I am working at a health clinic in Mandeville Jamaica, and this week I was given the opportunity to work in the family planning clinic for a day. I entered the family planning area and was greeted by a very sweet nurse, who called me "Christine" the entire day. She had only met me for a few minutes before letting me get right to work. She showed me how the family planning appointment was supposed to go, including where to chart, had a lady come sit down, and then said "ok give it a try!".
If family planning is an unfamiliar term for you, it just means birth control essentially. I took blood pressures and recorded how they were doing with their current "method". More times than not they were on a depot shot of pentogen (injectable birth control), so I got to practice a lot of IM injections throughout the day. My nurse got some other work done around her office while guiding me occasionally through the first few patients, then she set up and we both took patients. I felt really helpful and excited to be trusted with all the charting and everything. For me, it was like the best day ever!
For someone else though, it was possibly one of the worst ever. A young lady sat down beside me to get her blood pressure done, turns out she didn't have an appointment though, she came to ask a question. She said to me "excuse me? can you tell me what this means?" and then she showed me a text message "my boyfriend sent this to me". It was a blood test result for herpes, and it said POS. I had to explain to her that this meant her boyfriend was positive for herpes, an STI. She looked at me like she wasn't quite sure how bad of news this was. "Will it go away?" I had to tell her herpes was not curable, you could just manage the symptoms. "Do I have it too?" I had to explain to her that most likely she had it as well. My nurse pointed out that she could have had it and not known, and given it to her boyfriend. "But I was tested for HIV when I was pregnant and I didn't have it!" We had to tell her that there are many different STI's and they don't test all of them when you are pregnant. We told her she needed to get tested and see the contact investigator to get treatment. I gave her some condoms and reminded her why they are used, to avoid pregnancy, and prevent spread of infection.
A lab tech I worked with yesterday did not want to give a boy who looked around 16 any condoms because he was "so young, and should be focusing on school." The problem I am having is you give them "protection", you are saying go ahead, this is okay. You make birth control/condoms unavailable, you don't provide information, you end up with pregnant teenagers and girls like I met today who come in wondering what positive for herpes means. I think that there needs to be some sort of middle ground, where we can teach young people about birth control, about STI's, about the dangers of unprotected sex, about how to stay safe, but at the same time, not ENCOURAGE them to have sex. Is this possible?
That was a good guest post! I encourage these!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think a middle ground is possible if, and only if, people will open their minds.
I think it's kind of like skateboarding. Skateboarding is lots of fun, lots of people do it, and it comes with risks. If you screw up, you could break a bone or get a concussion, etc. If you are willing to use protection for your knees and head, I believe this is encouraging safety, and not encouraging the sport itself.
But that's just me.
K.
Thanks for doing this Livi! I love you muchly, and I hope you're having an awesome time in Jamaica!
ReplyDeleteThat really is a fair point. But its pretty self righteous to assume that giving out condoms is encouraging these people to have sex. The fact that they want them in the first place already tells you that they are infact doing the deed. The middle ground would be the educate, educate, educate. If they know the risks, heck, if they are allowed to know just what the keck they're doing then we've made a huge step. But it would be worse for those boys and girls around the world if they didn't have access to birth control, especially in undeveloped nations. People will do whatever they want to do. The only thing we can do is help them protect themselves and their partners and their decisions, regardless of whether we agree with them or not.
ReplyDeleteM
I agree that education is key but that somehow it needs to be more than a lesson in biology. Even in countries where people have the knowledge they are still having unprotected sex and unplanned pregnancies. There needs to be a program that communicates the often lifelong consequences of having sex in a way that reaches the listeners on an emot ional level.
ReplyDeleteI think your guest is the opposite of s elf righteous. She is helping people and she is compassionate and interested in a solution that works. One could argue that workers who toss out condoms thinking it will solve the problem are themselves being self righteous...certain of the rightness of their point of view.
Good blog Liv.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
Love you