Chapter 1: Words to midwives
Working together to save lives
When midwives work with the whole community, they can find solutions to
help the women they care for — or to help everyone in the community. Here is
a true story:
A creative solution
In the small villages of West Africa, when a woman has a problem in labor,
it is very hard for her to get to a hospital. Few villagers have cars, and most
taxi drivers refuse to take women in labor. When a woman is in danger,
there is little her midwife can do.
Some midwives and
villagers talked about this
problem, and discovered a
creative solution. Even
though no villagers had
cars, they were near a large
road. All day and night,
trucks drove down the
road bringing products to
the city. Someone
suggested that if a woman
needed help in labor, she
could ride with a truck
driver to the hospital.
For this plan to work, the villagers needed to be sure that truck drivers
would agree to stop if they were needed. They talked to someone from the
union of truck drivers. The union members were happy to help, and now
they have a system that is simple and effective.
When a woman needs to go to the
hospital, the midwife puts a yellow flag
out near the road. When a passing truck
driver sees the flag, he stops and picks
up the woman and the midwife, and
takes them to the city hospital.
By working together with each other,
other villagers, the truck drivers, and
their union, these midwives helped
save lives.
10
A Book for Midwives (2010)