Friday, May 4, 2012

Revisiting the baby factory

I didn't really explain but I am in Ecuador with a group of undergraduate nursing students from BYU. We split up the students every day and take them to different places. They go to Luis Vernaza (adult hospital), Sotomayor, Roberto Gilbert (pediatric hospital), or the community with an organization called Hogar de Cristo. 

I am in charge of taking the students to the maternity hospital and to the pediatric hospital. On Monday, I took my first group of students to Sotomayor, the maternity hospital in Guayaquil. 
A shot of Luis Vernaza as we dropped students off

Please notice how the surgical scrubs are capris on the girls. Ecuadorians are a little bit shorter than us Americans. :)
Ready for the babies

 The women at Sotomayor are not allowed to have any family with them and do not receive anything for pain during labor. Most of our time at the hospital we spend basically being doulas for the women. Here is one of my students, Erika, and her patient.
 They both look much happier after the delivery :)
The bitty baby on the left was the patient's. This hospital has so many babies born each day they often just lay them in a row like this in one crib. I love going in the nursery because there are just babies on top of babies on every surface. I also love going in there just because the babies are super cute. :)


The first day was successful! We got to see two births at the very end of the day. It's much more stressful being in Ecuador this time around because I actually have responsibility. I'm getting pushed with my Spanish because I have to set everything up each day with the nurses and administrators. One of my students said she was impressed with how confident I was with my Spanish. I laughed because I'm not really that confident but I just put on a face when I'm forced to talk to everyone! I'm sure the hospital staff just laugh after I leave because of my broken Spanish and the funny things I say. 


They also laugh because they can't believe I'm the students' "profesora". I've decided to start using a new term- supervisora. This seems to go over better. It's probably confusing when I look just as young as the students but I'm telling them I'm the one in charge. 


I'll keep catching on posts!

3 comments:

Trisha Kae said...

How do they keep track of which baby belongs with which mother?!

Allie said...

Hahaha don't worry Trish-- they have little tiny bands around their ankles that say their mother's name. I love that you were worried about that though. :) I miss you!!!

Mark and Debbie Holt said...

You are the cutest "profesora" that they have ever met!! That is probably why they might have laughed;)!!! Glad that you are having fun and continue to live out your dream of being "a professional baby holder!"