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SUDAN / MIDWIVES
STORY: SUDAN / MIDWIVES
TRT: 3.06
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: KUKU / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL 2011, SOUTHERN SUDAN
1. Various shots, Esther with newly born baby
2. SOUNDBITE (Kuku) Esther Kojo, mother of nine:
“This is my ninth child, following the eighth, of which four are alive and four died. The eight I gave birth to at home. My neighbours were the ones helping me.”
3. Various shots, mothers with their children in village
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Luka Tombekana Monoja, Minister of Health, Southern Sudan:
“We have less than ten midwives for the population of ten million people.”
5. Pan left, Exterior Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery
6. Close up sign, ‘Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery’
7. Various shots, midwifes training
8. Wide shot, exterior Ministry of Health and the Director of Nursing and midwifery approaching camera
9. Close up, sign ‘Ministry of Health’
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Janet Michael, Director, School of nursing and midwifery:
“Right now we have about 110 graduates from that school, but of course we know that their number is not enough to cover and the skills that they have are not also enough to manage all midwifery services.”
11. Various shots, midwifery cutting baby’s umbilical cordon
12. Various shots, nurses and midwifes attending patients
13. SOUNDBITE (English Florence Adom, midwife, Maguwi village:
“In my village women are suffering a lot. There are no midwives in Maguwi, there are few, so I decided to come to be midwife in order to help them. Most of the women they used to deliver at home and we are getting a lot of complications and women are dying because of anaemia, abortions, septic abortion also.”
14. Various shots, mothers with their children in village
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Luka Tombekana Monoja, Minister of Health, Southern Sudan:
“It is not easy to deliver women under trees, it is not easy to train midwives under trees, but those are our challenges.”
16. Wide shot, exterior Juba nurse school
17. Various shots, midwife with newly born
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Janet Michael, director of nursing and midwifery:
“Our sisters are dying. These are people; they have names, therefore for us to reduce these deaths we need more midwifes.”
19. Various shots, mother giving birth in hospital
20. Various shots, nurse tending to mother with newly born
The lives of Esther Kojo and her baby were saved at the last minute. The delivery started at home, with no medical help, but it soon got complicated.
Riding on a motorcycle taxi, Esther, in full labour, was rushed to the nearest hospital, two hours away, where a caesarean was performed.
SOUNDBITE (Kuku) Esther Kojo, mother of nine:
“This is my ninth child, following the eighth, of which four are alive and four died. The eight I gave birth to at home. My neighbours were the ones helping me.”
Every day, 1,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth worldwide, often because they deliver at home with no skilled birth attendants by their side. According to the authorities, 80 per cent of all women in Southern Sudan give birth at home, without the help of a midwife, and the region suffers from one of the highest maternal death rates in the world.
Luka Tombekana Monoja is Southern Sudan’s Minister of Health.
SOUNDBITE (English) Luka Tombekana Monoja, Minister of Health, Southern Sudan:
“We have less than ten midwives for the population of ten million people.”
But change is underway. The first college for professional midwives was opened in Juba in May 2010. Eighteen students are currently enrolled in the three-year diploma program.
A shorter 18-months training for community midwives started in August 2008.
Janet Michael, the director of the School for nursing and midwifery explains,
SOUNDBITE (English) Janet Michael, Director, School of nursing and midwifery:
“Right now we have about 110 graduates from that school, but of course we know that their number is not enough to cover and the skills that they have are not also enough to manage all midwifery services.”
The Government has invested in several teaching hospitals in Southern Sudan, in order to increase the availability of community midwives.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, helps with the curriculum and provides midwifery trainers.
The main reason the women in the schools want to become midwives is to improve the health in their communities, and save the lives of women and babies.
Florence Adom is a midwife in the small village of Maguwi.
SOUNDBITE (English) Florence Adom, midwife, Maguwi village:
“In my village women are suffering a lot. There are no midwives in Maguwi, there are few, so I decided to come to be midwife in order to help them. Most of the women they used to deliver at home and we are getting a lot of complications and women are dying because of anaemia, abortions, septic abortion also.”
In Southern Sudan there are very few roads and transportation is difficult. Three quarters of the population lack access to any form of medical facilities, or have to travel far to get it.
70 per cent of all women have no access to medical care.
SOUNDBITE (English) Luka Tombekana Monoja, Minister of Health, Southern Sudan:
“It is not easy to deliver women under trees, it is not easy to train midwives under trees, but those are our challenges.”
The Southern Sudan Ministry of Health wants to open at least two, and preferably five more Midwifery Colleges.
Officials hope that international partners will help them achieve this ambitious and life saving goal.
SOUNDBITE (English) Janet Michael, director of nursing and midwifery:
“Our sisters are dying. These are people; they have names, therefore for us to reduce these deaths we need more midwifes.”
Globally, 350.000 midwives are required to live up to the international goal of achieving safe motherhood. 3000 are needed in Southern Sudan.
The progress made so far is an example of how these figures could be achieved with the right political will and investments.
Today there are too few midwives. But soon there will be a lot more.
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