Saving Lives at Birth; Maternal Health in Uganda

Our organization is constantly growing its reach in the community and with that means more members have joined our team to become part of the Shanti Family. In the past few months we have added two new midwives to the team with varying levels of experience, but a shared enthusiasm for the work we are doing a Shanti Uganda.

Sister Josephine has stepped into the role of Head Midwife with over 35 years of midwifery experience. She has both hands on experience catching babies, and administrative experience having worked at the district level as an Assistant Maternal Child Health Officer. There, she trained and updated other health workers on important matters such as the risk factors of gestational diabetes. In this role she learned to work with a diverse group of people and how to efficiently engage with the community regarding health issues. It was in this role that she was introduced to Shanti Uganda. Sister Josephine became a key advisor while helping to set up the Birth House. After her retirement from government work, she saw an opportunity to go back to working with mothers in a more hands on way by passing on her skills to the next generation of midwives. When talking about why she wanted to work for Shanti, she notes the services and care we provide and says, “That is what I am.”

Sister Josephine doesn’t seem afraid to tackle any challenge she is faced with when it comes to her role as Head Midwife. The challenges facing maternal care are significant and she can’t help feeling emotional about the high mortality rate in Uganda, where 16 women die every day because of pregnancy related complications, “When we hear that it makes us sad.” Despite this she sees the hope in the work Shanti does. Josephine is most looking forward to building a strong team so that we can continue providing a safe and caring birthing environment to all mothers.

Our most recent addition to the team, Mukisa Winnie , is a recent graduate of Nyenga Nursing School in Jinja, Uganda. We are excited to have her youthful presence as part of our team and hope to see her grow in her experience and knowledge by learning from our seasoned midwives. The part of the job she loves the most is care for mothers during birth, which makes her both nervous and excited.

Having been born and raised in the Luwero district Winnie is already a friendly face to many of our staff and mothers that come to The Birth House. She is the youngest of a family of four children, where her Mom is also a midwife. Since her Mom is already sso well known in Luwero we have no doubt that soon Winnie will be too because of the kind hearted nature and trust women put in her.

 Shanti has always looked for staff that share our vision of providing safe mother-centered care. With the addition Winnie and Josephine we have no doubts about the quality of care our mothers will receive and we will continue to be a part of lowering the maternal mortality rate throughout Uganda. Thank you for making the work they do possible!