Bev is a Board Member of Midwife Vision Global Ltd and is like liquid gold. She coordinates, creates and organizes training, resources, IT support, website development and more. She also a cracker photographer and this 2018 October trip she volunteered her time in resource, compliance, administration AND photographer.

Chase (Jan’s daughter) also a Registered Nurse and a Midwife usually takes photos on a polaroid camera of babies that have died to give to the mothers with a poem in Kiswahili and foot/hand prints so that the mothers can remember them. This trip the polaroid camera failed and Bev came to the rescue taking some stunning pictures.

Many knitters wonder what happens to the white knitted garments and we tell them it goes to the special little baby angels that have died. Here is one such angel.

Sister Annette or Sister Netty first volunteered in Tanzania in 2017 and helping refurbish the labour ward, cleaning toilets, putting together equipment, sweeping floors and handing out free hugs to Mamas and babies. She decided she wanted to come back and do more. Without a formal medical qualification, she cannot work in the medical areas of the hospital so at a ripe age of 77-something she went out a got all straight A+’s for her nurse’s assistance course in New Zealand. She was an invaluable part of the team and hopes to return again in the future.

I first visited Tanzania in 2017 with the Midwife Vision team of helpers. I helped to clear out, scrub, and disinfect a disused operating theatre so that it could once again be used. Despite the mosquitoes and the heat, I enjoyed the experience, and I loved being involved in such a dedicated team. However, I knew I wanted to be more involved with the mammas and the babies if I came back again. So, I enrolled in an online Nurses and Patient Assistant course, and gained a certificate which allowed me to work in the labour ward, working alongside the dedicated midwives, helping and supporting them. I also downloaded a learn Swahili app and I set about learning as many words as I could.

While I carried on with my small tasks, the midwives dealt with each and every birth with such calm and kindness, murmuring encouragement and comforting words, administering pain relief, and ensuring each mamma was as comfortable as she could be. It was so rewarding for me to rub a mamma’s back, to stand and hold a mamma’s hand and comfort her as she endured the pain of child birth.

Even more rewarding was to rub dry a new born baby and hear its first cry, to weigh it, and to dress it in the beautiful knitwear, and wrap it in a blanket donated by the many, many caring knitters from Australia and New Zealand. It was heart-warming to see the look of delight on a mamma’s face when she was shown her new baby dressed in these lovely outfits. If you just knew how much this knitting is appreciated by the mammas. So, keep knitting all of those wonderful people. I was particularly moved when an exhausted mamma, after giving birth, grabbed my hands and kissed them again and again, saying Asante sana, Asante sana (thank you very much, thank you very much). All I did was rub her back and hold her hand as she suffered each contraction.

In the second week I became more involved in recording data on the babies’ and mothers’ records, learning where to write the medication administered, blood pressure and temperature readings. I particularly remember one situation when one mamma gave birth to a healthy baby, but in doing so, ruptured her cervix. Her bed soon became surrounded by doctors, midwives and nurses as the mamma’s condition became a concern. As a senior midwife called out mediation administered, blood pressure and pulse readings, I recorded this vital information on the mother’s chart. When the blood pressure became worryingly low, I found myself there right beside this mamma, standing in blood, watching up close the doctor working furiously to stitch everything back in place, I squeezed the blood bag as hard as I could to get the vital blood into this mamma as fast as could be. Thanks to those skillful and caring doctors and midwives that mamma’s life was saved.

Outside Looking In, by Chad Henney

My name is Chad and I’m a film maker and TV producer who has had the privilege of filming the work of Midwife Vision in Tanzania on this past October as well as their last trip in July.

I first met the Becker’s back in 2016 far far away on the Mongolian steppe when I was filming the Mongol Derby, an endurance horse race over 1000km, which Mike and Chase were racing in and with Jan cheering from the sidelines. It is way back then when Jan floated the idea that they would like to film their work in Tanzania. After almost two years of back and forth and dates clashing our Mongolian conversation finally came to fruition and I was off to Tanzania and Africa for the first time.

