namitete, Malawi, but a larger city, Lilongwe, is approximately 45 minutes away. Yesterday, we went to Lilongwe to stock up on groceries and visit the craft market. One of the physicians at St. Gabriel’s drove us to Lilongwe. He is an inspirational doctor, and it was a great opportunity to ask his opinion on a number of different topics. There was also a church leader who rode with us. I find it very interesting how interconnected faith and medicine are here, and St. Gabriel’s Hospital is associated with the Catholic Church. The doctor discussed with us controversial topics such as distribution of contraceptives to his patients. While the Catholic Church does not openly support this, in the case where a father, but not a mother, tests to be HIV positive, he is given contraceptives to protect his spouse. It was definitely an interesting debate, but the church leader agreed that this was good. Both the church leader and the doctor told us that infidelity is very common in Malawi and is a catalyst for the spread of HIV. I must remember the sensitivity of issues such as this as I continue to work and create technologies for the developing world.

Another topic we discussed was the social and cultural acceptability of particular technologies. This can be an unpredicted yet large barrier to their use and distribution. For example, the doctor explained how Malawians did not accept Standford’s Embrace Warmer, which appears to be a perfect cocoon for keeping an infant warm. Mothers here felt as if their babies were being put into coffins and would not use the life saving device. It contains a heating pouch and was designed to keep a baby warm for hours, possibly while a mother was out working in a field. However, after watching their babies be measured and then placed inside a perfectly sized “coffin,” responses from Mothers were all negative.

 

Stanford’s Embrace Baby Warmer

Personally, I think the major obstacle to creating technologies for the developing world is that we lack proper correspondence to our intended user. If we could have more partners in-country, these barriers could be foreseen and our work would be worthwhile. Maybe the goal should be to have more opportunities, such as schools, training camps, and possibly worksites in-country for the citizens to create technologies to meet the needs of their people. This would save the many hours and dollars spent to correct errors that arise based on lack of cultural and social knowledge.

This week I am going to take advantage of every opportunity I can to help at St. Gabriel’s and learn about maternal and neonatal care prior to demonstrating the pregnancy care pack on Wednesday.