Midwives: The unsung heroes of modern times

Lilian Kaivilu @liliankaivilu As the word marked the International Day of the Midwife on May 5, midwives with loads of years in midwifery shared their highs and lows, as they oversee the delivery process of millions of babies. Mary Nderitu, a midwife at Nairobi’s Avenue Hospital, started her midwifery career in North Kinangop Catholic Mission Hospital in January 1989. “From the start of my career, I enjoyed serving in the maternity department,” she says. After five years at the facility, Nderitu joined Thogoto Teachers College in Kikuyu, as a college nurse. Now in charge of antenatal clinic at Avenue Hospital, she says midwifery requires a lot of passion and dedication. “The joy of a midwife is when a baby is safely delivered. The highest moment in my career was in 2007 when I delivered a mother normally at a hospital’s waiting bay when all was set for a caesarian section.” Her lowest moment though, was the death of a child hours after delivery. The baby was the mother’s only son and had been delivered via C-section. She advises upcoming midwives to find a comfortable department in the healthcare system and give their best as they attend to patients. Growing up, Grace Wang’ombe admired the dress code by nurses in her area. As a child, she was once admitted to the then Nanyuki District Hospital. “Here, I liked the dress code and general mannerisms of the nurses,” she says. This—together with frequent career talks by experienced nurses in her high school—drove her to pursue a career in nursing. Growing interest Wang’ombe is now a midwife and the acting Senior Assistant Chief Nurse at Kenyatta National Hospital’s Labour Ward. Her career picked up in 1981, as a Form Four student at Ndururumo High School in Nyahururu. “While in Form Four, a nurse came to talk to us. This affirmed my interest in the field and I filled a career form.” In January 1983, she joined the Medical Training College (the now Kenya Medical Training College) in Nairobi for a course as a plain registered nurse in Kenya. She graduated in 1986 before doing a one-year course to become a registered midwife. On Tuesday, the world celebrated millions of midwives, who have seen mothers through the delivery process. “Midwifery is more than seeing a mother through the birthing process. A midwife is supposed to offer a comprehensive kind of care to the mother and ensure proper follow-up for both the mother and the baby,” says Wang’ombe. With more than 30 years of midwifery experience, she shared her good and the not-so-good moments in a profession she calls her passion. “My best times”, she says, “is when I deliver a healthy baby and discharge the mother in a stable state”. Highs and lows “I once delivered a mother and she started bleeding because the uterus could not contract. I called other midwives and the mother was saved. This was a high moment for me,” she says, adding that convincing a patient to heed to the right medical advice is a big win for any midwife. But there are bad days as well. “My lowest moment is when we lose a mother,” she says, painfully sharing an experience of a cardiac patient who died immediately after delivery. “The mother told me she felt she was about to die. I kept reassuring her that she wouldn’t die. Immediately after delivering, she died. It is my worst moment to date. Every time a mother dies, I feel like packing my bag and leaving,” she says. In order to weather such devastating moments, Wang’ombe says she depends on the counsellors in the facility and colleagues who keep checking on each other. With about 400 deliveries every month, Wang’ombe says she would like to be remembered for the changes she has made in the hospital’s labour department. “I started a prayer session in our department where staff members pray before start of work. That’s a legacy that I have at the ward.”

Midwives: The unsung heroes of modern times

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Midwives: The unsung heroes of modern times

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