I am a second-year student midwife planning to travel to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania for an elective placement July 2017. Working alongside Work the World.
The money raised will help fund my experience in Tanzania; including accommodation, flights, hospital placement, visa and vaccinations. With your help, I, will have the opportunity to work in a tertiary referral hospital and a smaller regional hospital. I will be to working in Delivery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Neonatal Care, and Intensive Care among others. The city’s facilities are some of the country's finest, which is also true of local teaching practices. I will see a number of pregnancy and birthing complications. This will give me invaluable experience as in second year at university we focus on complex midwifery care.
Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest countries and has a huge lack of midwives. Currently only half of all deliveries are attended by a skilled professional and for every 100,000 almost 800 babies die. African suffers from the highest maternal mortality ratio of 546 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, or 201,000 maternal deaths a year. With only 51% of births being in a health facility. Some causes of maternal mortality include haemorrhage, unsafe abortions, eclampsia, obstructed labour and infections. These causes are mostly preventable in developed countries like the UK with the maternal mortality rate 9 per 100,000.
Working in a developing country is an amazing opportunity to use, develop and share my skills whilst gaining experience working with communicable diseases and advanced pathologies that are rare in the Western world. Working with professionals in another country will also give me the opportunity to experience how healthcare is delivered in an under-resourced and contrasting environment, contributing to both my personal and professional development. This experience will be life changing and I can't wait.
Thank you for your support
Love Sam xxx