Saving the Lives of Mothers and Babies [Photos from the Field]

The Beja people live in northeast Sudan, near the border with Eritrea. Culturally, women are not allowed to be seen among men. They live in a separate women’s section in the village and are visited occasionally at night by their husbands.  Eritrean nurses employed by the International Rescue Committee provide health education for the Beja women teaching them good hygiene for home-based deliveries.  In the training, women also learn the danger signs that require referral for emergency obstetric care.  The IRC also works with the men to assure that the whole community is ready to mobilize to save the life of a woman experiencing a complicated delivery. Photo: Susan Purdin/The IRC  

Newborn baby, Kalma Internally Displaced Persons Camp, Darfur. The IRC runs the health clinic which is staffed by health workers who are themselves displaced from their home villages and residents of the camp. Photo: Susan Purdin/The IRC 

In Lofa County, Liberia, the IRC constructed temporary facilities to make basic obstetric services available to women in communities returning from displacement while war-ravaged clinics were being rehabilitated. Photo: Susan Purdin/The IRC 

Moms and babies in the basic health unit of Thal Refugee Camp, Hangu District, Pakistan. The refugees are from Afghanistan. IRC’s health program has reduced maternal death by half in the past 15 years. Photo: Susan Purdin/The IRC