It was two minutes after midday on April 16, 2014 and the Canon EOS 600D camera was never as exciting a companion as it was on this day at the Peki Government Hospital.
It was two minutes after midday on April 16, 2014 and the Canon EOS 600D camera was never as exciting a companion as it was on this day at the Peki Government Hospital. A colleague and I on the MamaYe Campaign had visited the Peki hospital to have a heart to heart talk with a renowned midwife in the area, Ms. Bright Ansre. Ms. Ansre became a nurse some nineteen years ago and later trained as a midwife at the turn of the millennium. The hilly traditional area of Peki offered us a welcome escape from the very humid Volta regional capital, Ho. Ms Ansre, referred to by the younger nurses and midwives as ‘Daavi’ Bright (Daavi is an affectionate name for older women in the eastern part of Ghana) expressed a profound love for her profession, saying she hoped to return as a midwife in another life if it was ever possible.Her motivation? “I just love to be part of bringing life into the world. It never gets old. Every new born has a unique cry and look. It is never the same. The first sound they make, however [shrill] it is, just lights up your whole day.”At this point, my colleague Marian was asking the questions while I, armed with my Canon, was the unofficial ‘paparazzi’. Facial expressions are always invaluable to gaining an insight into an individual’s state of mind, and this was no exception. Ms Ansre kept smiling and gesturing passionately as she answered the questions one after another.“I know the strengths of other staff members and it helps determine whether the work can be done in your absence. There are some midwives who need my supervision and there are those who are so reliable, I can go home rest assured that everything will be done well”, she said.She added that the 12 midwives working at the facility have, in many ways, contributed to the increased number of women who visit the facility, a situation that is helping save many more mothers.However, there are challenges. “The major challenge we have here is, after giving them the health talk, a few [mothers] still don’t understand why they have to report to the health facility when they don’t feel well. They have been delaying in their homes. At times the delays are as a result of ignorance. They don’t know they are in labour. Sometimes they take these herbal concoctions so they think they are okay.”Ms Ansre also faces difficult moments with her family because she spends very little time with them: “I understand them: every child needs the mother and every man needs his wife. Sometimes, when you have a tough time in the office, you return home to a very unhappy family and you can only try to ease their pain. But ultimately they are proud of me and that is important.”Then she told a story. A lady had come in to the hospital with some complications and had been referred to the Regional Hospital in Ho to undergo delivery. She had a haemoglobin level of 4 and the hospital had run out of blood so her family had been asked to urgently take her to Ho. Later that day, Ms Ansre decided to pass by the woman’s house to inquire from the family whether she was taken to the hospital as advised: “To my sheer surprise, there was a traditional birth attendant in the house who was trying to help the woman deliver. When I inquired, I was told, they didn’t have money to hire a vehicle to Ho. So I immediately called my doctor and told him what had happened. He also advised that we bring the woman in as soon as possible before the situation got worse”.Ms Ansre rushed to the hospital and prepared the woman with a very strong team of nurses and the doctor. ‘Lo and behold’, both the woman and the baby survived: “I still ask myself what would have happened if I had not gone to the house that day. She could have died. The lady’s father came to my house on three different occasions to thank me and that really felt good.So it was with this background, and completely immersed in this woman’s passion, when she invited Marian and I to a labour ward nearby. I initially resisted because I thought a woman was having a baby and she deserved her privacy. Imagine our surprise when we were told the pregnant woman had invited us in! And oh, she was having a set of twins! Still very mindful of her privacy, and a first timer to the labour ward, I handed the camera to Marian. Taking periodic glances from the curtain I’d strategically placed myself behind, I witnessed three midwives, including Daavi Bright, attend to a brave woman. She groaned and moaned mildly while the midwives courteously urged her to ‘push’ - if you know what that means. After about five minutes of sweating in my MamaYe T-Shirt, Ewei arrived (named with the traditional Ewe name for the first female baby of a set of twins). Seeing the tiny and vulnerable Ewei enter the world made everything feel right. Ewei was swiftly wrapped up and placed on a scale. She wouldn’t stop crying - probably missing her sibling’s touch - but she would have to wait a while longer. Her sister Eweitsa’s entry into the world was not to be so smooth. She had turned in the womb, and was exiting with her buttocks (breech birth). So Ms Ansre and her colleagues had much work to do to ensure the health and safety of mother and baby. At this point we left Ms Ansre and her team to their work, promising to call later for the good news. And good news it was, an hour later Eweitsa had arrived even bouncier than her sister. Their mother is since doing just fine.Ms Ansre ’s final words to us were reassuring and resonated with me: “I enjoy the work in the first place and when I come to work, I don’t feel tired. Even though you feel physically worn out, the achievement is also there for all to see. You see babies being delivered; mothers looking well before being discharged. It’s truly something.”Whew! What a day it was!