Thought you might be interested in this post from HIFA2015 that I am putting
up on my blog. Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC Canada
From: "Angela Gorman" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 18 October 2011 18:53:39 ACDT
To: "HIFA2015 - Healthcare Information For All by 2015"
<[log in to unmask]> Subject: [HIFA2015] Attitude and behaviour of
health workers (17) Midwifery practice: I think we owe developing
countries an apology Reply-To: "HIFA2015 - Healthcare Information For
All by 2015" <[log in to unmask]>
Hi everyone,
On our first visit to Africa in 2005, we noticed that women were
delivering on their backs.. exactly as I had done 34yrs before, plus
the babies were kept away from the mothers, exactly as my own babies
were kept away from me for up to 12hrs following delivery. No choice
for me...that was how it was done here in the UK. We also noticed that
babies were often left on cold tiled surfaces wrapped in thin sheets,
this did not happen to my babies. When we asked the midwives why they
used the supine position for birth and kept the babies away from their
mothers, we were told, "this is what we were told you do in the west."
We then explained that this was how women used to be delivered
(including me) but that now women were delivered as upright as
possible and their babies were given to them to breast-feed
immediately. The midwives looked astonished and said "but what you are
saying is how our mothers taught us to deliver, but we changed because
that was what we were told you did in the west!"
Sadly we have, for all the right reasons, changed practices which were
subsequently shown to be better and safer. By keeping babies from mothers
and not encouraging early breast-feeding, we have increased the risk of PPH
for the mother and caused hypothermia/hypoglycaemia in the babies! I
think we owe developing countries an apology! Best wishes, Angela
HIFA2015 profile: Angela Gorman is a nurse and is chair of Life for
African Mothers (formerly Hope for Grace Kodindo), a charity based in
the UK. Life for African Mothers provides life-saving drugs such as
magnesium sulphate and misoprostol to help reduce maternal deaths in
developing countries. angelagorman AT aol.com Click here to read online.
HIFA2015: Healthcare Information For All by 2015: www.hifa2015.org
HIFA2015 requires financial support for 2011-2012. Please contact the
coordinator: [log in to unmask] Thanks to our 2010-2011
financial supporters: British Medical Association, CABI, Global HELP,
International Child Health Group (Royal College of Paediatrics and
Child Health), Joanna Briggs Institute, Network for Information and
Digital Access, Public Library of Science, Rockefeller Foundation
(Monitoring and Evaluation), Royal College of Midwives, Royal College
of Nursing, THET, and UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative. To send
a message to the HIFA2015 forum, email: [log in to unmask] To join or
unsubscribe from HIFA2015, email: [log in to unmask] Join our sister
forums:
CHILD2015 (child health); HIFA-Portuguese (collaboration with WHO
ePORTUGUESe network); HIFA-EVIPNet-French (collaboration with WHO
Evidence for Informed Policy Network) ; HIFA-Zambia (collaboration
with the Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance)
www.glorialemay.com/blog
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