The Tragedies of Child Birth

Yesterday I saw a friend while I was in town buying supplies for the orphanage. She lives only a few kilometers from our orphanage in the bush. She has such a big personality and speaks good English so we've become friends. I saw her in town decked out in her best clothes. She was grinning from ear to ear and almost skipped as she walked. She greeted me and asked about my family all the while bursting with excitement to tell me her news. "My daughter has given birth today... and it's twins!" She went on and on about how beautiful the girls are and how much they look like her family and how proud she was of her daughter. Neither she nor her daughter had had any idea her daughter was carrying twins so it was a surprise. We didn't talk for too long because she was off to buy more supplies for the unexpected second baby. Before we parted ways she told me they were naming the girls Linda and Sheri after me and my mom.

Then today when she came by my house I thought she just wanted to invite me to go to the hospital to meet the girls. Then I saw the distress all over her face. As I put out my hand for the general greeting of a handshake she grabbed me and forced me into a hug which is very unusual in Zambian culture. Then I felt her tears on my shoulder as she said the words "My daughter has died." I held her in an embrace as she recounted the story. Her daughter began to bleed and the doctors couldn't control it. They can't perform surgery in Kalomo so they arranged to transport her to Choma Hospital about an hour's drive away. By the time they arrived in Choma it was too late and her daughter died.

Child birth should be such a joyous occasion, but far too often it ends in tragedy. I've seen so many mothers die because of pregnancy and child birth not to mention how many of the babies have died too. I read Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's Half the Sky and it explains that so little is being done to improve maternal health because it is not cost effective. For the same amount of money you could provide malaria medicine and other medical assistance that saves far more lives so money simply isn't being invested into maternal health. As the book goes on to say even though it may not be cost effective we should do it anyway because it is the right thing to do.

One of my sisters had complications with her delivery and needed a C section. Because she was in America it was pretty simple. Mother and baby were in distress, the doctors recognized the signs and took her in for an emergency c section, and my sister and her baby are fine. Had my sister been a village lady in Mapampi she wouldn't be alive today and neither would my nephew or my niece. It's not fair that my friends here in Zambia die of complications that are so easily treatable in the western world.

I know there is no simple solution to the problems of maternal health. I do want to see less money being spent on mosquito nets that end up being used for fishing instead of to prevent malaria which most people don't even die of these days, and more money being invested into maternal health. I am so happy that I have a few friends who are midwives with the desire to work with women in rural areas to improve maternal health. I'm so happy to know people who are contributing to solutions to this problem.