“I want my son to become a doctor, assisting during childbirth just as we have been helped today,” says Zaituni Juma, 22 years old, in Tanzania. She was scared that her baby would die due to complications, as her friend’s child did.. Life Support Foundation has trained 441 doctors and nurses to give the urgent care that they would have needed, and a new course will be held in May.
We meet Zaituni at Mwananyamala Hospital, Dar es Salaam, lying close to her baby at the maternity ward. I can read in Zaitunis eyes that she is exhausted, but also very proud. She gave birth just a fiew hours ago.
– A friend of mine lost her child because of high blood pressure, and when I saw my legs starting to swell I got very scared that I might suffer from preeclampsia too, says Zaituni.
Complications during childbirth result in a high percentage of death that could easily be avoided with the right skills. Out of 10,000 deliveries every year at Tanzania’s largest hospital, Muhimbili, one of 10 babies and one of 100 mothers die. Emergency treatments and caesarean sections must be carried out urgently in order to prevent this, but there are only 300 doctors and 9400 nurses in a country with a population of 47 million people. And out of the doctors, just 15 are anaesthetists.
Life Support Foundation has this far trained 441 doctors and nurses in order to save lives. Right now we are preparing for a new course in Anaesthesia and Obstretic care at Muhimbili Hospital in May.
– My baby is my firstborn and I thank God that everything went well, says Zaituni, smiling when looking at him.
A fiew minutes later she is getting ready to return home with her son, neatly wrapped in traditional fabric, in her arms.
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