The maternity ward is open! And I can’t stop obsessing over their photos of the adorable new babes and moms. I stole these from the CLI Facebook, give them a follow for more cute pictures (farm babies too!), updates on their other cool projects and news about the seasonal challenges in the day of a typical Malawian.
Based on the rate of cases we’re seeing, and the confidence we have in our community volunteers, it seems as though maternal and neonatal deaths were about the same as the national rates in Malawi, which would predict ~4 maternal deaths in our area annually and ~ 35.2 infant deaths in our area annually. It will be very interesting to see if the offering of obstetric services at CLI will impact these mortality rates. They’ve slowed since December, but the research team tells me that the women in the catchment area typically deliver in April – October. So, fewer deliveries would mean fewer birth-related deaths. My assumption is that this is due to the cyclical nature of life in the area: Wet (malaria) season followed by hunger season (which is going to be big this year, BTW) and then the harvest.
This had me wondering if the US has seasonal ‘birthing’ patterns like this, and a precursory Google doesn’t bring up anything definitive. Supposedly there are spikes depending on where you live, which vary by state in the US, but I wonder if they are as dramatic as those in low resource areas.
And there you have it–15 minutes in the life of my brain. Sorry you’ll never get those back, but comment if you know the answer and stay tuned for updates probably unrelated to American conception patterns!