Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Optimistic
Voices, a child's view, where
we share incredible stories ofresilience and hope through the
eyes of children.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm Natalie Turner
and this is my co-host, melody
Curtis.
I'm Natalie Turner and this ismy co-host, melody Curtis.
Together, we'll talk about realkids who face tough challenges,
even during birth, and theamazing people who helps them
find a brighter future.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Each episode features
a special guest who'll take us
on a journey, one filled withadversity, compassion and hope,
and today's story is especiallyinspiring.
Imagine, if you will, a tinylife hanging in the balance, a
(01:04):
newborn struggling to breathe,in a clinic stretched to its
breaking point.
Our latest episode takes youinside a critical birth, where
an overworked midwife, facinglife or death situations,
realizes the profound impact ofskills training.
Hear how one baby's fight forsurvival became a powerful
(01:27):
testament to the life-savingpotential of maternal health
education, and why a singletraining session could transform
an entire community.
So let's welcome today's guest,yasmin Vaughn.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Thanks for having me.
It's nice being on this side ofthe microphone.
Before we dive in tell us alittle bit about yourself and
your connection to Joseph.
Yeah, so for those of you whoare not longtime listeners to
the podcast, I'm Yasmin Vaughn.
I'm the Technical Advisor forGlobal Health and Missions at
Helping Children Worldwide.
Part of my work in globalhealth is being the project
(02:07):
manager for our maternal healthmission.
If you're not familiar with ourmaternal health missions, I'd
encourage you to listen to someof our other podcast episodes
about that.
I believe we just re-shared one, but the mission is a
collaboration between members ofthe Together for Global Health
Network to improve the maternaland child mortality rates in
(02:28):
Sierra Leone through thetraining of midwives.
So the story I'm going to sharetoday is about a child named
Joseph who was born in a ruralclinic in Sierra Leone and how
his birth story not onlytransformed his life, of course,
but created change in hiscommunity.
And also just FYI, the namesand details in this story have
been changed to protect theprivacy of the patients.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So, Yasmin, let's
begin with the child's story.
What was happening when youfirst met baby Joseph?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So I'll begin with
how his story began.
Really story began really.
Joseph was born on January 18thof last year, 2024, to his
mother, nancy, in a smallcommunity clinic in Jerahoon
(03:18):
Village.
Jerahoon Village is arelatively large community area,
not just encompassing thevillage but also the catchment
areas of other communities, andit's located on the road between
Bow and Kenema, which is theBow-Kenema Highway is a large
highway between the two cities.
Joseph's birth was a reallycomplicated situation, due both
to his individual circumstancesand systems factors.
(03:40):
On a systems level, despitethis clinic, you know, having
significant access because ofthe highway, it was still really
difficult for people in thecommunity and surrounding
villages to access health careservices for advanced care, as
the clinic itself did not have aworking ambulance or a driver
to refer clinical patients.
They also really struggled withobtaining the supplies they
(04:02):
needed to support deliveries.
The midwife who deliveredJoseph was named Hawa Zoker.
They also really struggled withobtaining the supplies they
needed to support deliveries.
The midwife who deliveredJoseph was named Hawa Zoker.
Hawa was the only midwife onstaff that day, as the other
midwife who was stationed in theclinic had been on leave for
about three months and couldn'tbe contacted or located.
So this meant that Hawa hadeither been on call or working
(04:24):
at the clinic 24-7 for the lastthree months.
So she was incredibly burnedout and in serious need of
support.
So that's kind of the system'soverview of where Joseph came
into the world.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Wow, that sounds like
an incredibly dangerous
situation.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah, on the level of
the clinic, there were five
deliveries that were happeningthere that day.
A woman had just deliveredabout an hour ago and now Nancy
was delivering Joseph.
After Joseph was born, nancystarted to hemorrhage, she was
bleeding more than is normal andJoseph himself was born and was
(05:03):
not breathing.
And then, on top of that, therewas another 19-year-old girl
named Esther who was in labor,but her labor wasn't progressing
normally and because she wasyoung and tired out, she was
really starting to wear thin andneeded some support with
progressing in her labor.
So Hala, the midwife, was reallyoverwhelmed in this situation.
(05:24):
There are a lot of things goingon, and being alone in the
clinic meant that she needed tomanage each of these situations
effectively and draw upontraining that she'd had
previously and to have theknowledge and the confidence to
save 10 patients you know, thefive mothers and the five
newborns and this is a difficultsituation for any midwife to
(05:47):
handle.
