Information recently arrived from a new maternity facility that we built at a rural Malawi hospital. This is in a greatly under-served part of the country's western central region.

Here is a partial list of what happened there:
 

March April May Total Deliveries by skilled health workers: 74 67 67 208 Full-term births: 68 61 61 190 Pre-term babies (< 5.5 lbs) 6 6 6 18 Obstructed Labor 1 1 3 5 Hemorrhage 4 4 2 10 Obstetric complications treated 0 0 8 8 Neonatal deaths 0 1 1 2

The numbers suggest that at least some Malawi women may be moving toward the same level of confidence as U.S. women that they and their children will survive labor and delivery. In a country with a high maternal death rate, this would be significant.

The project results from the dedication of one U.S. woman to raise the necessary funds. She is not the kind to make peace with indifference, escape, or paralysis. The familiar phrase is that the heroes of our time are ordinary people of extraordinary commitment. It's true. And there is a hero inside each of us, struggling to emerge if we will let her.

William Rankin
 

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