For the Mother's -- Maternity Ward

This week we visited the St. Joseph's Hospital maternity ward in Kinshasa. This is the largest hospital in the Catholic Hospital system here. The head of Obstetrics, Dr. Arthur Ngoy, is our champion for the NRT -- meaning he has made it possible to bring NRT to his colleagues across the DRC. He takes his vacation time to teach in outlying areas.

The staff in the maternity ward delivers an average of 450 babies per month. They have eight bed in pre-delivery, three stations for delivery and rooms for healthy mothers, for c-section mothers and a rooms for those mothers who cannot pay.

On the morning we visited, Dr. Ngoy had already delivered three babies by c-section. The nurses and doctors here do such a service -- they have little equipment, no monitoring devices and very crowded conditions.

This is Dr. Ngoy with one of his morning patients in the C-section recovery ward.

The nurses and doctors are located in the rooms where women get ready to deliver. They are located in the middle of the room so that they can watch everyone. The drapes in the corner separate the examining area.

The people not smiling in this room are having contractions!

The following three pictures are of women in recovery after c-sections. With no real monitoring equipment, the doctors have to make judgements about the health of the mother and the baby. They choose to err on the side of surgery.

For all of these women, the only food they will receive comes from their families. Families also need to find the medicine prescribed by the doctors, as there is no pharmacy on-site. For women who have been abused, social workers can provide some limited assistance.

These are the mothers who had normal deliveries and are well enough to go to the wards. Their new babies are with them. When it is too crowded, two women will share a bed -- two women, two babies in a bed. They dress their babies in beautiful clothing and proud papa is waiting to take them home on the transport or if they are lucky, in a taxi.

She seems awfully young, but it is hard to tell.


Women who cannot pay for the hospital services are treated, but they go to a room for those who cannot pay. It is very crowded. The woman in the second picture is bathing her new baby on the floor by her bed. She is visible in the first picture as a pink spot by the bed in the middle right of the picture.

Here, one woman waits to go home. Another group of women wait for a clinical appointment for a variety of maladies. In the crowd, there is a proud papa holding a white blanket -- he waits for his baby's final check-up before going home