Zahra and baby [Seen in the Photo Above]– a beautiful outcome, Barbara May Maternity hospital, Mille
Treating the vicious complications of maternal health in Afar Region
Zahra Mohammad is now 27 years old. Twelve years ago as a very young mother having her first, she was in labor for 3 days and developed a vesico-vaginal fistula. The baby died at birth and she was left impaired. APDA took her to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa where she was repaired.
Now all those years later, she was pregnant and came into Barbara May Maternity Hospital in April bleeding. The hospital diagnosed that the placenta was coming before the baby’s head and she needed hospitalization till delivery. Unable to face the prospect, she literally escaped from the hospital turning up a month later profusely bleeding. Although she was not in labor, to save her life, the hospital performed a cesarian section to discover the placenta had imbedded itself in the wall of the uterus, a very rare condition called placenta accreta. Carefully, the obstetrician had to tie off uterine arteries and literally remove the uterus in part.
After all the drama of life-saving measures, Zahra is sitting up breast-feeding her baby, thanks to the untiring support of the Barbara May Foundation for the most part as well as UNFPA that this service is available where this mother would just be another maternal death statistic.
