Laboring away

So after all of the paperwork madness, I finally started work yesterday. Nicolette, Erica, and I went to the "OG" (ob/gyn) wards. We spent the morning hanging around labor and delivery watching the residents and interns do their thing. I got to see a few deliveries. The labor ward here is definitely different from what I'm used to in the U.S. There are no private rooms, only cots separated by flimsy curtains. I got to see a few deliveries. I learned that it is much more common here to do episiotomies and vacuum/forceps deliveries . Ouch. Pain tolerance also takes on a new definition here. Women do NOT routinely get pain medications, and the vast majority labor through their delivery with out any form of narcotics or epidural. Which explains the wailing. Women routinely cry out in pain as their contractions come, and each one is accompanied by their mother or elder female relative at the bedside. No male relatives are allowed.



We went to the OR (aka 'operating theatre' here in India) to watch a c section. I don't know why, but for some reason I expected the inside of the OR here to be drastically different than what it is in the U.S. But it wasn't. For the most part, everything inside was the same: several rooms with modern equipment and technology. Even the way in which the doctors scrub in and the scrub nurse system is the same. The funny part though was the actual scrubs. Nurses wear separate gowns, but the scrubs worn by the doctors here are these huge, clown-like pants which are super short. They reminded me of light blue churidar pants. And the scrub shirts are these huge, long, floppy shirts with drawstring ties on the back. And nobody wears closed toed shoes on the wards- they just wear their regular outside chappals and think nothing of it. And during deliveries, doctors don't cover up their toes. In fact, it is normal for large quantities of blood to be dripping on your feet during a delivery. In the OR, we got these floppy booties with drawstrings on them to cover up our chappals but mine kept falling off so I felt pretty foolish walking around.



We befriended an intern who was rotating through the OG service this week. He was pretty friendly, and probably made the most effort out of anybody there to make us feel included and involved in the patients. He was also curious and asked us many questions about the U.S. medical education system. In India, students go directly to medical school from high school and our "M.D." equivalent is known as the M.B.B.S. degree here. After 5 years of medical school, they do a one year internship (similar to us) but this involves rotating through every single medical specialty (unlike us.) After this they do their post-graduate medical training, which we call our residency.



Anwyay, enough medical speak. I am convinced that I am going to double my body weight while I'm here if for no other reason than for the fact that I am on a purely carb diet. Idly for breakfast, rice for lunch, dosa for dinner. Gotta love south Indian food. No wonder this country has such a high incidence of diabetes.

My other MAJOR peeve is the mosquitoes. They seem to attack me en masse, especially when I'm in the computer lab. And they have a predeliction for my ankles and feet which I don't really understand. But it's frustrating to have to keep bending down and itching my feet every 5 seconds. Plus it just looks wrong.