South Sudan: Delivering baby on the road at 2am just another day for midwife

Ever since civil war erupted there two years ago, she has seen many pregnant refugee women among her patients.

“There was a lady coming, and she delivered outside there,” Atong Jocep said, pointing to the wattle gate at the edge of the compound.

“It was night, so they called me. I ran to them and I helped her, and I brought her to the facility but she delivered outside. 

"She didn’t reach the facility, that was at 2am. She gave birth on the road, just here.” 

For refugee women who come seeking help, she is commonly their first and only medical contact during pregnancy.

She said:

There the services are poor because of this war.

However, she stresses they are “not frightened” and their focus is on keeping their baby safe. She has worked at the clinic with Concern Worldwide for almost three years with most of her clients being local women. 

They often arrive complaining of other illnesses also, including malaria.

Another clinic in the compound is battling a sudden cholera outbreak with 180 patients seen there between mid-February and March 12. Among them were three pregnant women.

“It is very dangerous for them, but they survived,” Atong Jocep said, praising the teamwork across the centre.

A former teacher, she doesn’t hesitate in spelling out why she works here, saying: “I want to help mothers.” 

However, she pays a high price. Her own three children live in the town of Aweil, at least two hours drive away over a packed-dirt road. She only sees them once a month.

A patient of Atong Jocep’s told how fear for her children drove her from war-torn Darfur in Sudan despite being pregnant.

Mother of two Atong Deng, 24, was already six months pregnant when she saw the midwife earlier this month for the first time.

“(I left) because of the war,” she said, speaking through a translator. “I feared my children can be harmed, so I left. We feel safe here, but we lived in fear there. You can be killed at anytime.” 

The young mother sat casually on the ground, stretched on a rug shaded by a large tree, saying: "My body is not feeling well, I have some little pains, that’s why I came (here)". 

She is originally from this area, but had been settled in Sudan with her husband for some years before civil war broke out.

“Now there is no food in Darfur,” she said. “We were waiting for help from the UN but it didn’t come, and that is why we left.” 

Now she is back living with her father, explaining there was not enough money to pay for her husband’s safe passage out as well as hers, their children and his other wife.

“We sold all our property so we can come to South Sudan,” she said. “We have nothing left.” 

Despite this, she said with a large smile: “We are safe here, it is better now.”

Maternal mortality rate

In Sudan even before this civil war the maternal mortality rate was 295 deaths per 100,000 live births. In South Sudan this stood at 1,150 per 100,000 live births, a United Nations Population Fund report said.

The same report found Ireland had five maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for comparison. 

Concern Worldwide said their clinics in Sudan are treating “acutely malnourished children, pregnant women and new mothers” now.

The health system is “on its knees” they warned, with up to 60% of the population unable to access services of any kind. 

About 70% of services are described as “dysfunctional”.