Day 8: What is a Labor Chute?

Today my blog is going to explain why my jaw fell to the floor during the tour of St. Luke’s Health Center here in Uganda!

Now as someone who does not work in a hospital in America I know these crazy events do not happen in our hospital BUT correct me if I’m wrong!

Here in Uganda their primary source of electricity is solar panels. During the rainy season these solar panels are not always charged. This power outage will leave their refrigerators for their medicines and blood samples sitting in a warm fridge! Now their patients who are stacked 4 patients in one room using flashlights. Their 1 Doctor and Sisters examining patients with a flashlight on their phones! The phlebotomist drawing blood while a Sister holds the phone over his head for him to see if he is hitting the vein in the right spot..OOOPPS he missed!!

BUT the craziest part was, Sister said if a Mommy comes in for labor during this power outage they will have to use their phones as a light for the doctor to deliver the baby and for the mother to see! YES, YOUR PHONE AS A FLASHLIGHT! Imagine having a baby and looking up to a Sister, who is your nurse, with a phone shining down on you as you are shooting out your baby. I say shooting out because they actually call the delivery rooms here in Uganda the “Labor Chute.”

This is a problem. This is a challenge. This is a stress. This is a heartache. BUT they continue with their day as if it’s another day! They continue with grace. They fall to their knees at the end of the day praying to God!

Love, Peyton