A global shortage of midwives is reducing the chances of countries hitting millennium development goal 5 to reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality rate. Tell us what you think about maternal and child health, and the progress of the MDGs
Click on this link to guardian.co.uk for an insightful series of videos addressing maternal death rates and maternity care in Africa and Nepal.
A midwife from Melbourne, who is working with MSF in the African country of South Sudan, wrote recently:
"In the short time I had been in Aweil, I had seen more miscarriages, more stillbirths, more premature births resulting in death than in my 8 years as a midwife in Australia. I was faced with doing things that caused me so much distress and heartache. To balance this somewhat, I have seen more twin births (nearly all of them vaginal) here than in Melbourne – it seems to be a norm in Africa, maybe to balance all the other babies who die. It is difficult here – for all who live here – and part of the work is to try to get women to the hospital sooner so that their bodies, which are already so depleted in so many ways, are not left recovering with no baby, as they have stayed away too long. This is all too familiar a story. They are in labour for 3-4 days at home, they come to us with a baby that’s already dead. There are also many who come with their babies still alive but then they seem to give up right at the end and we can’t resuscitate them. It is normal for there to be meconium stained liquor. Too many dead babies…The women have many pregnancies, and their bodies don’t often have time to recover before they’re expected to be pregnant again. So, we are also looking to do education in antenatal clinics, trying to encourage women to come earlier to the hospital."
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