look at those eyes.
Suna Abdulraman knows things. She's nine months old and wise beyond her months.
Her mother, Rukaya Ahmed, brought her to the clinic today because she has a cold, but otherwise she’s a healthy, happy baby. And she’s alive because the staff at Gombe Primary Health Care Facility were able to resuscitate her as soon as she came into the world.
Rukaya smiles softly as she looks at Suna. She’s a soft-spoken, thoughtful woman and it’s clear she’s grateful to the staff here at the Gombe Primary Health Care Facility. She’s experienced the opposite outcome before, the worst-case scenario, every parent’s nightmare. She experienced that three times.
Three times. After otherwise healthy, smooth pregnancies – her babies didn’t breathe after delivery, and three times they didn’t survive.
She shakes her head when she talks about it, still trying to understand. Her first two pregnancies and labors were successful - the babies were born breathing and crying and alive. But her next three babies were different - they weren't breathing.
“There were no complications, it was only when I gave birth that the babies didn’t breath.”