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Pregnancy and childbirth

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Pregnancy and childbirth

Around the world, hundreds of women die every day from complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Almost all of these deaths are in developing countries, and most would be preventable with appropriate medical care.

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is helping to save lives and improve maternal health by giving women a safe place to give birth: maternity units that have high levels of infection control and specialist staff.

Many MSF projects also provide information about planning pregnancies and access to contraceptives to women who want them.

Hannah Thompson MSF
Hannah Thompson
Midwife
A midwife in DRC: "Women deserve excellent care, the world over"
From morning clinics to late-night emergencies, UK midwife Hannah shares her experience working in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo
07 May 2019 / 6 minute read
Constance, Claire and Esperance celebrating international women's day
Claire Harper - MSF midwife
Claire Harper
Midwife
A joyful experience: Celebrating International Women's Day in DRC
Music, food and the opening of a life-saving new maternity building. US midwife Claire has a party to plan...
15 Apr 2019 / 8 minute read
Quadruplets
Sundas Pervez MSF
Sundas Parvez
Nurse
Pakistan: The miracle babies
Sundas meets a mother of quadruplets...
08 Mar 2019 / 2 minute read
Mothers at Jahun maternity hospital
Pippa Letchworth
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
ER mode: My last patient in Nigeria
Pippa is an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant, recently returned from assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jahun, part of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state – an area where high numbers of women and children die during childbirth. 
20 Dec 2018 / 8 minute read
Joanne Perry - MSF
Joanne Perry
Doctor
A midwife in South Sudan: “She will sometimes sing to them between contractions”
The majority of MSF teams are not made up of international staff from overseas. Instead, from conflict zones to epidemics, most of our medical and logistical teams are people working in their home countries, using their skills where they are desperately needed. Joanne, a Canadian doctor in South Sudan, celebrates one of our incredible local midwives.
19 Dec 2018 / 6 minute read
Pippa Letchworth
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
Taking your hat off: A rare injury in obstetrics 
Pippa is an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant, recently returned from assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jahun, part of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state – an area where high numbers of women and children die during childbirth. Here she writes about an unusual and traumatic injury...
17 Dec 2018 / 3 minute read
Sandra Smiley
Advocacy
“She has an incredible story to tell": childbirth in Peshawar, Pakistan
An excited woman waves at Sandra – a Canadian advocacy officer – inviting her into the delivery room of Peshawar Women’s Hospital in Pakistan. She has an incredible story to tell…
07 Dec 2018 / 8 minute read
Pippa Letchworth
Obstetrician / Gynaecologist
Bruised and battered: Obstetrics in Nigeria
Pippa is an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant from the UK on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jahun, part of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state – an area where high numbers of women and children die during childbirth.
23 Nov 2018 / 3 minute read
Christine Tasnier MSF
Christine Tasnier
Midwife
Ethiopia: “She named her baby Nyamire. It means decision”
Christine Tasnier is a midwife from the UK, currently working in Ethiopia’s Kule Refugee Camp – home to around 54,000 people fleeing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan.
06 Nov 2018 / 8 minute read
Kariantti Kallio
Anaesthetics
A first time for everything: learning fast in Bangui
With a patient bleeding heavily, Kariantti and the MSF team had to act quickly. He blogs from Bangui, Central African Republic...
09 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read
Kariantti Kallio
Anaesthetics
After the fight: Returning to routine in Bangui
After nearby conflict forced his MSF team to evacuate a maternity hospital in Bangui, Central African Republic, Finnish anaesthetist Kariantti writes about returning to routine in the days following the fighting.
01 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read
The triplets at Peshawar Women’s Hospital
Sundas Pervez MSF
Sundas Parvez
Nurse
Pakistan: Three baby girls and a proud mother
Sundas Parvez is a nurse in the newborn unit at Peshawar Women’s Hospital in Pakistan, where she has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) since 2014. In this blog, she writes about caring for newborn triplets and the chance to speak to their mother. 
26 Sep 2018 / 3 minute read

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Florian Lems/MSF
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