Waiting at Waita Joyce Makasi was in the midst of a perfect storm of pregnancy and pandemic. She was in labor, growing weak, and in need of a cesarean delivery. Daunting and dangerous as that situation might be in normal times for any woman living in in central Kenya’s Kitui Province, Joyce’s predicament was further
In between tweeting with teens, seeing patients at her Johannesburg clinic and carrying out her mandate as Special Rapporteur on the right to health as appointed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng wrote a book—Dr. T: A Guide to Sexual Health & Pleasure—that one grateful reader
When Jhpiego’s new chief nursing and midwifery officer reminisces about her earliest influences, a kindly, senior midwife comes to mind. Her name was Iris, says Dr. Pandora Hardtman. She wore a blue uniform. Navy blue, Hardtman clarifies. Dark and stark. Not like the almost iridescent iris shade of dress (and matching lipstick) that Hardtman happens to be wearing today during a Zoom meet-and-greet with Jhpiego colleagues. And not like the shimmering turquoise of the sea that surrounds the pink sand island of Bermuda where midwives like Iris were a mainstay in bustling health department offices, full of people seeking
