For almost seven years in the 1980s, I lived on Mali’s Dogon Plateau. I was a Peace Corps volunteer focused on primary health care and spent most of my time with women. I learned about their joys, sorrows, dreams, struggles and, surprisingly, their great fear of childbirth.
As a physician in Burkina Faso, I have worked for more than 30 years to help ensure that the people of my country have access to the health care they need. I have often looked at the big picture—working to strengthen my country’s national policies on malaria, child survival, prevention of HIV/AIDS and family planning (FP). But I haven’t always looked closer to home.
In a chilly postnatal ward at the Ambohidroa District Hospital, Mamy Rasoahariniaina wrapped her day-old son in a cotton cloth. She added a woolen hat, swaddled her newborn in a blanket and held him close in a warm embrace.
Every day 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Helena’s story shows us it doesn’t have to be this way.
