Mother's milk and more...
The other day as we were walking in one of the camps a group of children was standing around us watching us, as usual. Alex, one of our driver's started asking the children their names, and I was shocked to hear that several were named Boy, or Girl, they have not even been given a real name. The other names seem to have a British bent from the Colonial times, names such as Lydia, Betty, Susan, Jaspher, lots of David's, and even some Brenda's. I also occasionally see Santa as a given name.
Many of the women have had 6, 7, 8 and even 10 children. But few have all of them living, if even half. When we ask if they are interested in family planning (birth control) most women say yes, if it is available. The problem is, we do not carry with us birth control, but the local health units do. The local health units are government sponsored and scattered throughout the countryside, frequently far from many of the camps. Distance is not the only problem as they are also know to run out of medicines frequently, or the personnel is gone without notice. I do believe that if it were more available and better understood, more of the women would take advantage of it.
Yesterday, at Alito Camp, I saw another itty bitty preemie. It was not my patient, so I did not get to see the weight, but I have no doubt that it was under 2 pounds. It was three weeks old like the one I had seen the previous day, but not feeding well. So we were taking this one in to the Medecins Sans Fronteirs (Doctors Without Borders) feeding center. Yesterday, I also had a set of twins that were quite small. I was shocked to see a bottle in the mother's hand, and asked what she was feeding the babies'. She said she just had a small amount of milk coming in one breast, so she was giving the twins watered down cow's milk! Oh, how shocked I was. Cow's milk does not have the right amount of nutrients and fat content for human babies, but there was no alternative for this woman. There is no formula available and if it were it costs and exhorbitant amount to them. I don't know what the outcome will be for these babies', but we cannot take all the babies in to the feeding center that we would like.
Blessings to these helpless babes! Brenda
The other day as we were walking in one of the camps a group of children was standing around us watching us, as usual. Alex, one of our driver's started asking the children their names, and I was shocked to hear that several were named Boy, or Girl, they have not even been given a real name. The other names seem to have a British bent from the Colonial times, names such as Lydia, Betty, Susan, Jaspher, lots of David's, and even some Brenda's. I also occasionally see Santa as a given name.
Many of the women have had 6, 7, 8 and even 10 children. But few have all of them living, if even half. When we ask if they are interested in family planning (birth control) most women say yes, if it is available. The problem is, we do not carry with us birth control, but the local health units do. The local health units are government sponsored and scattered throughout the countryside, frequently far from many of the camps. Distance is not the only problem as they are also know to run out of medicines frequently, or the personnel is gone without notice. I do believe that if it were more available and better understood, more of the women would take advantage of it.
Yesterday, at Alito Camp, I saw another itty bitty preemie. It was not my patient, so I did not get to see the weight, but I have no doubt that it was under 2 pounds. It was three weeks old like the one I had seen the previous day, but not feeding well. So we were taking this one in to the Medecins Sans Fronteirs (Doctors Without Borders) feeding center. Yesterday, I also had a set of twins that were quite small. I was shocked to see a bottle in the mother's hand, and asked what she was feeding the babies'. She said she just had a small amount of milk coming in one breast, so she was giving the twins watered down cow's milk! Oh, how shocked I was. Cow's milk does not have the right amount of nutrients and fat content for human babies, but there was no alternative for this woman. There is no formula available and if it were it costs and exhorbitant amount to them. I don't know what the outcome will be for these babies', but we cannot take all the babies in to the feeding center that we would like.
Blessings to these helpless babes! Brenda
posted by BrendaTravels | 9:06 AM
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