For the last two weeks, this has been keeping me in limbo:

What you see is a laptop harddrive. The exact make and model of the harddrive that was once in my laptop and is once again in my laptop.  It’s what you can’t see that makes all the difference.

The harddrive is the location of every bit of information on a computer.  Every powerpoint presentation I took notes on in class.  Every paper I wrote.  Every customer who bought books. Every piece of data for my theses, including the preliminary maps, every journal article and its review sheet and citation already entered into EndNote. This is what makes what I did so painful.

I worked on my laptop while it was plugged in.  I use the term worked loosely, because really I had gotten bored with working and was listening to music and playing games when it happened.  The power fluctuated — as it so commonly does in Santa Rosa de Copan. Ugh.

I think the data is fine, the computer kept working (although it did act as if it were drunk) after the incident. Unfortunately, reboot was NOT the right answer because the boot sector no longer existed. No bootable harddrive – no problem.  All I have to do is plug it in as a slave drive and my data can be transferred (yes, I am a computer nerd). Except it couldn’t be read as a slave drive.

I am confessing all this for a purpose – I want you to back up your data.  You see, this was my only copy of both master’s programs, the only copy of my business financial data and even the only copy of my thesis.  I KNEW there was a good chance working in Honduras would crash my machine and even had it on a list to do a full backup before I left.  But I got busy, and it didn’t happen.  This is me kicking myself.

The computer is restored with a fresh hard drive. I don’t yet know if the data is salvageable.  A repair company is rebuilding the harddrive with a new read/write head and if it works it will set me back $2000 – a BIG chunk of my fall loans that should be covering living expenses.  If it doesn’t work, I will probably need to put off graduation until May.  Neither option is very appealing. Right now I can only wait to find out what my life will look like for the next few months.

Go back up your data – NOW!

The school of public health arranges a luncheon for all the dual degree candidates each fall.  It allows those of us from different programs to meet each other.  By far, the largest number of dual degree candidates is from the medical school (they have 26 this year), and most of them are in the epidemiology department.  But there are other candidates from the physician’s assistant school, business school, law school, last year I had a class with a dual degree from the school of theology and this year I meed a dual candidate from the physical therapy school. This year, there are 11 MSN/MPH candidates in residence in the school of public health.  Four of us are student midwives also in the department of global health.

I remembered last year when one of the second year MSN/MPHs told me the dual nurses are almost always global health or BSHE (short for behavioral sciences health education). She was right.  Of the eleven of us, one is BSHE, one is health policy and management, one is epidemiology and nine are global health.  Perhaps it is because nursing is so public health focused to begin with, the nurses tend not to feel the need for the public health school unless they want to become involved in international work.

The MSN/Global Health candidates I met have amazing international experiences already, before any of them step into their first global health class.  It brings me back to the question I frequently get about how a person becomes involved in global midwifery. Honestly, it isn’t the same for everyone.  In our small group of nurses we had international volunteers with MSF and peace core.  We also had military nurses and some involved in domestic care of under-served populations.  My point is, not one of these nurses was involved in the short-term medical missions most people expect to be able to do in midwifery. Global nursing, and global midwifery, is really more of a calling than a hobby.

While I’ll see these students around the public health school, I won’t see them in the nursing school…yet.  The program has just changed (quite wisely) to require the year of public health before beginning the nursing program.  So next week I’ll have the opportunity to meet the new group of first year midwifery students.  It is hard to believe that by the end of this semester half of my class will be finished, ready to take their certifying exam and practicing as midwives.  Honestly, it went so fast.

Tomorrow I am off to Nairobi to help a friend as she trains doulas. Very excited to participate, and you can follow the story at the Birth in Central Africa blog, even though Nairobi isn’t central.

As part of our issues in midwifery class each student midwife had to present on a topic of current interest to midwives.  I chose the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health. I felt confident before the presentation, but 15 minutes goes fast and I’m not sure I did a good job of explaining everything.  If you are interested in global midwifery (and missed my presentation in class today  check out their website to see what the member organizations are doing.

I know I have been busy, and believe me when I say I have a long list of information I would love to be sharing on this blog.  I have been spending this summer away from home – literally.  I started by attending the ACNM conference in San Antonio, TX.  I had a week or two of class and then spent two weeks working at a Farm Worker health program coordinated through my school.  Fabulous experience, but not easy to keep up with six classes when you have been gone  three of the six weeks of classes!  July is spent in class two days a week and on call at the birth center the other five.  And in just three weeks I’ll have finished my final exams a week early so I can spend 10 days in Kenya assisting at a doula training.  I’ve learned to love coffee.

So, I promise as soon as I complete all the assignments (this seems to be a report and presentation semester rather than a testing semester) I will start uploading more information than you ever wanted. But today, in researching my presentation on ending maternal mortality around the world I found something too good not to share.  It is full online access to the annual maternal and child health epidemiology conference.  I know not everyone wants to become a midwife because of global issues, but if you are one who does this free content will be a great way to become familiar with information you need to know.

Check out the link here: 16th Annual Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Conference

Enjoy!

I realize that not every midwife is interested in epidemiology. So I thought I would balance yesterday’s resource with a more practical, clinical resource. It is the Hesperian Foundation’s Book for Midwives. Even if you never plan to work in a developing country, this book is worth reading twice.

What I find most appealing about the book is the way it teaches simple, low cost solutions to identify health problems. It also does a great job of differentiating the normal from the problem. Best of all, it is written for individuals without medical training. That makes it a great first midwifery book.

When a family seeks information from me about giving birth unassisted, I always recommend they become familiar with this book. I like the tools shared in the book that any family can use to make decisions. I also appreciate the way the book is written without leaving the reader feeling birth is a disaster waiting to happen. This makes the book culturally acceptable to families who would dismiss other educational materials written from a “fear” perspective.

You can download a free copy of the book, but I recommend purchasing the book not only to have a hard copy to study, but also to support the work of the Hesperian Foundation. When you become familiar with the Book for Midwives, you can begin to explore the other books to learn even more low-tech, low-cost tricks to help families maintain their health.