Health check for ethnic H’mong and Dao women and children in Bac Can

From June 20th to 22nd, 2014 a team of doctors including Dr. Kathryn Bigsby, Lee-Anne Gilecki and Pham Thuy Hong (medical students) from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Dr. Trieu Van Trang (Ba Be District Health Center) went to Nam Mau commune, Ba Be district, Bac Kan province to conduct health checkups for ethnic H’mong and Dao women and children. This activity is part of a program called “Making the Links” that provides opportunities for medical students to learn and practice their skills in developing countries under a cooperative framework between RTCCD and the University of Saskatchewan.

Carrying medical equipment and medications, the team took 2 hours to cross the lake and trek through the mountains to reach the first health checkup location at the primary school in Dan May village – the only place large enough to accommodate the mothers and children of Dan May and Na Phai villages. That morning, the team performed checkups for 4 pregnant women and 34 children. On June 21st and 22nd the team was faced with poor weather; heavy rains made the mountain roads muddy and dangerous. Nevertheless, with the enthusiasm of the doctors and students, as well as people of Nam Mau commune, a total of 14 pregnant women and 77 children under the age of 3 were examined, offered advice on healthy living, and provided medications and supplements free of charge.

Through the examination and consultation process, the experts identified some common health issues among the women and children of the mountain villages:

1)      The most common problems in children are malnutrition and respiratory infections. One factor contributing to malnutrition is that some mothers do not know how to practice proper complementary feeding when their babies need more food than just breast milk.

2)      For many families in this area, preventive health, nutrition, and child safety are not priorities. Many young children are often left at home unattended during the day.

3)      Many pregnant women are anemic, calcium deficient, and have poor personal hygiene. Traditionally, antenatal care is not part of these women’s culture. Therefore, some of the pregnant women were very timid and did not come for antenatal care when the medical team visited their village.

4)      Many of the pregnant women in this area are very young, only have a few years of formal education, and have limited knowledge about pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting.

After the trip, the doctors and medical students made ​​recommendations for improving the “Nutrition and Livelihood” project funded by the European Union, which is currently implemented in Nam Mau commune. These recommendations include: teaching pregnant women about health care during pregnancy, teaching parents how to cook nutritious porridge for children, and the proper time and methods to introduce complementary feeding. More serious cases, such as children with suspected heart disease or severe malnutrition, were referred to the district hospital.

The “Nutrition and Livelihood” Project and the people of Nam Mau commune would like to express their sincere thanks to the doctors and medical students from the University of Saskatchewan for providing these valuable services.