This 21-year-old woman was brought to MSF’s GRC by ambulance to receive a C-section. Her first baby was delivered by C-section as well. Photo by Lynsey Addario
Manu Abu, 21, from Valunia Chiefdom, is transported by ambulance from the Gondama Health Centre to the Gondama Referral Center, where she will have her second cesarian section, Bo District, Sierra Leone, October 27, 2012. Abu delivered her first baby by a cesarian section, and was considered a high-risk patient for the delivery of her second child. Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, with only three OB/GYNs working in government hospitals around the country–the same amount as currently working in the privately-run MSF Gondama Referral Center, alone. Though the government of Sierra Leone introduced free health care to pregnant and lactating women, and children under 5, across the country in 2010, the services and trained medical staff are inaccessible to much of the population. MSF has been able to reduce the rate of maternal deaths in the district by providing 24-hour emergency obstetric care, along with an ambulance system, in which ambulances are made available to villages across the district in Bo to pick up women who have complications with their pregnancies. The rate of maternal deaths is roughly 60% in lower in Bo District than in the rest of the country because of these services. (Credit: Lynsey Addario/ VII)
