Is this the 12 millionth Chadian?

A happy event at Guinebor II and though he may not actually be the 12 millionth Chadian, he will always be very special to his Mum, Anastasie, one of our nurses. Some time earlier this year Chad managed to achieve a tripling of its population from 4 to 12 million in just over 50 years since independence. It is set to double again in the next 20 years. Each women having on average 7 children must help overcome the worst under 5 mortality figures in the world ( about 20%). Al Jima is also smiling in the picture she has the satisfying job of helping mothers have safe deliveries, its a big job. Look at the map below, look for the reddest part, that is Chad; once again in the headlines for the wrong reason with a scandalous MMR (maternal mortality ratio) of 1.1 deaths for every hundred pregnancies.

  Maternal Mortality Rate worldwide (2010) Deaths per 100 000 pregnancies

So it is no surprise that our maternity services are becoming busier. They started slowly just  over 18 months ago and last month we had 58 deliveries. this month will be even more. Forty four  deliveries already is more than last years whole month  and it is only the 21st October. It means  plenty of work for Andrea, there have been 5 caesareans so far this month and lots of other cases needing help, close observation, forceps, oxytocin drips etc .

 

 ^{The first week of this month was especially busy and Andrea worked for 88 hours, many of them at night. Clearly this is not sustainable long term, so we have now decided that we will take alternate weekends off. Any patients arriving requiring specialist obstetric or surgical care will have to be taken to the referral centre in the city. This is not ideal, but we can't work 24/7/365.  It would however be good to have more surgical members of the team, perhaps you could pray for this.}

^{Another problem is that the temporary maternity delivery unit that we created from part of the operating theatre is becoming too small for the women in labour and outpatients that are there every day. We have added an extra bed for the women in labour and in the near future we need to find more space.}

 

^{Meanwhile give thanks for the 4 women who have live babies after their caesareans and pray for the unfortunate lady with polio who can't walk, her baby was already dead when she arrived. At least her life was saved. She has always crawled on the floor from childhood and has never had a wheelchair, we hope to find way of making her life better.}

 

^{We can also  thank God for healing of a baby with tetanus despite our minimal resources. She was  born in unhygienic conditions at home to an non vaccinated mother. She presented with severe spasms and unable to feed due to 'lock jaw'  at 6 days of life, Now after 3 weeks of heavy sedation in a darkened room being tube fed she is breast feeding again and will be  ready for home in a couple of days. It is good to know that  in addition to the sterile instruments and clean delivery room, all the babies born at Guinebor II are fully protected against this often fatal illness by vaccines either before or after birth .}