I got to spend a significant amount of time in Kihefo’s maternal clinic today! Compared to American prenatal healthcare, Ugandan Healthcare is very similar (with the exception of the fetal stethoscopes, of course!) Pregnant women in Uganda receive all of the same checkups, vaccines, and lab work as American women. One difference that I found interesting, however, is that pregnant women here are recommended to take malaria prophylaxis at 20 weeks gestation until delivery.

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We additionally discussed newborn care and vaccination schedules as well as procedures to care for an infant that’s been exposed to HIV. Newborns in Uganda receive the same vaccinations as the United States, but they additionally receive the tuberculosis vaccine (this is the one that forms a scar on the arm). All babies also receive a dose of Albendazole at 1 year of age for deworming purposes. In the United States, it’s not recommended that women with HIV breastfeed their infants for risk of transmission. However, women in Uganda are recommended to continue breastfeeding regardless of their status. We were shown a diagram of the benefits and risks of continuing to breastfeed versus formula feeding. Infants that are formula fed in Uganda are 4 times more likely to die from diarrhea or pneumonia than to contract HIV from their mother. This is likely due to different pathogens in Ugandan water as well as low availability of adequate formula.

This clinic was the nicest of all of the clinics that I’ve visited here so far and I definitely feel the most at home here – not to mention the newborns are so precious!hkhjkk.