Monash Health sonographers are dedicating their spare time to making childbirth safer in Cambodia.
Peter Coombs, Monash Health Sonographer-in-Charge, and Angel Lee, Site Sonographer Lead at Casey Hospital, joined the 2h Project, an Adelaide-based charity providing free ultrasounds to people in Cambodia, as volunteer sonographers to help detect any issues early and allow patients and healthcare providers to appropriately plan for birth.
In 2022, Peter and Angel travelled to Cambodia to install six handheld ultrasound devices and train local midwives within the clinics to use these devices on patients. The funding for this came from a GoFundMe that received wonderful support from many within Monash Imaging & Monash Women’s.
The pair continue assist the clinic by examining the ultrasound images and relaying that information to the clinics to provide the best care to the patient.
Peter said, “The ultrasound is a really important diagnostic tool in determining if the pregnancy is high-risk or not.”
“By simply having an ultrasound device in the health centre, it will bring women to those health centres to get their antenatal care and also to support the delivery.”
Training in Cambodia will continue this year with additional support from sonographers Joyce Chen and Celia Lim. All involved in the 2h Project are very optimistic about the sustainability of the project and possible opportunities for expansion.
This story of the 2h Project and Peter and Angel’s involvement was recently reported on by ABC News, read the ABC article here.