Last clinic week - Adolescent clinic

My fourth week of clinic was spent at Clinica de Adolescentes. I am working with Dra. Carrera and a doctor named Junior (both pediatricians) and two obstetrician students (Nancy and Maria). The adolescent clinic is located adjacent to the maternal hospital and consists of 4 large rooms with 8 beds each filled with teenage moms (any woman 18 years or younger spends her postpartum days in this area of the hospital). Starting at 8 am we round on all the newborns. I am doing newborn exams galore! Testing baby reflexes, hips, hearts, lungs, fontanelles and checking all the babies for jaundice. It is great getting so much exposure to newborns.

All of the teen moms get a session with a psychologist, gynecologist (for birth control counseling) and they have classes about motherhood. It is sad because some of the teen moms are 13. They look like babies themselves and now they have a baby. It is also sad because about 50% of the girls do not have the father of the baby in the picture. Apparently, teenage pregnancy is on the rise in Ecuador and it is fueled by the lack of sex-education in schools, the catholic influences that discourage birth control and some other cultural norms that take most, if not all, of the responsibility off of the men when a baby is born.

During rounds, if a baby looks particularly jaundiced for the number of hours old it is, Junior would get a blood sample. Then after morning rounds we would move to the outpatient clinic and see about 10-15 patients. Well-child visits or sick visits for children of teen moms.

I really liked the adolescent clinic and I am glad that it exists for all of the teen moms of Quito.

Here is Junior, Nancy and maria in the outpatient exam room. It is funny how I have not taken a single picture on any other U.S. rotation but in Ecuador I am shameless and take pictures every week. Haha. Aren't they cute?

Tonight my mom and Kari arrive and I will see them tomorrow! I can't wait. And we leave for the Galapagos on Sunday!