I'm going to Freetown in Sierra Leone in September to work with VSO in the Ola During Children's Hospital. It has very few resources (no X-rays or microbiology!) so will be quite a challenge. Along with looking after sick children I also hope to be training up Sierra Leonean paediatricians and nurses.

Monday 7 February 2011

Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Meeting

We held the first ever perinatal morbidity and mortality meeting last week. It was great for the paediatric department (doctors and one SCBU nurse) to meet with the midwives from the maternity hospital (unfortunately no obstetricians could make it). It was very interesting hearing of the problems which the midwives have. No paediatricians attend the deliveries here so midwives do the resuscitation of newborn babies. With current procedures they then need to take the baby to be registered before taking the baby to SCBU or ER! As a result of this meeting and communication between staff, hopefully this will change. The mortality rate in SCBU last month was about 15% (mostly neonatal sepsis, prematurity and HIE). We still have a very long way to go, but it was a start, and a great privilege to be there for the start.

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