Jan and Chase always say they are here for the one and I got to see this put into action. I filmed the first ever ‘Helping Babies Breath/Helping Babies Survive’ training days in the brand-new Midwife Vision Clinic and then I got tell both Jan and Chase as well as the local midwives put this training into action in the labour ward. It was incredible to witness how something that seems so simple is so effective. A bag and mask, or “baggy and masky” as the locals call it, to help the baby breath and compressions if needed. My most favorite moments were when the baby would take that first big breath and cry.  I also got to film Annette, or Sister Netty as they called her looked after the baby bench where they would monitor the babies, weigh and dress them in the beautiful knitted beanies, jackets, booties and bags that the local mothers very much appreciated.

I had heard so many stories of labour ward from Jan and Chase and it was so lovely to see them put their skills to work. I was impressed by both Jan and Chase’s impeccable clinical skills but it was the love and kindness they show to the mothers that was the real spectacle. I’m so grateful to be involved with Midwife Vision and it really is an honour to be entrusted with telling their story through film.

There is still much work to be done with both Midwife Vision and the filming and editing process, but I look forward to sharing our hard work with you all in due time.

Cheers,

Chad

We were fortunate enough to meet our Film-Guru Chad in Mongolia in 2015 and he has been not only patient (Hakuna Mata Tanzanian Moto for “No Worries!”) in getting the film permission but with Midwife Vision (Jan and the rest of the team) as we align schedules and put our ducks in a row. It was worth the wait and we are confident that he has and will capture incredible footage telling the true story of what it is to be a mother giving birth in Sub-Saharan Africa: from the perspective of mothers, midwives, Midwife Vision and others. He was an invaluable addition to the team and one we hope can return for other trips.

Filming Permission

Our team has been working hard since last year (2017) to get film permission to film in Tanzania, Amana Hospital from the Ministry of Health.  Finally, we had success, and Chad joined the team in October 2018 to film.  Lots of care was taken to protect the rights and interests of the mothers and their babies, with Chad accompanied at all times by a Ministry of Health Representative, and getting permission slips signed by both staff and mothers.

New Midwife Vision Clinic

In November 2017 we were able to refurbish the building that was previously used by mothers whose babies were kept in the neonatal unit. These mothers slept in this collapsing building with broken cots, mosquito nets but no water, no electricity, and no comfort but visits from families and each other.

Instead of demolishing the building Midwife Vision came to an agreement with the Hospital and were able to re-purpose the building for training: A Midwife Vision Academy, specializing in the Helping Babies Breathe program (how to resuscitate babies that do not breathe at birth).

Our Mamas in the old building before the refurbishment grabbing a beanie for their babies from a box of knitted beanies from New Zealand and Australian Knitters!! “Asante Bibi!” (Thanks Grandmother!).

With the hard work of volunteer German Builder (from New Zealand) Phillip Ripa this building went from housing our mamas, the helping them through education of midwives.

We are so exited to show you the knitting and medical equipment that is now on its way to Amana Hospital in Tanzania, along with the Midwife Vision team.

Knitted donations, as well as medical equipment have been packed up and sent to Tanzania.

Medical Equipment Donated

• 10 x baby costs for post-Caesarian section – so babies are safe.
• New observation machines – BP oxygen saturation and temperature for main operating theatre where booked caesarians are carried out.
• Two new suction machines for theatre.
• 10 x wheel chairs for theatre and maternity wards.

Medicines Donated

• Misoprostel to stop mothers bleeding after delivery as an emergency
• Oxytocin for active management of third stage of labour (AMSTL)
• Panadol
• Panadiene
• Antibiotics
• Lignocaine for perineal repairs
• Magnesium sulphase for mothers with Eclampsia and sever pre-Eclampsia

Filling up the empty shelves

Medical Supplies for Mothers, Babies and Midwives

• Cord clamps
• More delivery trays to sterilize because we ran out at about 10:30am
• Syringes
• Sterile gloves
• Non Sterile gloves
• Soap
• Drapes
• Sanitary pads – for mothers with stitches in stead of cotton wool
• Surgical instruments