A Ugandan Tragedy
By Jeff James, MLI Co-Executive Directors
At the age of 19, Florence, newly married and pregnant with her first child, was experiencing the first signs of contractions. She had been to the health center in her rural Ugandan village several times for antenatal care and knew the time had come for her to return to deliver. She was scared, but also excited to become a mother. She made the hour-long walk with the support of her sister and a few friends, as her husband remained behind working in the field. Upon arrival, she was told her contractions had progressed, and she was taken immediately into the delivery room. There in the dimly lit room, windows swung wide for ventilation, she lay on the table, the stained blue walls closing in, making her queasy and the pain seemingly more intense. As she stared helplessly at the midwife’s sweat-streaked and panic-stricken face she knew there was a problem. The midwife, realizing she was dealing with an obstructed labor (dystocia), called the local hospital for an ambulance (a 30-minute drive away over very difficult terrain) and was told the only ambulance was out on another call, but it would be dispatched as soon as it returned. In the 3 hours that passed after that phone call, Florence’s baby was delivered lifeless, and then Florence’s blood pressure plummeted. Florence was having a post-partum hemorrhage.
The health center did not have the necessary medications and equipment to control the bleeding and no capacity for giving a blood transfusion. The midwife had no doctor to help control the bleeding surgically. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late. Florence had fallen deeper into shock and died.
As tragic as this story is, it is not uncommon in rural Africa. Today, as you read this, in Uganda, 16 women and more than 400 infants will die during childbirth. At Maternal Life International, we believe that every mother and child should have a “safe passage” -- a pregnancy and delivery free of death and injury for both the mother and her baby. MLI’s Safe Passages program provides the tools and training to help prevent heartbreaking situations like what happened to Florence and her baby.
St. Mary’s Lacor Hospital, Gulu, Uganda
In January this year, MLI partnered with the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau and St. Mary’s Lacor Hospital to bring our life-saving training and supplies to northern Uganda. Led by our founder and president, Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones, a team of U.S. obstetricians and an anesthesiologist traveled to Gulu, Uganda for a week of intensive training. 6 hospitals and 28 health centers engaged in the training. 104 midwives, nurses, and doctors were empowered with a deeper understanding and new tools to help prevent maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.
MLI provided non-pneumatic anti-shock garments, which increase blood flow to the heart and stabilize the blood pressure in a woman in hemorrhagic shock. Such a device would have saved Florence’s life. We provided NeoNatalie Live smart manikins with iPads and resuscitators for the midwifery schools to improve new midwifes’ skills in newborn resuscitation. Likewise, MamaNatalie manikins were provided along with "skills and drills” training to better manage severe preeclampsia (toxemia), obstructed labor and surgical obstetrical emergencies. We also gave each attendee a CRADLE Vital Monitor, an extremely accurate, semi-automated blood pressure and pulse monitor, with a built in “Shock Index” calculator which allows nurses and midwives to recognize and treat shock early in its course.
True to MLI’s philosophy that all people’s emotional and spiritual health should also be cared for, the Safe Passages workshops included time each day for prayer and thoughtful discussion. Participants shared how to avoid burnout, and how to preserve that inner voice that called them into the profession of saving lives in the first place.
Without honoring one’s own well-being and family and finding a source of strength through faith and reflection, the best training and tools may save lives, but overall life satisfaction may be low, leading to less compassionate and distracted health care. Unlike other charitable organizations offering medical trainings, MLI includes reflection on all aspects of a person’s life to produce well-rounded, fulfilled medical practitioners who feel joy in their work despite the heavy challenges.
“To our supporters, thank you for making this training possible. In total we spent over $70,000 to bring these tools and training to a place that has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. For the lives that will be saved as a result, its value is priceless. Please help us with your continued support to bring Safe Passages to other needy places in the world. God bless you for your generous hearts!”
