Sierra Leone has among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2009, aprox 1 in 8 women died during pregnancy. In April 2010 Sierra Leonean health officials introduced free medical for pregnant or Breastfeeding women & under fives.
Kambia Government Hospital was attacked, looted and burnt by rebels in 1999. It re-open in 2004 with help from the EU. Even so, the hospital lacks equipment & staff,there is no running water or mains electricity. Patients often have to wait in the operating theatre while medical staff wire up neighboring generators for power, the operating table regularly collapses during operations. Animals, including goats,chickens and dogs, freely wander the wards. Small corpses wrapped in African cloth are nearly as common on the maternity ward as the itinerant animals. The wards are mainly run by untrained nursing aids -lack of trained staff is a huge problem. The few trained staff work round the clock. Since the free health care started, supplies have arrived and hundreds of life-saving operations have taken place. Transport to refer serious cases, medication & equipment is now available at the hospital which has seen a surge in patients. Figures show the admissions have more than tripled compared to this time last year and the percentage of deaths during childbirth have reduced. Conditions are slowly changing for the better but Sierra Leone needs long-term support to sustain the futures for its children.
A woman screams in pain during a Cesarean Section.
A mother kisses her new baby
A traditional Birthing Assistant in Tonkolimba Village with her audit box, used to record births in the village.
A motorcycle ambulance
A woman has an ultrasound scan. Kambia is the only hospital outside of Freetown with a ultrasound scanner.
A pregnant woman waits in the delivery room.
A healthy baby is born by Cesarean Section.
A young mother rests on the Maternity Ward with her 2-day-old baby.
A child waits to be seen by a doctor.
A woman holds up a new-born baby for prayers outside the Maternity Ward as inside the mother fights for her life.
Two infants share a bed in the Therapeutic Feeding Centre, Kambia Hospital
A woman waits with her child to attend the under 5s clinic.
An infant is weighed at the under 5s clinic
A child is measured at the under 5's clinic.
A sick child eats dinner in his cot on the Paediatric Ward.
The Paediatric Ward, at Kambia Hospital has seen a surge in the number of patients since free health care began in April 2010.
A malnourished infant
A mother breast feeds her sick child.
A young woman gazes at the empty cot at the end of her bed. She has suffered a miscarriage.
A teenage mother holds her baby
A midwife bathes a new baby
A new-boarn baby just moments old sleeps as his mother comes round from the C-section .
A grandmother kisses a new baby
14-year-old Fatmana holds her new baby, he is her first child. She has a husband but no one has been to visit her during her 5 days in hospital.
A newborn baby is weighed
A woman rests next to her sick baby.
A baby is still-born due to a twisted umbilical cord.
A nurse carries a still-born baby to give to the relatives.- <