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The entrance
Welcome to Bumi SehatI've been here now for over three weeks so I feel like I can give you a pretty accurate description of what I have been doing here at Bumi Sehat. I wanted to wait to write about my clinic life until I had immersed myself into their daily routine and really blended in. Before I go any further I wanted to thank all of you who have supported me though out this journey. Without your love and generous donations I would not have been able to do or experience any of this! This is such a life changing trip and I am eternally grateful to everyone of you!
I wanted to share a little bit about what my experience has been volunteering here at the clinic and what I have been doing more on a daily basis. Rest assured that I haven't just been soaking up the Bali sunshine that in deed I have been working hard! I am at the clinic 6 days a week, anywhere from 4 to 13 hours a day! When a woman comes in I will stay with her though out her labor and birth. Only when she is resting comfortably and nursing successfully is when
The clinic
Early in the morning before the buzz of people my job is done😊 For any of you who have had children or have supported a woman in labor know that there is definitely no time schedule or time limit! The clinic has been increasingly busy over the past year due to a cut in government health care funding to the poor (which is a majority of Bali). At the clinic we see on average 40-60 births a month! New volunteers have been arriving so it definitely helps to split up the births. There has even been talk of creating shifts! It is wonderful to have such exposure to so many births. No birth is the same so I have become more familiar on how to deal with the many situations of labor and birth. I have become a pro at fetal positioning, using the Doppler, and taking blood pressure! I have even been able to share my skills of massage and labor facilitation techniques with the Indonesian midwives!
When Bumi Sehat isn't buzzing with babies, it is filled with locals attending one of our many clinics. Three days a week there is a prenatal clinic held to help woman receive free care that they otherwise wouldn't have access to.
These woman can barely afford protein rich foods to prevent anemia let alone prenatal vitamins (which the clinic gives to every pregnant woman who enters in the door). There is also a pediatric and adult acupuncture clinic 3 days a week. During clinic hours I am usually fluttering around doing a variety of tasks- from pulling charts, removing acupuncture needles or taking vitals. These clinics have no official end time so we all stay until the last patient has been seen. Each clinic will usually see 40-70 patients a day! The actual clinic building itself has also been pretty busy. Due to the increasing number of births the clinic has been in a constant state of expansion. It is a core belief of Bumi Sehat that one woman is turned way, so they have no other choice but to expand until they can afford a new and bigger clinic! Since I have been here they have added a whole new birthing room to the clinic! During any down time that I may have you can usually find me re-organizing,moving or cleaning something!
When my day is done at the clinic, I walk back to the ashram take a much needed
shower and make some food! After my stomach is fully and have chatted with the other volunteers I am usually read to go to bed around 9pm. But as always I keep my phone by my pillow just in case they call me for a birth in the middle of the night!
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kimberly
non-member comment
13 hours!
young lady you must be sooooo sleepy! 13 hours a day sometimes, wow. you are soooo amazing. i really admire everything you are doing! you are truly an amazing women lauren xoxo