International Day of the Midwife

 The International Day of the Midwife was celebrated in Style at Selian Hospital. We started off by having some Primary School kids from Christ Church International School come and  see around the hospital and learn more about what Midwives do.

They were very sweet asking good questions and getting very excited when they saw a baby that was less than an hour old.

We then had 45 pupils from the local secondary Schools come and learn about the role of the Midwife. They seemed very interested and I think could have stayed for the whole day asking questions.

 Sarah our head midwife explained to them all that happens in the Maternity Unit. Talking about labour and birth, Caesearean operations and Normal birth. Again they had so many questions.

 Sr Flora explained the importance of Antenatal care and why babies come back after birth for Immunisation and for weighing

Sr Editha explained what an Obstetric Fistula is and the fact that there is help for the devastating condition woman can suffer from when they have no access to good maternity care.

Because we were  celebrating we had to have a cake.

 Jonny and Paul looking very smart in their Maternity Africa T shirts

The afternoon we had planned a gathering in the chapel. Again with the Midwives from the different departments explaining what their roles are . Making sure that all staff new the various functions of a Midwife.

All staff parade in the hospital grounds as they came to the chapel. 

We had the great honour of having Euni Simonson  come to be a guest speaker. Here and her husband came to Tanzania 60 years ago as missionaries and the build Selian hospital up fro a small dispensary to the hospital it is today. In her beautiful Swahili she shared stories of birth and what the heart of a Midwife should be. What a privilege it was for us to hear from this wise Godly woman.

The day finished with Happy, a patient who had her baby at Selian in Feb, telling everyone what the care and compassion of the Midwives the had meant to her and to encourage everyone to keep giving good care to all.

It was a fun day , with some serious issues discussed but hopefully everyone is a little wiser about what the true role of a Midwife is in Tanzania.