What a special opportunity to visit the “Kangaroo Ward” here. Because of no incubators etc, preemies and super small infants are bound flesh to flesh to their moms where they stay up to a month in this heated ward. Skin, heartbeat, breath all make a huge difference in the survival rate. The US has even noted the exceptional success.
So we had hats and booties to give out, which they insisted be put on them. That was very touching for me. There was even a set of twins and the grandmother was the volunteer to help the mom with the skin to skin.
The regular maternity ward had at least 40 babies and moms, in the same bed with family members camped out around them bringing meals. That was gimme, gimme, hands out stretched. Not comfortable!
Then came the Malnutrition Ward where neglected infants and toddlers are cared for in a last ditch effort to escape the inevitable. Some were swollen and therefore looked well-fed, but that’s just a condition associated with malnutrition. And one sight I will never erase from my mind was a toddler covered with purple lesions…lips…eye sockets…and he was just whimpering with such pleading eyes. The last throes of AIDS.