My daughter spent one semester of her senior year in Zambia. Graduated RN, BSN, magna cum laude. (Proud mom, sorry). While in Zambia, they worked in pairs, providing help in the hospital where needed. Pre natal care is mostly non existent, but women in labor often walked into the hospital to give birth. My daughter and her partner, who with the group of about 20 young women who also went to Zambia, were given an 8 hour course, called, Helping Babies Breathe.
Zambia does not have enough doctors to staff hospitals, most doctors there are Christian missionaries who work out in the field, and come to the hospital twice a week, to perform scheduled surgeries. Which leaves nurses to run the hospital. A woman gave birth there, with my daughter and her partner assisting the Zambian nurses. A baby was born not breathing, and the Zambian nurses lamented this, declaring that it was a shame the baby was not breathing. They assumed the baby would die. My daughter and her partner, armed with the course they had just finished, used the techniques they learned to save this baby, who went home with his mother, perfectly fine. Afterwards, the student nurses made step by step instructions on posters for the Zambian nurses, so if this happened in the future, they could follow these procedures to save more infants lives.
My point in this story is, partly, that hospitals in Africa are not like our modern hospitals, these are 3rd world countries, with sub par staff, and sub par equipment. I’m sure they lose more people than in our American, Australian, or European hospitals.
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