¿Y Entonces...?

Talk about keeping busy! On Friday last week, all my colega told me was to be at the centro at 7:30 in the morning sharp and bring my presentation about family planning. Little did I know where we were going and what the day was going to consist of!

The goal of our visits was to give a family planning, signs of danger during pregnancy/birth, and early stimulation presentation to pregnant women at the different puestos de salud (“health posts”). I was in charge of the family planning portion, using my charla about the importance of planning as well as discussing the different methods of contraceptives. My colega then discussed the latter topics. Some of the soon-to-be mothers were under the age of 18, some as young as 15, and others already had children and were pregnant with their second child; and others were mothers who had appointments at the puestos.

On Monday, we went to five different communities.

We provided refrigerios (“snacks”) to those who attended the presentation, and yet we forgot our own lunches! Luckily, my main colega was kind enough to share her lunch with everyone: we all got a tortilla with scrambled eggs (and for everyone else, black beans…ever since my bout in training, I have sworn off black beans. No gallo pinto for this gringa!). This is usually the custom for MINSA outings: everyone brings enough food to share and it’s a potluck style lunch. The rest of us were able to nab a refrigerio but were very hungry, thirsty and TIRED by the time the day was done. It was a long 10-hour day…and little did I know we were about to do it again on Tuesday!

Good Morning, Tuesday! We were all smart enough to bring our lunches and it was even one of the enfermera’s birthday! We went to five more communities to give the same charla five more times. Lest to say, I’m pretty sure the 6 of us are all well-rounded on family planning, signs of danger and early stimulation.

It was another long day, but I got more comfortable giving the charla in front of various amounts of pregnant women (and some soon-to-be fathers!); you kind of have to when you give it this many times! We gave the disclaimer that I’m still learning my Nicaraguan Spanish and it may be hard to understand my foreign accent, but after my part of the presentation, the ladies were all attentive and when asked about different methods of family planning, they were able to correctly answer the questions. During the presentation, I was able to make the ladies giggle a little bit, too! Cross cultural humor integration: Success!

This morning, I went to the Casa Materna to give a presentation about STIs and HIV/AIDS, since today is National HIV Testing day in the US. Two of the nurses came after my presentation to talk to the mothers about early stimulation and signs of danger; I didn't know they were going to come! The madres all learned something and were actively participating when we asked questions. I also gave them the family planning charla without visual aides, but I had given that presentation only a few weeks ago, and the one or two madres who are STILL at the Casa remember what I had told them earlier.



Right now there are 13 madres, 12 of which attended the presentation. I asked the CM workers if they have beds for everyone, and they said that the madres are doubling up on the beds. I'm happy that the madres are taking advantage of the House, but they need more space! I'm going to look into maybe doing a project in getting more beds at the House to better accomodate madres in the future.

Today I returned to the Casa Materna with one of the nurses to give a charla about family planning. Two of the ladies that were there the week before were still going strong and were joined by 3 other pregnant women and one who just gave birth yesterday. She is staying in the Casa until tomorrow when she is getting her tubes tied.

They all seemed to take in the presentation and gained knowledge on the subject. They asked if I am married and have kids and I told them no, and I am using family planning.  At first I wasn’t sure if that was “ok” to share, but later on I asked the nurse and she said they like to hear those kinds of things so they don’t have pena (embarrassment) to admit they are planning.

I also reiterated the fact that no matter what method they were using, it is always important to use a condom because that is the only method that prevents HIV and other STIs. I told this to the new mother as well, even though she is getting the sterilization operation tomorrow; even though she can’t technically get pregnant, she still has the possibility of contracting new STIs and it is important to always use the condom.

For a 23 year old female being single without a husband or kids is almost unheard of here and they were surprised. Then they started asking if I had a boyfriend. I told them no, again, and they all started asking what kind of guys I like so they can set me up with some Nica men. Um…right, we’ll get back to that one! Ha ha.

We all laughed and had a good time. Like I previously mentioned, I’m going to start going to the Casa at least once a week and give more charlas, as well as just hanging out and being with them. They like hanging out and talking to people, especially foreigners, so I’m very excited to be more present there.