trevorslist
Overall, I found these graphic novels very impactful. They told a story which I hadn't thought of, but reminded me of issues within the U.S. as well.
I was initially suspicious of the framing of the very first nurse as "untrained", and wondered if this would be a series of stories that discredits midwifery and its worldwide
equivalents. This was not the issue the series ended up addressing, as the truth is much darker. In the country of Sierra Leone, healthcare is in a state of distrust from the citizens. After the ebola
epidemic of 2015, the people tend not to trust the hospital, a problem especially when it comes to pregnant women and their comprehensive healthcare needs. When the taxi is expensive, your village is remote, and
people keep "disappearing" after going to the doctor's, I can understand why it would be difficult to trust something as important as your birth with the hospital system. Even in the U.S., the mortality rate for black
mothers is much higher than it should be for a developed nation.
Primarily this series brought to mind the trend of "wild birth" coaches here in the U.S.,
preying on paranoia and distrust in the medical system (whether warranted or not) to sell their courses on how to move through the phases of pregnancy with no prenatal care, and most dangerously,
no medical care or trained midwifes present at birth. It's not dissimilar the spiritual healer described in the third graphic novel, a man who blamed Kadiatu for the deaths of her children. For some people,
wherever you see an opportunity for a living is worth pursuing, even to the detriment of vulnerable communities. Particularly in the case of the free birth coaches, they are aware of how many deaths their advice had resulted in,
yet they choose to continue selling the program and reiterating that "they do not encourage anything" and they just want parents to "know their options".
The story that transfixed me the most was the final story about Tetteh in women's prison. I was so astounded when she recalled having her son in jail with her, it was just so unfathomable to me as someone from
the U.S., where I truly cannot imagine the reforms required for something like that to occur. While her son Alie was removed from her care, and the facility, eventually, I am curious if he is actually better off in the system
rather than the care of his mother. Reading about the abuse she went through and the way she is being persecuted for protecting herself made me wonder if any non-profit law centers heard her story and got involved with her case.
If I have anything else to say about the articles, it is definitely that I was happy to hear about the different social services designed to help these women. The women doctors and nurses involved with the Aberdeen Women's Centre,
the Rainbo Centre in Bo, and Advocaid as well as Prison Watch are all doing great field work to connect themselves with the people who need them most, providing their services at rates that make sense. The most recent updates to
these stories were in 2020, often with bad news for their continuation. I hope by now, 6 years later, many of them have been able to rebuild their presences within their communities and continue to provide lifesaving care in the
ways they have in the past.