To avoid personal cost to the midwives, I organized airtime for internet data be made available. I was able to initiate, prepare and lead Team Leaders meetings as if physically present. I have made myself available to guide, support and maintain close involvement in all aspects of our work at Area 25 throughout my absence. I have therefore been in close and continual contact with the midwives both on text and video calls. This gives me direct access to the daily activities and concerns of each department. Leaders groups have been set up and I am part of these. The use of WhatsApp chats has increased greatly to the extent that every department has their own team group. I have actively encouraged this with presentations and practical teaching sessions, introducing tools to support and facilitate this. Over the past year, we have looked closely at all aspects of communication. Impact through education, training and development. Impact through service development and evaluation. Impact through leadership and consultancy. I decided to refer once more to my initial job description and realistically adapt my services to the unprecedented situation I found myself in. The daily hands-on interaction with women and babies, the caring, supporting, encouraging, assisting, problem solving and emergency response cannot be achieved in the virtual world but that is only part of my work at Area 25. Working under these conditions as a midwife seems near impossible. Living in quarantine, or lockdown, requires attitudes and skills special to each individual’s personality and circumstances. Working from home as a midwife is likely not the easiest, but I could continue to support the work, the Baylor Team, the facility and the midwives. I could not abandon the women and babies, and so I made a plan. I could not desert my midwives, despite deserting the country. I could not distance myself from the work, despite being distanced from the facility. I had invested so much time, energy, ideas, thoughts, love and dreams. Amid all my preparation work, unable to complete the task I had started over a year ago, the conflict was overwhelming. Apart from my sadness of leaving my home, I was devastated to be leaving my work at Area 25 just a few weeks before the proposed opening of the new Labour Ward.
0 kommentar(er)
