The First Month as a Midwife in Mozambique
Anja has been working as a midwife for Cap Anamur in Mozambique for four weeks. She supports the maternity department at Pemba Hospital. Cap Anamur has been rebuilding destroyed health facilities in the north of the country since 2022 and sends medical specialists.
Anja reports on her first month in Mozambique
“I’ve been working at Pemba Hospital since February 14. On my first day, Janethe, the head midwife, showed me around the department. When we returned to the delivery room after our tour, a young woman was in the last stages of labor and I was allowed to accompany the birth of a healthy baby boy – what an introduction.
In the days that followed, I accompanied the maternity team to get to know the procedures on the ward.
In the first four weeks, I have already gained a wide range of experience.
There were also some very sad ones that I had never experienced before in Germany.
One day, my colleague Lukas, who works in the hospital’s intensive care unit, asked me to perform an ultrasound on a young woman in her 24th week of pregnancy who was suffering from malaria. He wanted to know whether the child was still alive, as the pregnant woman’s vital signs were deteriorating. The child was still alive that day, was born the next and unfortunately died after a short time. Her mother’s condition continued to deteriorate and unfortunately she also died as a result of malaria.
But there were also many wonderful events and many trouble-free births that I was able to attend.
The hygiene situation in the maternity ward must be drastically upgraded to prevent infectious diseases
After a short time, I particularly noticed that the hygienic conditions on the maternity ward needed to be significantly improved. Unfortunately, there is no basic knowledge of hygiene procedures. Cleaning work is carried out daily, but the measures are so minimal that the risk of infection is massively increased.
For the next month, I will try to work like the midwives, nurses and gynecologists do in order to adapt and find resources.
I hope that with Janethe’s help I can work out ways to improve hygiene and care for pregnant women and women who have recently given birth, and especially for newborns.
Being and working here is a challenge. But above all, it’s great that I can see where the need is greatest in order to bring about a lasting humanitarian improvement.”