Helping Babies Breathe

Some of the awesome people who made this training happen!

The past week we have been involved with the wonderful humanitarian missionaries who live in DR Congo and cover Zambia, and some awesome specialists from America doing the "Helping Babies Breathe" program or Neonatal Resusitation Technique Training.  We just helped doing whatever they needed and learned a lot and had a lot of fun!  They worked with an Armenian Doctor here who is a program director for the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research.  The Doctor here works through the University Training Hospital here in Zambia so he did most of the setting up and inviting of participants etc.  They were able to train 94 Nurses, Doctors and Midwives or Birth Attendants  who then commit to training the people they work with in their hospitals or clinics.  There were over 60 hospitals or clinics represented from around Zambia and the Training took place with about 50 people here in Lusaka and then we traveled up to Kabwe to train the other 44.  It was fun to see the countryside as we traveled.  Here are some photos from an awesome week.

Nurse Practitioners from America demonstrate technique to Elder Louthan and our District President Lumbama

President Lumbama gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the training along with the Minister and the Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health.  Since the Minister's were there, the press was also there.  A segment of Pres. Lumbama's speech was on National TV! 

This nurse had been working and came in uniform...I like the uniforms here.

Groups of 4 to 6 worked together to learn techniques with an inflatable baby that could simulate breathing and heart beat. There was even an umbilical cord to tie off.

After the training, 60 kits with resusitation equipment and training materials were donated to the hospitals and clinics where they can be used.  Worldwide, 1 in 10 babies born has breathing difficulties.  A midwife told me that where she works at the UTH, there are on an average over 60 babies born each day.  With the new procedure and more people trained, more babies lives will be saved.

Ahh, the open road, the countryside, farms, and produce stands at a small village we passed through.  The following video was performed by the nurses, and midwife students in Kabwe, Zambia.  This is the song they have traditionally sung when babies are born and are not breathing.  It is a song encouraging the baby to breathe.