ETHIOPIA: Saving lives with trained birth attendants

DIRE DAWA Monday, November 03, 2008 (IRIN) - Like many teenagers in rural Ethiopia, Shekuria Mume, 19, became pregnant, quit school and got married at 15. The birth of her first baby remains one of her most traumatic experiences, as an untrained traditional birth attendant (TBA) delivered her. "I had heard that some women die while giving birth so I was scared most of the time during my pregnancy; I didn't sleep much," Shekuria told IRIN. With no health facility near her village of Shuna, in...