Mary Immaculate Mapuordit Hospital is situated 75 km south west of Rumbek, capital of former Lakes State in the Republic of South Sudan. It has the size and services of a County Hospital, having grown to its’ present 113 bed status over the years since foundation in 2002. Mrs Atemo Robina, a midwife in the Hospital shares with us her story.
I am a midwife working in maternity ward at Mary Immaculate Hospital Diocese of Rumbek, with three years’ experience as a midwife. The face or presence of God in our daily work is the true definition of the phrase: “we treat and God heals”.
Surely, it is not easy for a mother to face pregnancy and delivery because of the vast number of complications before, during and after childbirth. As midwife, handling mothers who are already experiencing excruciating pains. I make sure I give my best together with the team to ensure we are welcoming, gentle enough, empathic, timely and up to date. A smile is also important together with a deep trust on the Lord who can offer healing.
The weekly programs for outreach antenatal care services in the nearby villages are demanding. We visit the cattle camps, through risky and unsafe roads combined with poor and negative attitudes of the community towards hospital deliveries. But God is faithful and protects us.
A clear example of God’s assistance is the case of a lady who came to the hospital with a serious post-partum complication. She had a serious haemorrhage but all relatives declined to donate blood to her. God saw us through and the mother and baby are alive today.
We appreciate God for the Anti-Retroviral Treatment and care for HIV patients especially the pregnant mothers under Prevention form Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT). Even though most of the community members don’t comply with the medication, thus increasing the chance of new born infection and also of spreading the infection to the staff during delivery, God protects us year by year and also gives precious sero-negative results to most of the new born babies.
The routine health talks at the ward, together with the fellow staff has helped us reduce the rate of sepsis by improving the hygiene and care of the umbilical cord stump, for the new born. This always brings much complication which need more intervention and most of the times, positive results are achieved for the Glory of God’s name.
A clear and lively example is a lady, with twin pregnancy, who came in as a referral from Primary Health Care Centre after 15 hours of labour and foetal distress. She was assessed and diagnosed with obstructed labour, with giant genital warts known for being HIV positive. An emergency caesarean section was done by the operation theatre team.
I received the babies with very poor vital score for the first twin and the second was unfortunately already a still birth. I led the team and we managed to resuscitate the baby with prolonged manual ventilation, suction, stimulation and oxygen therapy for over 2hours, praying to God for a positive result, which surely came as a testimony for all of us and for the family.