Kelemi’s rainbow baby
Earlier this summer, our CEO Helen visited Hamlin’s Yirgalem Regional Fistula Hospital in southern Ethiopia. This visit was particularly special, because the hospital and work in Yirgalem and the surrounding region is fully funded by the generosity of donors and supporters from the UK.
Helen promised to share stories of the women she met on her return, below she starts with a patient’s story that made her well up with tears of joy.
Kelemi’s rainbow baby
“This summer, I travelled to southern Ethiopia to see the impact of UK supporters’ funding in action at Yirgalem Regional Fistula Hospital. The hospital team introduced me to Kelemi*, who is 30 years old.
She told me that during her first pregnancy, her labour was obstructed and she had no support from a midwife or health worker. After three days, her family knew something was terribly wrong and took her to a nearby hospital, but it was too late. Her baby was stillborn and Kelemi was left incontinent from a devastating obstetric fistula.
Kelemi explained she lived with this awful condition for years before she heard through her community that treatment might be available at Yirgalem Fistula Hospital.
“Before I came here, I was sleeping in a bed with no blankets and no linen because of the incontinence. At the hospital they welcomed me and gave me blankets to sleep on.”
Kelemi
At Yirgalem, her fistula was repaired, and she told me how the staff helped her heal psychologically as well as physically.
New life after fistula
However, I was meeting Kelemi at a happier time – she had returned to Yirgalem, to await a caesarean section to safely deliver her second baby.
It was amazing to see the hope in her face, despite the tragedy she has experienced.
One morning, after I had returned to the UK, I opened my emails to find this picture of Kelemi and her new baby!
Anyone who has experienced pregnancy after losing a baby will know all too well the mixture of hope and fear in the lead-up to childbirth. So, when I received the photos below of Kelemi with her baby, I cried tears of joy.
You might have heard the term ‘rainbow baby’ to refer to a baby born after a miscarriage or stillbirth. For Kelemi, with her baby wrapped in a beautiful coloured blanket knitted by a UK supporter, she is truly a rainbow of hope after despair.
It is stories and pictures like this that motivate me in my work. I hope you also find them inspirational.
Helen Marriott, CEO
*To protect the privacy of the women we serve, we are using a pseudonym for Kelemi
