In South Sudan, Midwives Bring Down Deaths Despite the Odds

Associated Press South Sudan HNN Team

JUBA, South Sudan — Seated in a stifling hallway in South Sudan’s main hospital, the midwife recounted the day she watched a young mother bleed to death after giving birth. “She died while holding my hand,” said Aber Evaline, hanging her head. Her patient was one of more than 40 women who died in Juba’s … Continued

In world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the miracle of a safe birth

UNFPA Yemen HNN Team

JARDAN, Yemen – Over a million pregnant women and new mothers require urgent aid in Yemen, the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Mohsina was one of these women when she went into labour at the end of a complicated and painful pregnancy. Luckily, her story had a happy – and surprise – ending. … Continued

Nigeria’s ‘Flying Midwives’ Are Helping Save Moms and Babies

Time Nigeria HNN Team

By Aryn Baker | Photographs by Lynsey Addario for TIME February 7, 2019 In the small, whitewashed medical clinic of Banki, one of northeastern Nigeria’s largest camps for internally displaced people (IDP), midwife Stella Aneto takes a rare pause between deliveries to catch her breath. Before wiping down the clinic’s sole delivery bed with disinfectant, Aneto glances at the clinic … Continued

Where Doulas Calm Nerves and Bridge Cultures During Childbirth

New York Times HNN Team

HALMSTAD, Sweden — Maria Hussein, who escaped the war in Syria, was many hours into labor in a Swedish hospital when the midwife realized her fetus was in distress, and called in an obstetrician to help. The doctor began giving Ms. Hussein instructions and reassurance in Swedish. Oksana Kornienko, who works as a doula culture … Continued

WHO lays out recommendations to save newborns

The Week HNN Team

According to a recent report released by WHO titled Survive and thrive: transforming care for every small and sick newborn, it is crucial for the world to transform care for every newborn baby, in order to achieve the global target of health for all. Reducing neonatal mortality to 12 per 1,000 live births and under-five … Continued

‘No woman has died here while having a baby and that is a big achievement’

Irish Times HNN Team

Baby Matin is less than five hours old when we meet. Matin’s mother Maran gingerly lifts her baby, swaddled in bundles of soft blankets, from the cot to show her to the group of well-wishers gathered by the end of the bed. The 27-year-old already has three sons – two were born in the sprawling … Continued

‘Miracle’ six-day-old baby survives Ebola

BBC News Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, South Sudan HNN Team

A baby girl who was diagnosed with Ebola when she was only six days old has survived, health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have confirmed. Baby Benedicte’s mother was infected with Ebola and died during childbirth. Benedicte showed symptoms only days later and it has taken five weeks of round-the-clock treatment to … Continued

‘I’ve Lost My Baby, My Home And My Life’: The perils of being pregnant in war-torn Yemen

ELLE UK Yemen HNN Team

Um Walid is lying in a hospital bed in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. The blanket keeping her warm is a deep red; the room is cast in a warm pinky-purple hue. She is sick, and struggling to search for the words to describe the loss of her unborn child just 21 days ago. ‘I … Continued

Ebola in Congo now infecting newborn babies, UN says

Associated Press Congo HNN Team

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says a worrying number of the newest Ebola cases amid Congo’s ongoing outbreak are in patients not usually known to catch the disease: babies. In an update published this week, the U.N. health agency reported 36 new confirmed cases of Ebola, including seven in newborn babies and infants … Continued

The key to saving preterm babies

Daily Nation Kenya HNN Team

Having served as a paediatrician for most of my adult life, including over 25 years as a perinatal/neonatal medicine specialist, I know first-hand the joy and anxiety that comes with giving birth. For first-time mothers, especially, even as they eagerly anticipate the birth of their babies, they are scared – of pain, of complications that … Continued