Sabaidee!

Hello,

Welcome to the blog for my research project in Laos for UCSF's Global Health Sciences Master's program. I arrived in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, last week and have just gotten started on my project.

The goal of my project is to study the effects of neonatal care education for expectant mothers. We're focusing on the basics like umbilical cord care, temperature control, and recognizing signs of illness (especially sepsis) in neonates. Laos currently has a very high infant mortality rate and infections are the leading cause of death for infants in the first month of life. So we're hoping to show that providing mothers with basic education about caring for their infants can be both effective & sustainable.

What I'll be doing (or trying to do) is following up with women who received the newborn care teaching last year at a hospital in the capital city to see how effective it was. Then later on, I hope to travel to a rural hospital to see if the same education can be effective for women who have much lower levels of education and literacy. Along the way, I'll be exploring the beautiful country of Laos and working with the pediatric attendings and residents at the Mother & Child Health Hospital in Vientiane.

As I mentioned, I have just gotten started on the first part of the project, but this week is the Lao New Year, so everyone in Laos is on holiday, including all the doctors at the hospital. We'll be starting back up on Monday. So for now, I'm practicing my Lao and doing some prep work. Sabaidee pi mai lao! (Happy New Year!)

Ammu