Here are several maternity stories from Mali which appeared on IRIN NEWS.
MALI: Fatoumata Dio, “I have delivered more than 500 babies”KOULOGO, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) – The first child Fatoumata Dio delivered in 1981 when she was 19 years old was before she ever received midwife training — or even knew what the words meant. She went from serving as a traditional birthing attendant to working as a midwife in her rural northern Mali commune of Koulogo that includes 16 villages. Since 2004, she has received three weeks of midwifery training every year at the regional referral clinic 40km away. She is paid US$4 per month, while expectant mothers pay $3 to give birth at the clinic.
full report
MALI: Bana Nimaga, “It was a miracle for me, the new mother and her family.” print email 20 April 2009 (IRIN), For more than one decade, midwife Kouma Bana Nimaga, 41, told IRIN she has delivered babies in Mali’s rural northern villages with scarce health supplies. Mali’s maternal mortality and infant mortality rates have improved in recent years, but not enough to lift the country out of what UN Children’s Fund calls a “state of health emergency”. Bana Nimaga has worked at a health referral clinic in Bankass, 700km northeast of Mali’s capital Bamako since 1998.
MALI: High-risk pregnancies on the rise
BANKASS, 20 April 2009 (IRIN) – Pregnancies among girls as young as 12 and women in their early 40s are on the rise in Mali’s rural north, according to health workers, who say cultural mores and economic pressures contribute to the potentially life-threatening pregnancies, which often go untreated due to scant health services.
MALI: Medical house visits cut maternal mortality 15 April 2009 (IRIN),
Even if you build it, they may not come. That is what medical staff in Koulogo, 800km northeast of Mali’s capital Bamako, discovered when a new health centre opened in 2004. Maternal mortality remained high after the centre’s opening – with up to half of women dying in childbirth, according to local health workers. They decided that if patients did not come to the centre until their lives were in danger, it was time to bring the centre to the patients.
© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org
Mali : Toumani Diabate, Telling stories on the kora Maternity bus helps cut maternal & baby death rates in Sierra Leone Pregnancy and Childbirth in Mali Mali: Good mothers group promotes breastfeeding to save babies Mali : 21st Century slaveryOne Response to “Maternity Stories from Mali”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
[...] Mali : The midwife's story | SocioLingo AfricaSeveral maternity stories from IRIN NEWS MALI: Fatoumata Dio, “I have delivered more than 500 babies”KOULOGO, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) – The first child. … AFRICAN CULTURE. The Power of Culture … [...]