Today I ventured away from Hospital del Nino and hiked up to El Alto for a rotation in an outpatient adolescent clinic. La Paz is surrounded by high mountains, which have homes built into the hillsides. These surrounding neighborhoods are known as El Alto. From La Paz, the homes in El Alto provide a stunning view, especially at night when the homes are brightly lit, almost like lit skyscrapers in New York. However, upon entering El Alto, I quickly realized that El Alto is the exact opposite of rich mountainside homes overlooking La Paz.
The clinic mainly serves pregnant adolescent females. Due to the lack of proper education about birth control and contraception, countless teenage girls end up pregnant, with no options other than to raise her child(ren) on her own.
I enjoyed my first day here. Annie and I got some basic hands-on experience including palpating for the fetal lie in the mother’s uterus, measuring the height of the mother’s growing belly, and even finding the fetal and placental sounds using a small portable sonography device.
The most challenging aspect of this clinic is the complete lack of ingles spoken here. However, la doctora would like us to prepare a 20 minute presentation on any topic related to adolescent health -- ack!! I will definitely keep you posted on how this plays out ...
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