“Hagove (my village name), our lives have
changed since you taught the women to deliver
babies. Before, almost everyone’s house in the
village had one or two small graves beside it.
Now the grass is growing up around all the
houses, because the babies are living”.
“That’s great, Kipa”, I responded with a
pleased smile. In my thoughts, I wondered
what a more objective analysis would show.
In 1994, prior to starting the village birth
attendant (VBA) program, we had some
community health worker students doing
practical training with our health service. As
part of their training, they accompanied us on
an immunization patrol. In the Guasa area, I
gave them an assignment to ask every mother
two questions: “How many times have you
been pregnant?” and “How many living
children do you have?” 64 village women had
a total of 317 pregnancies; 209 children were
living and 108 had died (total mortality 34%).
Almost all the women had lost between 1 and 4
children.