Saving Lives at Birth

After travelling to Tanzania to visit rural health centres last month, Jessica Starkins, WASH project manager – community health, shares one of her experiences from the trip.

“It was an incredible experience getting to finally visit the health centres GAiN has been working in for over a year. Through the Saving Lives at Birth project, GAiN has been training birth attendants in newborn resuscitation as well as other topics. Now, getting to meet the doctors and midwives face to face, they have shared how much their knowledge has increased and that newborn mortality has decreased drastically at their health centres.

The nurse in charge of the maternal ward at Nandagala Health Center, Miraji, shared that he recently birthed a baby that was not breathing. He referred to a doctor and was told that nothing could be done, but Miraji was determined to try and felt confident from his training. So he used suction and gave breaths with a bag and mask and the baby started breathing! He couldn’t believe he could do something like this “as a nurse”. It was a special moment as he showed us each step of newborn resuscitation using a mannequin and resuscitation equipment.

A year after the training, he still knows the steps well and has used them to save two babies’ lives.