Woman Delivers Outside Louisiana Clinic By: John Dennis Weah weahdennis2006@gmail.com

On Thursday night, February 6, a midwife in her 90’s delivered a pregnant woman who gave birth to twin-girls on the floors outside of the Maternal Child Health Center at the only government-run clinic in Louisiana Township, after several hours of intense labor pain. She was rushed into the clinic in labor by her family members, a place where the family claimed she has been attending medical treatment during pregnancy.  They were shocked to see that nurses and midwives were nowhere to be found around the facility. The relatives of the lady also said they moved in when the early signs of labor pain began but regrettably languished throughout the night without assistance from the clinic.  Efforts made on phone calls were unsuccessful to get any of the assigned health practitioners including the Officer-in-Charge. “I risked my life because I wanted to save live. I followed the husband of the pregnant woman and his mother-in-law to the clinic site. When we arrived, the babies were crying whilst their mother was helpless striving for survival. I was compared to do it all by myself; working on the newborn babies and the mother at once. By the grace of God with the knowledge and skills I have, I was able to give safe delivery before daybreak,” Ma Annie Siafa said.  The midwife in her 90’s noted that she started practicing traditional midwifery at the age of 15. The Certified Trained Traditional Midwife (TTM) also said in an interview that she got formal trainings including one from MERLIN an international medical organization to provide professional assistance in midwifery during the time of the United Nations Missions to Liberia (UNMIL). “I was in bed at midnight when family members of the pregnant woman came in search of me crying and knocking at my door for help. I asked what was happening and the mother of the pregnant woman said they ran about the whole night and her daughter was in delivery pain with no help from the clinic. Nobody is at the clinic to turn to me and my daughter is helplessly lying outside the clinic and I need your help. I was not feeling safe to get outside my house midnight but I had to do it because of human feelings…Women can always be in strong pain to give birth in the night time but you cannot find anyone at the clinic to deliver them and they will end up running  to me sometimes. Each time they come running to me at night I will tell them to go to the clinic and while on their way they will deliver the child on the roadside. We have been informed by health authorities at the clinic that whenever the big belly women come to us we should direct them to the clinic. But when they go to the clinic mainly at night they can’t see anybody at the clinic the place can be closed and dark. I am not working with the clinic but the people can always embarrassed me. I am here for saving lives; I want to let the government to know that we have midwives here that supposed to be working at the clinic. They need to get us on board so that we will be able to work along with one or two nurses during night hours to save lives. Mr. Jackson who works at the clinic knows me well because when his wife passed away he was traumatized and could not work. I remembered he sent a big belly woman to me and I delivered her safely.” The only government referral health center in Louisiana operates in the day and shuts down at night. The lack of electricity at the clinic has caused the desertion of health workers to stay at the clinic during night hours thereby leaving dwellers of the township at risk and insecure in emergency health response situations. Residents claimed that similar incidents of poor access to maternal health caregivers during nighttime at the clinic is a recurrence of happenings on many occasions that make them vulnerable when there are critical health issues after the hours. In an effort to reach authorities at the facility on another issue of maternal health quiet recently, the paper was informed by a credible source of the clinic staff that they have an instruction from the Ministry of Health that health workers are not allowed and should not grant interviews to the press about issues that occurred at medical facilities without permission. Other residents who spoke on anonymity are skeptical as to why the clinic in Louisiana is lacked of current when the Liberia Electricity Corporation is supplying electricity to essential parts of the township. One pioneer of the area who also speculates on the matter questions the health package deliverables of the government of Liberia on the lives of people in Montserrado County.  David Kollie, the father of the twin babies mentioned that his wife was taking treatment at the clinic during pregnancy. He decided to take her to the same clinic but to his surprise the whole place was dark and locked up. “We got afraid because there was no one at the facility when we arrived there and decided to leave the place and thinking where else we could go. The woman was in a critical condition and we left the clinic but while walking we met a man who was either going to fish or hunt. He helped us a lot, brought us back to the clinic yard where we opened the gate because it was not locked. We put my wife on the floor lying and he took me to find ma Annie in Bassa Town around the New Hope Community.  When we knocked at ma Annie’s door she answered and we explained the problem.  She was not willing to go with us because she said it was a hospital case.  She even complained that the OIC of the clinic placed a fine on her once because she carried-out a delivery under an emergency… I had to go back and get my mother-in-law who came crying and begging the old lady to please help her save lives. It’s because of her my wife and our two beautiful babies are alive today. Let the government do something quick to see about the clinic business because people will die at night when there are no nurses and midwives on duty at the clinic.”