Dying for children - motherhood in South Sudan

By Melany Markham, Emergency Communications Specialist, World Vision South Sudan

For most women, the birth of a child is a happy event, but for many women in South Sudan it can be life-threatening. In a region blighted by civil war, South Sudan has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world, with 26 in every thousand women dying either in childbirth or shortly thereafter.

With high levels of poverty and a largely rural population, receiving medical attention can be difficult for women in South Sudan. The high levels of malnutrition in the country also increase the danger for both mothers and children, and can lead to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

I recently visited a hospital in Warrap state where World Vision is in charge of the day to day running of the maternity ward. Irma is a South Sudanese woman who works on this ward. She has been a nurse for 40 years and says that, even though there are many things that are still lacking, things have improved. In the past, she says, “there was no medicine; there were no delivery rooms – just one theatre. Medical work was very limited.”

Nyankiir, 20, is so weak that she can barely sit up. She is seven months pregnant and has just been diagnosed with malaria and a blood infection. She is burning with a fever, and as she lies on the hospital bed, she sighs in relief when a nurse applies a cold compress to her forehead. Within minutes, a drip is attached and she is administered glucose and quinine. Beside her sits her mother who brought her to the hospital.

Thankfully, Nyankiir and her mother live close to the hospital, so when she fell ill it was just a short rickshaw ride to get help. It’s not the first time she has made the trip; she was two months pregnant the first time she contracted malaria. Not only is she lucky to be alive, but she is also thankful to receive medical attention before the malaria affects her unborn child. Malaria is a particular health risk for women in their first pregnancy as it can lead to anaemia and other complications during childbirth, as well as a low birth weight.

Another patient, 19-year-old Nyanut, sits on the edge of the bed next to the traditional birth attendant who brought her to the hospital. She had been in labour for almost a day when she fell unconscious. She was brought to hospital and now sits next to her tiny baby as the birth attendant holds him. She stares sadly and silently into the room when asked about her child. “My husband doesn’t care about me. It’s good to have children when a husband cares for you, but if you don’t have a caring husband there’s no point in having more children. He doesn’t bring food and he doesn’t pay attention when I am sick,” says Nyanut.

Although she and her child have survived the birth, Nyanut is facing a lifetime of difficulty. Both Nyakiir and Nyanut's stories are depressingly familiar in South Sudan. Their stories represent the plight of young women in this relatively new country, where both food and healthcare can be difficult to find. Barely old enough to have children themselves, both Nyakiir and Nyanut left school early and had few options to support themselves other than marriage.

World Vision has been working to provide better healthcare and nutrition as a way of tackling the high maternal mortality rate in South Sudan. But these aren’t easy solutions and will take significant time and resources to achieve. In the midst of a civil war, the needs of young mothers compete with food shortages and other needs of the population as a whole. This means that, as long as the war continues, mothers will continue to die needlessly.