Help women in Liberia have safe delivery
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“Imagine if a pregnant woman comes to a hospital to give birth and is turned away because she doesn't have a bag of supplies that includes diapers, a baby hat and bleach.
That's the reality in Liberia, a country where nearly half the population lives below the international poverty line and the annual per capita income is $673.
The bag of supplies, which also must include menstrual pads, a onesie and a baby carrier, costs about $100.
Even as Liberia encourages hospital deliveries to lower the nation's newborn and maternal death rates, the policy has the opposite impact.
Liberia has one of the highest rates of deaths for newborns in the world: , according to UNICEF: 58 in 1,000 births. And the maternal mortality rate from the last country health survey was 742 per 100,000 births — more than 50 times the rate in the United States.
The problem isn't just the rule about supplies. By the end of the civil war in 2003, many of the spaces to give birth safely were destroyed — only 51 of the nation's 293 health facilities remained — and, by the end of the Ebola outbreak in 2015, 8% of the country's doctors, nurses, and midwives had died.
But the supply rule is definitely a factor. "Many women don't have the money to buy this stuff," says Viola Makor, the resident midwife at the Links Maternal Waiting Home and the reproductive health supervisor for the Suakoko district in Bong County. "When they don't have those materials, they don't come to the hospital." Why they have to bring their own supplies The reason for the supply requirement is simple: Public hospitals are strapped. "It's been like that since I was a kid," says Yassah Lavelah, a nurse from Monrovia who is now 36. She says it is impossible to pin down exactly when hospitals began asking for the supplies. "This is a standard of operation for [public] hospitals in Liberia," she says, even though in theory they are free of charge. But now Lavelah has come up with a small-scale solution. In May 2021, she created the Comfort Closet in the Links Home – a place where women from remote parts of the country can come and stay as their delivery date approaches so they are close to a hospital or clinic. Lavelah buys in bulk to get a discount. She estimates that she only has to spend about $160 to fill 25 bags of supplies – that's how many she'll typically give away in a month.
But the supply rule is definitely a factor. "Many women don't have the money to buy this stuff," says Viola Makor, the resident midwife at the Links Maternal Waiting Home and the reproductive health supervisor for the Suakoko district in Bong County. "When they don't have those materials, they don't come to the hospital." Why they have to bring their own supplies The reason for the supply requirement is simple: Public hospitals are strapped. "It's been like that since I was a kid," says Yassah Lavelah, a nurse from Monrovia who is now 36. She says it is impossible to pin down exactly when hospitals began asking for the supplies. "This is a standard of operation for [public] hospitals in Liberia," she says, even though in theory they are free of charge. But now Lavelah has come up with a small-scale solution. In May 2021, she created the Comfort Closet in the Links Home – a place where women from remote parts of the country can come and stay as their delivery date approaches so they are close to a hospital or clinic. Lavelah buys in bulk to get a discount. She estimates that she only has to spend about $160 to fill 25 bags of supplies – that's how many she'll typically give away in a month.
Organizer
Yassah Lavelah
Organizer
Prospect Park, PA
