Tag: childbirth
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Oct 20, 2010
Week Two in Ethiopia, Another Woman Saved
Things might have turned out differently had Shashitu delivered a month earlier. Things might have turned out much worse. We didn’t get the chance to meet Shashitu, a 28-year-old Ethiopian woman who lives in Genssa Kebele, a rural area about 60 miles from Bahir Dar, the closest city in the Northwest region of Ethiopia. But our Ethiopian IntraHealth co-workers told us about her. Like many girls and young women in Ethiopia, Shashitu married young. She had her first baby by cesarean when she was 18. Three weeks ago, Shashitu was nearing the end of her second pregnancy. Because she delivered her first child by cesarean, she made the long trip to Bahir Dar to a private clinic for a check-up. For reasons that are not clear, the clinic staff told her to come back in ten days, but before the week was out, Shashitu had gone into labor. Shashitu knew Bahir Dar was too far away, so she went instead to the Yenak Health Center, a clinic near her home. After examining her, the clinic staff knew that Shashitu needed emergency care they were not equipped to provide. So they did the only thing they could: referred her to the Dangla Health Center, another 15 miles away. By then, it... Read More » -
Jun 15, 2010
Giving Birth: the Good News
Last week, Time published “ The Perils of Pregnancy: One Woman’s Tale of Dying to Give Birth ,” a poignant photo essay and article on the grim reality of women dying in childbirth in Sierra Leone. I read the piece with mixed emotions. The images, the tone of the Time article contrasted sharply with everything I heard last week during Women Deliver 2010 conference : family planning use is increasing, child survival is improving, and there have been steady declines in the number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes, according to a recent Lancet article . Yes, Time’s coverage of this pressing issue will capture the public’s attention, a public who might not otherwise know that women in Sierra Leone face a one in eight risk of dying in childbirth. Maybe this article will help the public understand that in the developing world, pregnant women die every day because they bleed to death or from infections, unsafe abortions, eclampsia, obstructed labor and to a lesser degree from “indirect causes” such as malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular diseases. But I also read the article with a feeling of... Read More »
