New week. New unit.

I’m heading into week 4 of my time in Nepal, and today I started in the Immunization/Family Planning Clinic. I’ve been looking forward to starting immunization out of personal interest and to prepare for a health/immunization clinic that a few other Health & Medical volunteers and I will get to run for an orphanage that another group is here to help re-build – definitely more details about that later!

Immunization and Family Planning alternate days, so today was Family Planning day. I was expecting to see more counseling with Family Planning, but it’s really a day for women to come to have their Depo-Provera shots or pick up oral contraceptive pills. To my amazement, the service is almost entirely government paid. The OC is free of charge and the Depo shots costs 10 NPR per shot – that’s less than 20 cents per shots! When I told the nursing students there how much these same items cost in Canada they were pretty awestruck as well.

Another interesting fact about the OC’s that the women get here. Instead of 7 placebo/sugar pills, their placebo pills are composed of ferrous fumarate to supplement iron loss during menstruation. I’m not sure if the reason for this is related to the prevalence of anemia here, but it’s an excellent practice. Also to note, the pills come from a Canadian pharmaceutical company!