In Memoriam – Camille Lepage

90% of women in South Sudan give birth outside of any official medical institutions, without the help of trained medical staff. That is the reason why there are so many unreported deaths.

Toma Tutu Jama (42) is a refugee from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. She is located at a refugee camp in Yida in South Sudan because of the Sudanese army bombing of the Sudan province South Kordofan.

One in every seven women in South Sudan dies during pregnancy or childbirth.

Death during childbirth is one of the biggest threats for women of South Sudan, where the highest rate of maternal deaths has been recorded. However, this number might be higher, since many cases remain unreported.

Mortality among mothers is caused by infections (puerperal fever or placenta retention), bleeding or termination of pregnancy. Another reason is the lack of infrastructure which complicated the accessibility to medical institutions.

Two hundred new midwives will graduate next year, the media reports, while noting that 'nobody expects a fast solution to problems in a country so big and neglected that it doesn't even have roads for women to come to the closest medical institutions'.

To make things worse, newborns are at risk because 25% of children die of frivolous and commonly cured diseases before they turn 5.

Toma Tutu Jama has given birth to her fourth child – a girl. She still hasn't named her and she will wait for her husband so they could choose together.