MIDWIFE FRANKIE IN UGANDA
It was at breakfast in a small hotel in Lira, Uganda that I met Frankie.
She was in her scrubs and ready to spend a day at Lira hospital training and educating the local junior doctors and nurses the importance of recognition and early management of deteriorating patients.
Although her home was in England she spent a lot of time abroad investing in the lives of young medical teams across Africa.
I immediately was intrigued by her and knew there was something special about this meeting.
She invited me to come along with her for the day so she could introduce me to one of the women who trained midwives and see whether they would mind if I took some photos.
I was ridiculously excited but I knew it could potentially be confronting to see where women gave birth and the conditions of the facilities and birth suites in a third world county. Yet I was really keen to meet the teams and midwives and of course the new mums.
Frankie gave me a set of scrubs and together we rode on the back of a motor bike to the hospital.
When we arrived I was introduced to the medical teams and they graciously allowed me to document the birthing suites and even the training of new junior midwives. I was in photography heaven! Everywhere you looked there was something to photograph, the colours, the people, the babies! I loved watching Frankie and her team swing into action educating and assisting the medical staff on systems and hygienic protocol.
The thing is, hospitals in Uganda are not like the hospitals in Australia. The hospital there were overcrowded and full of labouring mums on tiny beds or mats on the floor. The conditions weren’t great.
I found my myself wiping tears as I visited the young premature ward. The babies in the cots were so tiny, fragile and still that i found myself unable to process what was in front of me. I had given birth to my son at 30 weeks and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the health care I received in Australia. It was the only way my son would have survived.
One baby looked like they had been born at 24 weeks old and the generator to the hospital had just stopped working so this baby, who didn’t have a feeding tube or warm humidity crib just lied there, barely breathing. I was shaken to the core not knowing if the child would survive the day through.
Something stirred in me again that we must do something. The First Hello Project couldn’t just be about taking images of birth for families back home we needed to do something for these little lives and help them survive. It was in our power to help bring change and that's exactly what we did.
The First Hello already had an ongoing partnership with Love Mercy Foundation so when we got back to the hotel we started conversation around how The First Hello could help Love Mercy Foundation make a difference for women and babies in Northern Uganda.
They informed us that one of the biggest problems was that many women give birth at home or on the way to an over crowded hospital which causes the maternal and infant mortality rates in Uganda to be amongst the highest in the world.
So we decided in that moment that we would help be part of the solution.
So now when purchasing a package with The First Hello our clients had the opportunity to contribute to the construction of a much needed maternity ward in the Awake village alongside the Kristina Health Center in Northern Uganda.
Already we have seen countless babies lives delivered in a healthy, clean environment at the Kristina Health Centre and we couldn't be more excited.
The First Hello has committed to standing alongside @lovemercyfoundation to continue to see this project come to life and provide these mothers and babies with the best possible care.
For more info head to:
River and Bel XO
(Special thanks to Frankie for taking us on the journey.)