If there are any medicalprofessionals listening now, I'm
sure that they are deeplyshocked at one midwife trying to
handle five deliveries at atime almost.
But Hawa was stressed andoverwhelmed from her nearly
constant work and she reallydidn't have the foundation of
knowledge and confidence tohandle these circumstances.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
That's very difficult
for one midwife to handle alone
and having so many mothers totake that need care with limited
resources available.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, that's kind of
scary just to even think about,
but I think this is where thestory started to turn around.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I think help arrived
Is that right, in a miraculous
turn of events, these nurseswere traveling with an
organization called EmbraceInternational.
They'd been invited to be apart of this training as
trainers by the HealyInternational Relief Foundation,
(06:53):
and so they were going to be apart of the training that was
happening in Bow the next week.
So we were going to train about100 midwives on two particular
curricula actually HelpingBabies Breathe, which is an
infant resuscitation curriculum,and managing postpartum
hemorrhage, the two things thatwere happening in this case.
We wanted to make sure thatthese international trainers had
(07:16):
some on-the-ground experienceto observe local practices, how
deliveries were done in clinics,and so I had been a part of a
visit to that clinic earlier inthe morning to see if there were
any deliveries they couldobserve.
And we also asked Hawa at thattime if she was planning on
attending this maternal andchild health training, and that
morning Hawa was really not sureif she was going to be able to
(07:39):
come.
She was really overwhelmed, ofcourse, and really didn't at
that time see the value that thetraining could bring to her
work.
So, as Hawa is managing Nancyand Joseph's situation, as she's
helping Esther, trying tofigure out what she's going to
do next, these nurses fromCanada arrived and they saw that
there was a need for immediateintervention, that this was all
(08:02):
timely things that needed tohappen right then, and so they
jumped into action.
They resuscitated Joseph untilhe was breathing on his own.
They started implementing theprotocols for stopping bleeding
for his mother, nancy, the19-year-old mother.
They decided needed an IV andthere were fluids at the clinic,
(08:24):
but there weren't any IV kitsto put in the IV to administer
the fluids.
Thankfully, the Canadians hadsome of those kits in their car.
They were planning to donatethem to a facility anyways, so
they were able to get an IVstarted.
Despite these interventions,nancy continued to bleed.
Esther was still notprogressing in her labor.
(08:46):
So they worked together withHawa and made the decision to
call the government hospital inBow and all of them were
transferred to the hospital.
And they actually had to usethe vehicle that the Canadians
were in to be able to do thistransfer, because neither of
those families had arranged forthere to be a vehicle in case of
(09:07):
emergencies.
So everything worked out wellin terms of getting them
transferred and all of that.
But without the interventionand support it's more than
likely that one or all of themwould have died.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So, when all of this
was happening, where were you,
yasmin?
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I was not at the
clinic during these events,
which is probably a good thing.
I'm a little more squeamishthan I like to admit to a lot of
people.
I was at the missionarytraining center waiting for this
team to finish doing theirshadowing.
They were supposed to havelunch with us after that, and
then lunch turned into dinnerand they hadn't shown up, and so
I was texting with them to seewhere they were, and after
(09:50):
things had quieted down a littlebit, they were able to share a
little bit of the story with me.
And then the next day wevisited Bow Government Hospital
to do some shadowing there andwere able to do a follow-up
visit with the patients.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Did you get to?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
see the baby Joseph.
I did, I did.
I got to see him and his mother.
Joseph was a handsome term baby.
Seemed to be doing super well.
His mom looked a little tiredbut she was all smiles when she
saw the Canadians walk in.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I feel like we ought
to have some kind of a trumpet
fanfare for the Canadianswalking in, so let's just take a
moment to celebrate thesepeople who made such a
difference here.
I wish I knew the CanadianNational Anthem.
I would play it for them rightnow.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So what happened
after that?
Was Joseph okay and did Habaattend the training?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah.
So Joseph and Nancy werecontinued to be followed up with
at the government hospital.
The Canadian nurses were ableto text with Hawa and with the
Bo government team and check into make sure they were
recovering well.
Nancy, of course, wasincredibly thankful that Joseph
was alive and that the nurseshad saved her life as well.
Nancy, of course, wasincredibly thankful that Joseph
was alive and that the nurseshad saved her life as well.
