First week in Vanuatu!

Hello! So this is the story of my adventure to a small "developing" city, Port Vila, in the Republic of Vanuatu on the island of Efate. I arrived last week safely and got started the following day of my arrival at the local hospital, Vila Central Hospital, in the Maternity Ward. My first day I arrived at 7am and was warmly greeted by one of the sistas (midwives). She casually showed me around as we waited for everyone to gather for the report from the night shift. So much has gone on this last week and I will briefly summarize. There have been 3 "sheksheks", otherwise known as earthquakes. One was 6.5 and 26K's beneath the Earth's surface, this one I was sitting at the Midwives station doing paperwork when the building shaked. It got eerily quiet for a few seconds and then after it was over everyone went back to their business. Last week I have been getting familiarized with procedures, language (Bislama), who people are and where things are at. Everyone has been super helpful and friendly. There were a lot of normal births early in the week, not much unusual last week. And with the full moon Saturday, the maternity ward became quite busy. Later in the week, we had a premature delivery of 25 weeks, one smol pikini, 960 grams, from one petit mother! The baby is doing well in the nursery. Unfortunately we had a delivery of a baby with hydrocephalus (excess fluid build up in the skull which leads to brain swelling) and an omphalocele (whereby the intestines stick out the belly button) and sadly this baby did not make it. Currently there is a baby in the nursery with an omphalocele and is scheduled for surgery this week for repair. One mom had a nuchal cord (a super long cord wrapped 3 times around the neck)! I was able to reduce it. Whereas another mom had a super tight nuchal cord wrapped around once and I was unable to reduce it and ended up clamping and cutting the cord on the perineum. This little one we ended up suctioning and giving some oxygen and within 5 minutes was no longer blue and was pinking up. In the short amount of time that I have been here I have become aware of how much I really do know through teaching the nursing students. I enjoy sharing the knowledge and they seem to be very curious. Until next time...