Mother and newborn baby in Freetown
Today I finished the Marie Stopes 2012 calendar by photographing at their obstetrics centre in Freetown. I photographed the doctors and nurses in the labour room and – much quieter – some mothers with their new, sleeping babies.
The number of women dying during childbirth in Sierra Leone is among the highest in the world. Not all hospitals have emergency obstetric facilities, meaning many women do not have access to emergency services when they need them.
Because of the services Marie Stopes provides in Sierra Leone, the organisation is known as ‘Di mami fo welbodi’ which is Krio for ‘The mother of health’.
