Guest blog by Lee-Anne Lavell – an intern working in Nicaragua with the Red Cross. From Halifax, Nova Scotia, Lee-Anne will spend five months in Nicaragua working on a mother and child health program.
My first day as a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) intern with the Red Cross in Esteli, Nicaragua and things are already off to a busy start. I’m going to observe a baby-weighing session in a nearby rural community.
After a half-hour drive on a bumpy dirt road and another 20 minutes on foot through the campo, myself and volunteers Martin and Marvin reach Albertina’s house, which is where the weighing session will be held. The house has a large, dark common room, empty except for a large wooden table and two plastic chairs. I watch as Marvin hangs a scale from the rafters that has a cloth baby-jumper attached to it. I hadn’t really thought about how a baby weighing would technically work, but this certainly looks like it’ll do the trick.
Each of the moms has a weight chart that they bring with them to the session so that their weight changes can be compared each time they come in and to compare to healthy weights for a baby the same age. On the chart the mom has brought, Martin draws on a bar-graph the actual weight and the ideal weight for a baby of that age. This creates a visual comparison of the two weights.
If the baby is underweight, Martin asks the mom a few questions: Since the last weighing session, has the baby been sick? What has their diet been like?
The baby-weighing sessions are undertaken by volunteers in the community because the community health nurse can’t travel to every session in every community that she is responsible for, and the families can’t easily travel to the clinic. This is where Albertina’s house - as the local meeting place - and community volunteerism comes in.