Caring for Pregnant Mothers

Through the Mama 2 Mama program, our health care staff and the ultrasound equipment have saved at least six lives.

Our Mama 2 Mama Program focuses on caring for pregnant mothers in rural West Sumba. This program adds lifesaving services at clinic and village levels.

The government does employ local midwives in our area, but their tools are limited, which is why our Mama 2 Mama program is so important.

In 2014, we purchased two portable ultrasound units with the assistance of generous support from guests staying at the Nihi Sumba Resort. These ultrasounds identify potential issues in the pregnancies, and when the pregnancies are going well, they of course reassure the expecting mothers.

In June 2017, we sent three staff members to receive further midwife training at Bumi Sehat in Ubud, Bali, the regions premiere midwife educational center. They took a week-long course to retrain and further their education in USG scanning, prenatal care, and labor and delivery.

By the end of 2017, we screened a total of 226 expecting mothers. For the majority, there were no issues.

However, in one of our general screenings at the Lamboya clinic, a nurse identified a woman from a remote village in Gaura with placenta previa. This is a potentially life-threatening condition for both mother and child where the placenta blocks the cervix, severely complicating normal delivery. With this information, we referred the woman for caesarian delivery at the district hospital in Waikabubak. This saved the woman’s life, but sadly the baby had other complications and her life could not be saved.

We also identified a woman with triplets in her womb, and we scheduled her caesarian section in Waikabubak so the mother and children would survive.

Through the Mama 2 Mama program, our health care staff and the ultrasound equipment have saved at least six human lives.

This program will continue to expand to work more closely with the local midwives and in remote villages to reach as many pregnant women as possible. We plan to provide them monthly consultations and USG screening, ensuring the health of their babies, safeguarding the mothers’ health, and providing essential prenatal vitamins.