Empty Beds

“Why are these beds empty”, I asked Lydia the nurse at Casa Materna. It doesn’t make sense. There are only eight women at Casa Materna right now when there are up to 25 available beds for women to use with high risks pregnancies. Although I love the eight women who are there right now and love getting to hear about their families and lives in Guatemala, I know that it should be a little more crowded at the clinic. Last week there were 20 women…what happened!? It’s not like there are only eight women in Guatemala with a high risk pregnancy! We continued talking and the problem seemed twofold: needing more publicity and information to health clinics, particularly remote health posts so they know that the services of Casa Materna are available if they have a patient with high risks (i.e. possibility of death to women or child). The U.S. based NGO, PCI actually had reps from the Washington D.C., office here this week to talk about meeting needs of rural community. (They also took more pictures of me doing exercise with the patients). Second, involves the cultural aspect of the typical patient at Casa Materna. The patients are usually indigenous and speak either Mam or Chu. They live in remote areas that are often difficult and expensive to travel from in order to reach Huehuetenango. Often times the trip costs about 70 Quetzales to get to Casa Materna and then it requires another 30 Quetzales upon entering the clinic. Altogether this is about $9 dollars and obviously seems incredibly affordable to me, it is a burden for some families. Also many of the women prefer to have their babies at home, or with a comadrona (midwife) that has monitored their pregnancy and/or possibly delivered their previous children. Culturally, it is difficult for women to leave their village and have a baby at a hospital operated by the Ministerio de Salud de Guatemala. Like any NGO, the nurses and doctors want their services to be utilized by those in need and to fill up those beds!

I love this. It's a community health manual with tons of photos of women in traditional Mayan dress. Women who come to Casa Materna receive class everyday on maternal/child health issues.