Princess Marina Hospital

Botswana Harvard Partnership's (BHP) main offices and reference labs are
located on the campus of Princess Marina Hospital near the central
business district of Gaborone. Despite their close proximity, the
relationship between the two entities seems rather distant.

When I first arrived at BHP, I asked if I could tour the nursing wards at
the hospital-- I was especially interested in the maternity wards because
this is the area of the hospital that I am most familiar with. I expected
that one of the doctors from BHP would be able to show me around the
hospital or introduce me to a professional colleague who could do me this
favor.

This expectation was in-congruent with reality. Lacking an informal
opportunity for a tour, the CEO of BHP graciously wrote a letter to the
Superintendent of the hospital describing my credentials and interest in
seeing the hospital wards. (This letter was dated August 13, 2010). Making
a long story short, today, October 12, 2010, I got my tour of the
hospital.

Each of the matrons who showed me around the various wards was extremely
gracious-- and crazily busy. When I arrived in the ante-natal ward, the
head nurse was preparing for the monthly clinical conference where
clinicians discuss maternal deaths-- so I got a chance to see a bit of
their record-keeping and vital statistics systems. The ante-natal ward was
full past capacity, but rather mellow with women resting, eating and
talking on their cell phones in beds and mattresses on the floor.

The delivery ward was quiet, except for one wailing infant under a warmer
in one of the rooms- his mother was in an adjacent room and I couldn't
quite figure out why they were separated. The delivery ward matron
reported to me that the hospital does about 650 deliveries each month-
but the serenity of the delivery ward made me question this estimate. So,
she showed me the delivery book, and sure enough they deliver A LOT of
babies. However, the mothers and babies don't spend much time in the
delivery ward. Women labor in the ante-natal ward and about an hour after delivery, they are transferred with their infants to the post-partum ward.

All of my skepticism about the 650 deliveries per month vanished when I
saw the post-partum ward. There were women and babies and doctors, nurses,
orderlies, everywhere. Beds and mattresses were lined up along the walls
of the ward, on the floor, and in every little nook and cranny-- there was scarcely room to walk. It seemed like total chaos to me. The matron told me that they receive about 20-30 new couplets each day (from the delivery ward) and about 5-6 of those are status post cesarean section. I learned that women have the option of delivering at clinics, but most choose to come to the hospital-- she didn't know why.

One of the most interesting aspects of my hospital experience-- aside from
simply arranging my visit in the first place, was meeting several people
along the way who were asked to wait with me or guide me along from place
to place in the hospital. People are often curious about life in the USA and my impressions of Botswana and the HIV/ AIDS 'situation.'