Our wonderful midwife Gloria ‘in the bush’ at Oberabic Health Center had a hard night recently. She’s the only midwife there, so has to do most the work that involves mothers and babies, and make all the calls under really difficult circumstances. A miscarriage and a tricky delivery led to a long, intense evening which ended up really well for the mothers and newborn baby. Its hard to overstate what a fantastic job she did under the circumstances.

Apart from being a great story, and example of the great work that goes on at our health centers, this story is a microcosm of the struggles our patients and staff face all the time. Amongst other things Gloria and the patient faced these challenges. Feel free to add your own after watching the video.

The Patients
– No access to transport to get to a higher level facility
– Poor knowledge of problems around birth, which led to the mother coming in late and not telling Gloria her waters had broke.
– Lack of social support

Gloria
– Working in the uncomfortable zone above your level of medical expertise
– Having to do everything yourself (sterilise the equipment yourself, after you’ve already completed the delivery)
– Understaffing