Santa Baby... :)

Hey ya’ll!

So, we’re coming down to the wire. Most of us are feeling a little bit CRAZY at this point in time – with only 9 days left before we get on the airplane, way too much sugar in our blood from Shelli’s wonderful Halloween candy, and just a wee bit of senioritis kicking in…could you pray for us as we study for finals?? Thanks. J

This last week has been incredibly busy, but also encouraging and refreshing. We’ve finished our classes, given our final presentations, and finally nailed down those last clinical hours. AND on Wednesday, President Smith from IWU arrived to visit along with his lovely wife Teresa, Shelli Rowley (our amazing and talented Global Studies Supervisor for the School of Nursing – she’s been our team’s biggest support ever since we started planning for the trip!), and Dr. Rob Dawson (the Chair of Pre-licensure School of Nursing)!! While we might have been a bit nervous before they arrived, as soon as they arrived we were immediately put at ease. They have been such a joy to have here! There is definitely a new excitement and energy in our team ever since they arrived. They have brought a whole new dimension of fun to the trip. In fact, the night they arrived we got a visit from Santa Clause! Well, it was a Santa wearing red scrubs, a red towel on HER head, and a fantastic beard/white hand towel on her chin. “Children, children, gather ‘round. Come to Santa!” And as we obediently sat down around Shelli, she pulled out our magical gifts from her Mary Poppins-like pillowcase of treats.

To all our family and friends who helped Shelli plan this surprise: thank you so much! It will definitely be one of my favorite memories from our trip. :D

On a more serious note, let me share about the Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) conference that we put on this week. HBB is a program developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics for teaching birthing attendants how to resuscitate babies. 1 in 10 babies has difficulty breathing when born, and usually if a resuscitator and suctioning is available, it is not difficult to help these babies begin breathing on their own. Before we left IWU in August we were trained in HBB so that we could teach it in Zambia, which has a relatively high infant mortality rate in certain provinces.

Many of us have spent the whole trip planning a conference to teach HBB to traditional birth attendants (TBAs) as our semester project. It was a bit nerve-racking when the day of the conference actually arrived on November 1st. We had planned for all the worst-case scenarios, and the TBAs arriving late or throughout the day was our biggest concern. If you don’t know already, Zambian time is…not prompt. :D We had previously put on a conference for nurse midwives, and the first person showed up a half hour late while the last person got there a half hour before the end of the conference. Naturally, with the TBAs travelling to Zimba from rural villages, we figured people would arrive throughout the morning and we would need several venues and teaching groups to make things run smoothly. With many other concerns, we were really praying that the teaching would go well.

I need to back up a bit in my explanation. TBAs are the birth attendants in rural areas of Zambia. Many women live so far from the hospital that to travel there for their delivery would take anywhere from a day to several days of walking. While TBAs do not have any formal education, they are the respected authorities on birth outside of the hospital setting, and they are very respected in their communities. However, they do not have the emergency supplies available to hospitals. By attending this conference, they would both learn how to use these sorts of supplies and receive their own set (a bulb syringe and a resuscitation bag) that they could use in their rural work. 

God answered our prayers more fully than we could have ever expected! The TBAs (who we found out had all been instructed by the hospital to arrive at 8 am, two hours early) were all on time at 10 am! And while we had been expecting 12 TBAs (we really didn’t think everyone would come), 16 people showed up and were excited to learn the material! Nurse midwives from the hospital translated for us, and even did an impromptu skit demonstrating the material (the women loved it). Overall things went smoothly. We had periods of “lecture” and hands-on practice resuscitating our mannequin baby (Neo-Natalie). :D Throughout the day we heard lots of laughter as the women practiced and helped one other improve their skills.

In the middle of the conference we treated all of the women to lunch at a local restaurant, and then returned to have more practice time. One of my favorite parts of the day was the end when we presented each of the TBAs with a certificate of completion. Dr. Rob Dawson handed each TBA their certificate amidst enthusiastic applause, and many of the women danced and sang on their way up to receive their certificates. It was a hoot. :D

At the end of the day, many of the women said, “Thank you for this knowledge! We are so happy to get more education. And you must come visit us in our villages to see how we are using it!” The women were so thankful and excited to go home with their certificates and supplies.

We think that this will be a really sustainable program here in Zimba, and after watching the nurse midwives get excited about teaching the program, we hope they will continue to use it in the following years. And we pray that through HBB and the help of these TBAs, many more babies will be given the precious gift of life.

Thanks for your prayers. :D

In Christ,

Andie Rempel