A Healthier Future for South Sudan's Families

With only one medical doctor for every 65,574 people and one midwife for every 39,088 people, South Sudan experiences one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world: 789 deaths per 100,000 live births—as opposed to 21 deaths in the United States. The lack of personnel to provide lifesaving care impacts the availability of skilled attendance before, during and after childbirth.

International Medical Corps is contributing to the South Sudanese government’s goal of reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity rates in the country, and increasing the number of skilled birth attendants. Today, we operate three midwifery and nursing schools in South Sudan, at Kajo Keji Health Sciences Institute, Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery, and Wau Health Sciences Institute.

“Our midwifery school tutors use mixed training methods that focus on skills building so that newly graduated midwives have the confidence to perform services such as Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (known as BEmONC) in the health facilities where they work,” says Janet, our deputy director of health policy and practice. Our teams offer continuous training opportunities for school faculty to ensure that they are equipped with the latest tools and resources to graduate new midwives.

Every year, we increase the number of skilled birth attendants in the country, saving the lives of mothers and newborns. We enrolled our first students in Kajo Keji Health Sciences Institute in 2008, and our schools have graduated a total of 273 trained professionals: 230 midwives and 43 nurses.

Approximately 15% of women will suffer from complications during childbirth, usually due to obstructed labor, puerperal sepsis, hypertensive conditions such as eclampsia, and obstetric hemorrhage.

Regardless of where she lives or what medical services she has at her disposal, a woman’s chance of losing her life as a result of these complications decreases dramatically, by as much as two thirds, when she has an attendant present at delivery who is proficient in Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEmONC).

To address these complications, BEmONC is a set of seven signal functions or interventions that must be available to all women at the time of delivery. Parenteral treatment of infection with antibiotics, vacuum-assisted delivery, and manual removal of the placenta and newborn resuscitation are just a few examples of BEmONC interventions.

Our teams work directly with the Ministry of Health to improve our training in BEmONC at the three schools and ensure the long-term sustainability of our midwifery programs.

Janet adds that, “There is an urgent need to expand the number of midwifery training programs in order to meet the need for skilled birth attendants in South Sudan.”

We thank you and the GlobalGiving community for your support as we build the capacity of medical professionals in South Sudan, and work to address gaps in maternal and neonatal care—and save lives. 

Today, International Medical Corps is participating in GlobalGiving’s Pro-Rated Bonus Day. Give to our project any time between 9:00 AM EST and 11:59 PM EST, and GlobalGiving will add extra funds to make your donation go even further. Your donation and the extra funds will go towards reaching those in South Sudan and those affected by the recent eruption of fighting in the city of Malakal. Read our latest update below to learn more about the current situation.

It was amid the chaos of the carnage and destruction in Malakal, South Sudan that an Ethiopian OB/GYN named Tekeselassie—known simply as Dr. Tek—found himself doing something that can only be described as surreal, something that he is still trying to make sense of: bringing new life into the world at the very moment he was surrounded by death.

On February 17 and 18, fighting and violence erupted in the United Nations-controlled civilian protection site, where 47,000 internally displaced persons had come to seek shelter, health, and protection care. At least 18 displaced persons and three humanitarian aid workers were killed, and civilian shelters as well as humanitarian facilities, including health clinics and a rare and much-needed surgical operating theater staffed by International Medical Corps, were destroyed. An estimated 30,000 individuals lost their shelter, and many fled the civilian site.

As the fighting went on around him, with the operating theater reduced to shambles, Dr. Tek and his team from International Medical Corps delivered three new babies—all of them healthy—using the corner of an old shed as a makeshift delivery room and the floor as a table while relatives surrounded the mother, holding up a curtain to protect her privacy. He recalled that the first infant delivered was a girl who weighed 2.6 kilograms, just over 5 lb 11 oz, but much else remains fuzzy.

“We didn’t get the baby’s name,” he said. “It was chaos.”

The team delivered a fourth child several hours after the battle had ended in the relative comfort of a 20-foot-long shipping container hastily rigged as a delivery room. After giving birth, the new mothers were transferred with their infants to a recovery area, a 36 by 18 foot tent, where they shared their space with 15 others, all casualties of the battle.

Dr. Tek said the contradiction of bringing new life onto a de-facto battlefield didn’t hit him at the time but admits he has thought about it often in the days since.

“We were so engulfed in the moment, we were just physically overwhelmed,” he explained. “Now when I look back, it’s difficult…very hard to take in that people outside are dying and inside we’re helping people give birth. Hard to comprehend.”

He says he hopes to see the mothers with their newborns again in the days ahead when they are scheduled to return for a post-natal visit and vaccinations. In the meantime, Dr. Tek has other concerns, such as the fate of a new mother named Zeinab from the remote Nuba Mountains to the north who had recently taken shelter in the UN civilian protection zone along with her family. He had delivered Zeinab’s baby by Caesarian section just prior to the battle and she was recovering when the fighting broke out. By the time she was ready to return to her temporary home Zeinab’s entire family—her mother, husband and two children—had fled.

“She and her baby are both fine, but they have nowhere to go,” Dr. Tek said.

Then there’s the issue of rebuilding. The battle not only took many lives, but also destroyed life-saving medicines as well as healthcare clinics and medical equipment, including the lone operating theater and post-operative care rooms. These served the tens of thousands of South Sudanese who, like Zeinab, fled their homes for the relative safety of Malakal’s UN protection zone.

“It took months to complete the facility enabling us to carry out complicated deliveries,” he said. “I never dreamed this would happen.”

International Medical Corps is working to address the recent devastation and meet the emergency humanitarian needs in Malakal and throughout South Sudan. We thank you and GlobalGiving for your support as we continue to rebuild.