Iraqi Hospital

Filming in the neo-natal room of the hospital. The equipment was ancient and you felt desperate watching the little guy struggling inside.

Today we visited an Iraqi Red Crescent hospital in the city. The Director was kind enough to show us around and let us shoot. We spent about 40 minutes in the maternity wing going from room to room talking with the visibly nervous new mothers.

Things I learned:

- Fathers wait outside the delivery rooms and sisters or mothers accompany the expecting mother.
- No epidurals here. They don't have the equipment for them.
- Even while lying in a hospital bed all of the women are dressed in the traditional head scarves.
- There are more guns in the hospital than you would like to think.
- The hospital is desperate for equipment.
- The incubator for the neo-natals had to be 50 years old.

I leave tomorrow. Next stop, Dubai.