On Sanctity of Life Day, we encourage you to adopt an unborn child in the CAR by regularly supporting the “Safe Mum” training project with a symbolic amount of 50 PLN for 9 months. This is the story of twins Lundi and Mardi, whose lives were saved by the “Safe Mum” project.
Madeline, a matron from the Aka Pygmy ethnic group, was preparing like everyone else for a journey deep into the rainforest to search for butterfly grubs. In every Pygmy hut, women and men were preparing to leave. Children were gathering leaves and termites to stock up on food. Madeline noticed one of her friends who was seven months pregnant. Forty-year-old Beatrice struggled to lift a very heavy basket, which she had strapped to her forehead.
Recounting this story, Madeline said she immediately noticed Beatrice's swollen legs and an unusually large belly for a seven-month-pregnant woman. Beatrice was sweating and it was apparent her stomach was hurting. To avoid causing panic, the matron helped Beatrice adjust her basket, lined up her children, took her one-year-old daughter on her shoulder, and walked right behind Beatrice.
That evening, when they reached their final resting place, the matron decided to talk to Beatrice. She had a measuring tape with her, which she used to measure the pregnant woman's belly. She also performed several tests to determine the baby's position, and she thought she felt more than one baby. Madeline gave her friend all the instructions for childbirth, and they decided that as soon as they returned from collecting butterfly grubs, they would go to a medical centre located in a town 20 kilometres from their home.
The medical centre doesn't have an ultrasound machine. The midwife working there could only manually check the baby's position using Leopold's manoeuvres, just like Madeline. She confirmed that the pregnancy was singleton and that Beatrice was in no danger, even though she was feeling increasingly unwell. For the first few days, Madeline didn't understand why the midwife at the centre didn't help Beatrice, even though her friend's condition was deteriorating. Beatrice began experiencing her first contractions, and since this was her fifth child, Madeline feared the woman would give birth on the way to the health centre – after all, it was a 20-kilometre journey, and there was no transportation in the village at the time, not even a motorbike.
Madeline came to Beatrice's hut, prepared warm water, gloves, and clean instruments, and when labour began, she delivered the correctly positioned baby. Fortunately, during the “Safe Mum” training, she learned that due to the lack of equipment and tools, the Matron must check for a second baby during delivery. And so it was. Immediately after the girl, her brother was born. The boy was in a breech position, but Madeline enjoyed doing the exercises for incorrect baby positioning the most during the training and delivered a breech delivery without any problems.
Beatrice was losing a lot of blood, so Madeline tied a scarf around her stomach and, with the help of a local missionary, took her to a medical centre. The midwife, who saw that Beatrice had given birth to twins, praised Madeline for her response and knowledge. The twins were named Lundi and Mardi, meaning Monday and Tuesday.
After a few weeks of working at a missionary hospital in the CAR, I heard that helping the smallest of our brothers in the heart of Africa is actually helping ourselves. You never know what this little person will become – maybe one day he will invent a cancer vaccine, become a bishop, or just be a good person.
The people in this letter are very dear to me because I've experienced their concerns and problems in real life. I know that it's impossible to help the whole world, but for me, the life of this one child, who lives thanks to “Safe Mum”, is my whole world. Thank you for not passing by this little one indifferently.
Izabela Cywa
koordynator projektu Bezpieczna Mama
