MSF helping mothers safely through childbirth in rural Sidama
A feeling of homeliness is typical of villages in the Sidama zone, Ethiopia , where oval-shaped huts are scattered all around a small area adorned with lush indigenous trees and expansive green meadows. This is where Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) runs a maternal health project in the Chire and Mejo divisions (known as woredas), providing essential care to expectant mothers and their children. Expectant mother Widinesh Legabo’s village is 20 kilometres from the administrative town of Mejo. Widinesh, 32, has already gone through five challenging pregnancies, with long hours of labour, extensive bleeding and extreme shock during child birth. Mother’s difficulty in childbirth From the age of 16, when she had her first child, each delivery has always been a tormenting time for Widinesh. “Once I even went through a terrible six-day labour. I was suffering day and night. The cheerful voices of children playing out in the open and the sound of mooing cow