(11:34):
Esther, the 19-year-old mother,actually delivered her baby in
the vehicle on the way to Bow,which was quite a shock for the
driver, who I don't think hadever been a part of any sort of
medical intervention like that.
But they were at the hospitaland they were doing well too.
The experience really actuallyhad a profound impact on Hawa's
(11:56):
life.
She was really inspired by thequick action and the expertise
that those Canadian nursesbrought, and so she decided to
attend our maternal healthtraining.
She worked super hard, shediligently honed her
resuscitation, her hemorrhagemanagement skills, and she not
only was certified in being ableto perform those interventions,
(12:19):
but we asked her to be apractice coordinator, and
practice coordinators are peoplewho are responsible for sharing
their knowledge with othermidwives at their facility and
at other clinics.
So after the week of trainingthat she did with us, she began
conducting training at theclinic to equip other midwives
in her area with the skillsneeded to handle similar
(12:42):
emergencies.
And then, as a result of herreally good results with that,
we invited her to attend uh theconference we did this January
in Kenema so that we couldobserve her teaching uh, see how
she's uh delivering thetraining to other people and her
skills with training uh, andsee if she could receive
qualification as a risingtrainer.
(13:04):
Um, so it was.
It was such a uh a reallytangible way to see how, um the
work that we were doing oftraining midwives could have
such an impact on uh lives beingsaved in Sierra Leone.
Uh.
But I know some of you werelistening and thinking.
You know, amidst all thechallenges in this story, why
(13:26):
are we prioritizing training?
I mean, it's clear that sheneeded support.
There needed to be othermidwives there to help her.
The clinic didn't have theresources like the IVs and the
ambulances, and so, while it'sclear that these are challenges
that need to be addressed, ourfocus stems from a reality in
Sierra Leone that successfulclinics are the ones who
(13:47):
actually attract more support.
So we're hoping that byempowering midwives with the
skills to handle these complexsituations, the Ministry of
Health and Sanitation and otherpartners will recognize their
capability and increase thesupport of these clinics to
foster this cycle of improvement, so that you know they're
(14:08):
demonstrating success andreceiving resources to succeed
even further.
The situation is still notperfect, but joseph's birth
story resulted in hawa beingable to be better prepared to
handle difficult situations andto help other midwives do the
same.
So while her training and hertraining others is only a
(14:31):
fraction of the healthcare needs, her commitment to sharing
these skills does have a rippleeffect of improved care, and so
we're hoping it'll attractattention to strengthen the
maternal health system acrossthe how the impact of people
coming together and agreeing tocollaborate on something can
(14:54):
just show up as a miracle in onechild's life.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Speaking of miracles
and things that make you think,
what's a note of optimism you'dlike to share with our listeners
to take away from this story?
Yasmin, Now's your opportunityto answer the question you ask
of your guests.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I guess I just want
to share that.
I'm really glad that we'redoing these episodes of A
Child's Voice and highlightingthe individual stories of people
whose lives are being changedby our work.
I do also all of our datamonitoring and evaluation and it
can be really easy for me toget caught up in the statistics
or to become really discouragedwhen there are still systematic
(15:33):
problems like the oneshighlighted in this story.
But by sharing stories likeJoseph's I'm reminded of the
impact that we're able to makeand the amazing results that it
can have.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Not only Joseph's
story, but Hawa's story as well,
is that the knowledge anddedication of others has the
ability to save this newbornchild as well as improve the
safety and resources of acommunity.
It really shows that it's nevertoo late to learn or become
involved, wherever you may be,as it just may have a great
(16:11):
impact on others and others.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
We hope today's story
has inspired our listeners to
look around and think about howthey can be a part of someone's
journey, whether it's throughkindness or volunteering or
simply listening.
Small actions can make a bigdifference, and showing up at
the right time requires you toshow up, so if you're choosing
(16:36):
to show up, you may be there atthe exact right moment to make a
big difference.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Thank you, yasmin,
for sharing this incredible
story, and thank you, listeners,for joining us today on
Optimistic Voices A Child's View.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, thank you guys
for having me.
I'm really thankful to be apart of this team and thankful
for all of those in this storyfor the incredible work that
they did.
So, if you're listening, weappreciate you and the impact
that you've made.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
If you enjoyed this
episode, don't forget to
subscribe, share it with friendsand leave a review.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Until next time,
remember there's always hope and
every voice matters.
Bye for now.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Bye Natalie, Bye
Yasmin, Thank you.