No Christmas, No deaths: Dr. Addy’s Christmas in Uganda and What The Holidays are Like In American Hospitals
Dr. Adeodata Kekitinwa, the executive Director of Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation, supervises the voucher program we support.
We visited Dr. Addy last month during our trip to Uganda. Here’s how you feel watching Dr. Addy in motion — lazy. Not only does this amazing woman oversee the voucher program, but the entire pediatric AIDS
effort, the breadth of maternal health interventions that make SMGL Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation feasible and she ensures kids in her programs get proper nutrition. She is tireless, leading us all around the country and still managing to make magic happen with phone calls along the way. One of 12 children and a mother of three herself, she is an icon for the working mama club, showing strong leadership, incredible compassion and all the while being beloved by everyone she meets. We’ve decided that we want 10 more of her for Christmas.
Dr. Addy shared with us that in her country, Christmas is celebrated a lot like Thanksgiving is in the US. We asked her to share a Christmas story with us.
Dr. Addy Says: The Human Resources Manager walked into my office just now and is asking how she should handle the SMGL (Saving Mothers Giving Life) front line workers in the three districts of implementation. She does not have previous experience dealing with health workers who have to be on call on Christmas. Baylor Uganda normally appreciates its human capital (employees) by giving them some extra days off during the Christmas holiday season. It is a tradition to join family in the village several kilometers away from Kampala. Buses travelling to the rural districts have already increased the fares by about a half, which makes budgeting a challenge. Towards the last days it is not surprising to find people on top of lorries because it is cheaper than travelling by bus. Best time to move around Kampala city is Christmas week when the usual traffic suddenly disappears and one wonders where all the vehicles that usually jam the city have gone.
Christmas is heavily cerebrated by going to church, even for those that are not routine church goers. My family and I shall gather at my home or my mother-in-law’s for lunch. My husband likes entertaining so most likely he is already planning to have one of his small cows butchered. My village-mates and families will also be expecting me to invite them as it is expected that it is time to share if you are better able. But that will be for the 26th. There will be some music for them and then we will offer a goat or two for them to feast and be happy.
However, this will be the first time dealing with maternal issues and SMGL over this period so my phone will be on to ensure that communication is not the barrier to our goal to reduce maternal mortality in these districts. A back up team will remain on call to ensure continued provision of services. I will surprise my team that will remain on call with Christmas presents. No Christmas, no deaths is our motto for the end of the year.
Hosting friends, family and neighbors to share our holidays is a universal tradition, though few here in the US knows what it really means to offer our neighbors one of our goats. Making an offering (like a goat or maybe gold, frankincense and myrrh) is the original sentiment behind why we give gifts during the holidays, but offering a goat is no small token. It means giving a gift you’ve raised, slaughtered and hope will feed families who might be hungry. The significance and generosity of that kind of offering is gift giving at its best.
Anyone who works in healthcare can relate to the significance of what Addy’s Human Resource Manager was asking. At American hospitals, deciding who works which holidays is always a big deal. While some nurses volunteer to work “the biggies” like Christmas and Thanksgiving (especially since they receive premium pay for holiday shifts), most nurses prefer to be home with their families. The way holiday staffing works is that nurse managers select staff based on whose turn it is to work the holiday, who volunteers, seniority and skills. They make sure there are enough experienced nurses, unit clerks, surgical technicians and other essential staff to keep their hospital unit fully staffed and open for business.
It often happens on maternity units that there are fewer patients than usual on, for example, Christmas. Patients want to be home too and any patient who has recovered in time for a holiday, is usually discharged. Doctors schedule fewer patients for inductions and C-sections on the days around the holidays, which means that patients who come in are usually in spontaneous labor. Even if working the holiday isn’t your first choice, it’s impossible not to appreciate the magic and Christmas spirit that descends when your patient delivers her baby on Christmas. Attending those births are gifts.
For the midwives, doctors, nurses, trained birth attendants and staff attending Christmas births in Uganda, we wish you the magic of the season and safe, safe births.
