Bangladesh, Day 1: The bare essentials

There I am!

I finally made it to Cox’s Bazar today at 11am. It’s really hot here! And humid and dusty. There are tom-toms everywhere. And cows crossing the road and holding up traffic. I learned on the 50 minute plane ride from Dhaka that Cox’s Bazar is actually a local vacation destination. It’s apparently got quite a nice beach. We’ll see if I make it there.

Ride from the airport in Cox’s Bazar to the hotel

All of the other volunteers are out in the camps. So I’m here at the hotel feeling pretty useless. I imagine I’ll get some kind of orientation tonight when the volunteers get back. And tomorrow it’s out to the camps, I hope.

So, in the meantime, I’ve been spending my time organizing all the supplies I brought. And man! 100 lbs is A LOT of supplies! I’m super excited to get this stuff out to where it’s needed.

Look at all the stuff that made it here!

And also thinking about what I should pack in my day bag. I need to be pretty mobile, as I may be called to attend to women several kilometers into the camps and have to go out on foot. So I’ve got a backpack. It’s one of those really small ones. In it, I’ve got to have what I need for myself (water, water, water!), as well as equipment for prenatal and postpartum visits, and of course, for births.

To put things into perspective, when I attend a birth in the Bay Area, I come hauling 4 to 6 LARGE bags of stuff, so I can handle whatever possible situation may arise. Try paring that down to a tiny Camelbak backpack. Basically impossible. But it must be done. So here’s what I ended up with:

What I’ve got to work with

If you ever wanted to know what equipment a midwife carries, then here’s your chance to geek out. If not, you can stop reading for now :-)

Pictured from top left and in a haphazard zigzag fashion:

• Notebook and pen (for charting/keeping notes)
• Protein bar
• Non-sterile gloves
• Blood pressure cuff and stethoscope
• Infant scale and sling
• The backpack
• Elbow length sterile gloves (for removing a placenta by hand that isn’t coming out)
• Sterile suture equipment
• Sterile episiotomy scissors
• Sterile suture
• Clean cloths (pink)
• 2 cord clamps (normally these are sterile)
• DeLee mucus trap (for suctioning the baby’s trachea to prevent respiratory infection in case it has swallowed meconium)
• Sterile scalpel (for cutting the umbilical cord)
• Pair of regular sterile gloves
• (above) Handheld Doppler and gel (to listen to the fetal heartbeat)
• Fetoscope (also for listening to fetal heartbeat, but doesn’t require batteries)
• Neonatal ambu-bag (for helping a baby to breathe)
• Thermometer
• Misoprostol tablets (for controlling maternal bleeding)
• Baby hat and blanket (hypothermia is one of the leading causes of neonatal death worldwide)
• Chux pad (to provide a clean surface)
• Lidocaine gel (numbing topical gel)
• Erythromycin eye ointment (for preventing neonatal eye infection)
• Hand sanitizer
• Alcohol prep pads
• Wristwatch
• Bar of soap
• Sterile gauze packs
• Lube
• Tape
• Headlamp
• Whistle (for emergency)
• Dust mask (who knows)
• Headlamp
• Kleenex
• Poncho (for rain)

Not pictured, but also should be in the bag — injectable Lidocaine (for numbing tissues before suturing), syringes and needles, injectable neonatal vitamin k (to prevent baby from bleeding), and good ol’ ibuprofen.

Until tomorrow!