A Mother's Struggle
Imagine...
Imagine you have been in labour for 4 days; you are still having painful contractions every 3 minutes. It is not possible to deliver your baby naturally and it may even have already died. You are losing blood and are becoming at risk of infection. You were already weak because of poor nutrition and anaemia in your pregnancy. You have two other young children to care for. Your only chance of surviving is to have emergency care from a skilled professional. But the nearest hospital is 200 miles away. You cannot afford to pay for transport or hospital fees even if you could get there. There really is no hope.
Saving lives in Childbirth
Our project in Gimbie gives hope to women like this, by increasing community awarenes of risk factors in pregnancy, by giving communities ways of paying for or subsidising their health care, and by providing support to clinics and to Gimbie hospital, in the form of midwifery training and provision of skilled obstetric services.
Degitu Jabana lives in Were Seyo in Western Ethiopia. She had been in labour for 3 whole days. There was no sign, however, that her baby wanted to come out. She was exhausted and managed to persuade her husband and sister-in-law to help her get to hospital. They started to walk to Gimbie town, but she found this too difficult. She fortunately managed to hitch a lift from a passing truck which took her to Gimbie Hospital. She was diagnosed as having obstructed labour by one of the Maternity Worldwide doctors. Her baby was showing signs of distress. She was then lucky to be able to have a caesarian section.
Terefa Djabesa is 21 years old. Her previous two babies were born naturally at home. This time, however, she felt that the baby was much much bigger than before. After being in labour without pain relief for 4 days her husband and parents managed to collect enough money from all the people in her village to hire a car to take her to Gimbie Hospital. On arrival she was still contracting well but was in obstructed labour. She also had a high fever from infection. The lives of Degitu, Terefa and their babies were saved because they were able to access professional care provided by Maternity Worldwide staff.
