Our club welcomed Hester Louwen as guest speaker. Hester had long wanted to study midwifery, and finally enrolled as a mature-age student. She is nearing the end of her studies and was required to undertake a project, so she elected to do this in Bali. However, she was having difficulty getting a placement in Bali until she contacted Gloria at the Crisis Care Clinic in Kaliasem (Members may recall another guest speaker, Liah Metters, last September with a similar story of mature age study and project placements.)

Her time with Gloria is only beginning, and so far she has had one meeting in the hills where five people were present, and then a disappointment at the clinic when no-one turned up. Her area of interest is problems with hemorrhaging and blood loss following a birth. Such problems may become evident in the hour or two after the birth. But usually the local midwife (bidan) will be present for the birth and then leave soon after.

So for births at the clinic there can then be a problem because the staff on-hand may not be permitted to administer injections of intravenous drips. In the past, the Crisis Care Clinic has been able to employ a midwife, but currently they are unable to get one. Mostly, the midwives prefer to take government jobs if they can because of the extra benefits.

Adequate nutrition during pregnancy is an important way to reduce the likelihood of bleeding problems – if the mother has low iron levels then bleeding problems may be worse.

There was considerable discussion about these issues at the end of the talk.