Midwifery Internship in Peru

I had the opportunity to work with a local midwife in Cusco, Peru this summer and it was fantastic! I worked with her side by side visiting patients in their homes, where we assessed their vitals, monitored their progress, assessed newborn vitals, conducted consultations, and held group antepartum classes/support sessions. I learned so much about the process of antepartum care, birth plans, health and wellness, and ancient Peruvian techniques for pain management and coping with labor and delivery. I worked with the midwife for 8 weeks, traveling with her to the Sacred Valley to see her patients two or three times a week. The days were very long, we usually left Cusco around 7am and got back around 10pm, sometimes later. There were three or four deliveries during the time I was interning, but unfortunately I was not able to attend any of them. I think this was due to the language barrier (fluent Spanish is definitely necessary) and the haste required to travel to the Sacred Valley when delivery was imminent.

I also took Spanish lessons from the school in Peru that organized my internship. The lessons were great, and they organized weekly outings/events/parties for the volunteers so it was super easy to meet people. I made a good group of friends there and we had tons of fun! I recently traveled to the UK and met up with a few of the friends I met in Peru :)

Intern Abroad HQ was wonderful in helping me prepare for my trip. They were always there to answer questions, provide information, help me book excursions, and make sure everything was taken care of before I left. The insurance I got through them was also great, I got food poisoning and had to stay in the hospital overnight and everything was completely taken care of. Everuthing with them was perfectly smooth and easy, I can’t wait for my next volunteer trip!