Kerry Neumann

Delivering Babies

Our delivery room in Africa was not like what we have in the United States.  There is no running water, no toilets. The beds don’t have linens. When the woman delivers her baby, the woman and baby are wiped with the woman’s kitenge (African cloth draped as a dress).  The baby was delivered by Debbie Gilliam, myself, Dr. Edward Shackleford, and a nurse who then weighed and helped clean the baby.  The cleaning woman cleans the kitenge and hangs it out to dry,  along with cleaning the floors and delivery area with buckets of soapy water that are nearby.   

When the mother recovers, she then leaves with the baby on her back wrapped in the kitenge.