"She kissed her and Said Bye"



Reducing maternal mortality is one of the Millenium Development Goals which governments and civil society orgarnisations are striving to achieve come 2015.What a joy to have your wive,mom,sister,daughter or daughter inlaw enter the dilivery room and come out safe and sound!! The value of safe dilivery always never seems important untill the sudden pinch of death snatches your loved one from you. This is my most fresh pinche as I write down these words. Words in a shopping centre,words of an expectant mother, words of joy,the last friendly words of my high school friend who said:



" we are doing shopping for our 'Queen to be'. Any momment from now, you will join us to welcome her but I will not tell you when. The when of it is the suprise I reserve for you". In that joyful mode, I exclaimed, your dream daughter!!!!! Its like you can't wait to have her. Then looking at her husband, she smiled and said, "she's gonna be the queen of our family.The only in two boys".



Little did I know this was the last friendly chat I would have with my 29 year old friend Mirri. After this chat, I received her said suprise message to meet her in the Sub-Divisional Hospital where she was to be delivered. Immediately after delivery, she began bleeding seriously. While being rushed to a different hospital for assistance,she asked for her baby saying "let me kiss her and see how she looks". As the baby was brought to her, she kissed her, waved to her husband and



Said BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TO HER BABY('Their Queen) in a fainting voice.I thought shhe was kidding as usual but when tears began running down her eyes with no further smiles I understood shhe meant her BYEEEEEEEEEEE
Dramatic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but she gave up.



Screaming at the scene, I asked my self, a 29 year old mother and Physics/chemistry college teacher! What about these three marternal orphans? what about the students left stranded in the middle of an academic term? Oh Maternal mortality, a cruel grip but who is to blame?



Traditional tendencies have often been to blame women for not following up with prenatal care properly but the dozen of cases which I have witnessed tend to show that it is more the lack of medical staffs and/or lack of equiped medical centers that pose the problem. In most parts of Africa like in Burkina Faso and postwar countries like Sierra Leon, the situation is worst and women are losing their lives from childbirth the more. See



http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/story/P...

These deaths have a multiplier effect on the upbringing and welfare of the orphans as well as on the entire community since they affect the labour force in one way or another. Please if you are a woman or one who cares about safe delivery, have a look at the demand dignity campaign against marternal mortality in Amnesty International's web Page and have your own say about maternal Moterlity. Together we can go places!!!

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