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Janet Coleman is a nurse/midwife from New Zealand.
Here she talks about her first mission with Médecins Sans
Frontières in Akuem, South Sudan.
Adek Sol* was diagnosed with a twin pregnancy. This would
be her 8th and 9th babies. She had walked for 2 days to be
seen at the MSF Antenatal clinic.
Whenever we knew someone
was having twins we always tried to persuade them to stay until
they had been safely delivered. Adek was very large for her
dates and obviously had polyhydramnios.
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© Janet Coleman |
I was concerned for
her for a number of reasons, the main ones being postpartum haemorrhage
and the second twin becoming obstructed. There were no surgical
facilities and any high risk women we transferred to Loki in Kenya.
Adek
refused to go. She said she would rather prefer to ‘take
her chance with us’.
Two healthy babies delivered
weighing over 3000gms each and Adek recovered well. Twins
were always a reason to celebrate whether or not each one survived. Two
goats were bought and tied up with some sorghum on a woven grass
plate. Sometimes there were many goats.
*name changed
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