Welcome to Uganda

Well, here we are. The whole crew of us arrived in Entebbe airport (just outside of Kampala) after 25 hours of travel yesterday morning. Cathy met us at the airport and transported us into Kampala where we're settled in two different guesthouses quite close to one another. Thursday afternoon, Brynne, Anne-Marie, Cathy and I went to meet some of the midwives and nurses that we'll be working with at Mulago Hospital. We had a short tour and gave presented some gifts to the staff (a doptone for listening to fetal hearts and some dating wheels). It was a short visit, but a good introduction to the different wards that we'll be working on.

Today we spent the day at Upper Mulago, Ward 14 - the low risk ward staffed and run by midwives. Surprisingly, it was a pretty slow day and we only attended two births. But it was a great introduction and good to be able to integrate everything slowly. So very very different to Canadian maternity care. Quite overwhelming but I'm sure we'll get the hang of it. The women bring their own plastic sheets to put on the beds, they also bring sterile gloves, a razor blade for cutting the cord, and a basin for peeing in, while in labour. We did several assessments, determining whether women were in active labour or not. We also spent some time with a Ugandan midwifery student, sharing experiences and knowledge. I don't have much time so will end this post here but will fill in some of the blanks in a future post.

Tomorrow we work a half day in Mulago Hospital again, and then head south to Masaka where we'll stay for three weeks. Looking forward to having more time to give a better description of our experiences.