VSI on FacebookVSI on TwitterVSI News feedVSI on YouTube
 
Home » Get Involved » Field Journal » Steps and leaps

Steps and leaps

2011 was a great year for VSI, a great year for women, and a great year for me personally.

VSI wrapped up research projects introducing life-saving misoprostol tablets in five countries, and in that process I had the opportunity to meet women and providers benefitting from our efforts in villages and towns throughout Africa — women and providers whose stories I’ve shared over and over with colleagues, friends and family who rely on me to bring Africa to life with the voices and photos of the heroes I’ve met there.

I met Maria, an elementary nurse in Mozambique, who told me in a calm voice with pain in her eyes about her own daughter’s unsafe abortion, and how she desperately wished she’d had misoprostol tablets to give her so she didn’t have to suffer. She showed me the strength of health workers at the margins of the health care system, where she’s seen more pain than most of us can imagine — attending the funerals of teenage girls she’s known since infancy who resorted to dangerous tools in the wake of an unwanted pregnancy.

Tsehay - EthiopiaI met Patrick , a midwife in Kenya, who moved his clinic to a remote village to be closer to the mothers who need his care when they face emergencies in labor in the middle of the night. He attested to the power of “miso” tablets now that he is rarely awoken by calls from the scared husbands and sisters of hemorrhaging mothers.

I met Tsehay, a health extension worker in Ethiopia, who lit up when I asked her to tell me about her job providing reproductive health care to women in the hilly rural villages of Tigray region. She told me she most enjoyed having the skills and medicine to provide comprehensive abortion care because women arrive at her health post in such a desperate state and she can relieve their pain and fear with a simple treatment. She offered me a window into the very real crisis of unsafe abortion in much of the developing world.

Zamna - TanzaniaI met Zamna in Tanzania who stoically shared her story of multiple complicated deliveries and babies’ deaths, and then let out a relieved smile when detailing the arrival of the healthy baby boy sitting on her lap. She implored me to convince the government to continue to provide misoprostol tablets to mothers like her, mothers who bear a great burden each and every time they become pregnant, not least of which is knowing that they may not survive to hold their newborns.

This year, Nigeria made history by approving use of misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage at the community level. This means women like Safiya and Hauwa who thanked me for misoprostol in 2010, who asked that I help to keep misoprostol available in their village, now have a policy supporting its use and long-term availability. I feared it would be an empty promise that we could keep sending hope in tablet form, and I am thrilled to know that I didn’t let them down.

Emma in Nigeria

The World Health Organization (WHO) made a momentous decision in 2011. I will never forget when I found out that misoprostol was now included in the WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. I was in Ethiopia, a country with one of highest rates of maternal death globally where over 90% of mothers deliver their babies at home, far away from care should they experience any complication. As I met mothers and health workers in Tigray that week, I couldn’t help but to think about how many lives could be saved by this decision. I was beaming with pride in the work that VSI does, building upon the evidence base, advocating at the local and global levels, and bringing partners together towards a greater good.

Between trips, field visits and policy meetings, I managed to plan my own wedding this year. This personal milestone of course gave me a chance to reflect on how deeply grateful I am for loving family, friends, colleagues, and for the choices I have been privileged to make in my life around marriage, childbearing and my career. 2011 was a year of small steps and big leaps. It was a year of momentous occasions at work and home, and yet, the simple conversations I had with courageous women who have survived and beaten the odds and providers who have borne hardships to ensure women have what they need are what sustain and motivate me to head into 2012 a little more grown up and centered.