Obstetrics and gynaecology/Volta region

Currently writing this in the midst of a slightly terrifying tropical thunderstorm at the internet cafe! Before when we've had massive storms the electricity goes out for quite a while so hope i can finish writing before it does!

After a very hectic week in A+E at Effia Nwkwanta I have spent this week (and will spend next week) on obstetrics and gynaecology. I chose to spend 2 weeks in this department as I did a gynae placement in my first year back in the UK, and really enjoyed it. Compared to A+E (and paediatrics too) this week has been relatively calm. I have seen 2 cesarean sections, both of which I got dressed up in beautiful gowns, hats, shoes and masks for to go to theatre; I have seen C-sections in the UK but here they are just even more brutal and quick with it! The second case had a complication with her labour and at one point the surgeon said 'I am going to lose this lady' as she was at a big risk of massive bleeding, but she eventually pulled through and her and baby boy were fine, hurrah. There is a much higher incidence of maternal deaths here, about 400 out of every 10,000 women, most deaths are mass bleeding or pre-eclampsia (condition in pregnancy); in the UK maternal death rate is 300 per year (mostly indirect reasons e.g. suicide or road traffic accidents).The gynae side of it here is pretty varied but similar to the UK e.g. uterine fibroids, various cancers, incomplete abortions, ectopic pregnancies, infertility.

Last weekend me and 2 other girls visited the Volta region in Eastern Ghana. It is a beautiful area with the huge Lake Volta, Wli waterfalls (highest waterfall in West Africa, so so amazing, we swam under it and it was so powerful), fed monkeys from my hands (they were so cheeky and jumped on my friend Heidi's face!), and stayed the night on top of a mountain (we were the only guests there) which was in the middle of absolutely nowhere, had to go on a very questionable and bumpy road for ages, but was worth it as it overlooked Mount Gemi and the Kulugu river and valley...was breathtakingly amazing, especially early in the morning, hard to describe really! Was a trek to get back to our base in Takoradi (13 hours travelling back in total on various modes of transport, with our last bus breaking down at 11pm..) but was well worth it.

We often get stopped by the scary police here and they check for overcrowding in public vehicles, but on our journey back we got stopped about 4 times as the road leading back to the capital Accra is near other borders, and they get a lot of illegal immigrants coming into Ghana on this road. At one stop everyone had to get off the tro tro and produce their passports - we of course didn't have ours with us so we had to go and see someone else and managed to convince him we weren't Togolese or Nigerian or any other nationality but definitely British volunteers! The police here are pretty terrifying actually (especially when they have guns with them) and feel like they are trying to catch you out instead of being on your side (there seems to be a lot of corruption too).

It was such a massive shame when Ghana narrowly lost the World Cup match, the atmosphere here was amazing and so many people had their hopes they would go through! It really was Football Fever here (still is sort of) with massive celebrations every time Ghana went through or scored a goal or something.
Can't believe I have been here for 6 weeks now, time has flown by especially the last couple of weeks.
Lots of love xx