In Kenya, midwives on motorbikes save mothers from perilous journeys

Leparua, Isiolo County, Kenya – it takes three hours to snake downhill on a motorbike, skirting gingerly around mud puddles, but for Salome, it feels like days.

Riding side-saddle, she exhales sharply over each bump on the track and rubs her heavily pregnant belly protectively.

Photo :YouTube Christian Aid PR video

 In the driver’s seat is traditional birth attendant, or TBA, Afro. He squints through the monsoon rainclouds, carefully inching the motorbike forward. His gaze remains fixed on the horizon until, at last, the hospital comes into view.

Deep in Kenya’s interior, health facilities are sparse, with some located up to 100 kilometres from the communities they service. For pregnant women like Salome, reaching it can be perilous, particularly during the rainy season, when dirt roads flood and bridges become submerged.

“I know many women who went into labour and started to walk to the hospital alone,” she says, slumping down on a plastic stool at the hospital entrance. “But it is too far to walk with labour pains, so they had to deliver the baby in a bush.”

Fortunately, Salome is in safe hands, thanks to birth attendant Afro and his motorbike, or piki-piki, as it is known locally.

As she goes in to register, Afro leans heavily on a curved crook outside, exhausted. He explains why traditional birth attendants continue to play a central role within the Masai’s tribal structure.

“It is a great honour for us to deliver the new members of our tribe. This role gives us status within our communities.”

But with the arrival of the motorbike, he says, the role of the traditional birth attendant may be changing.

“In the past, I had to deliver the baby at the woman’s home with no medical knowledge. When there were complications, there was nothing I could do. Now I can bring the mothers here on my piki-piki and take the tiny babies back home when they arrive. So, we still play a significant role.”

Unfortunately, many women in Kenya do not have access to the same level of medical care as Salome. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation, more than 6,300 women died in childbirth last year, one of the highest in East Africa. It is estimated that more than 800 of those deaths occurred in Isiolo County. Read more here

News credit : The Guardian

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