Having a baby is a potentially life-threatening event, but thanks to modern medicine, it is, in the majority of cases, well and safely managed.

Not so everywhere. Left to nature, much can go wrong, both for mother and baby.

Speaking in Oxford recently, a remarkable Burmese doctor described living and working in a distant province – without electricity, where the nearest hospital is three days walk away. Imagine that, if complications ensued.

Facing overwhelming demands on his time and expertise, rather than give up on his many patients, Dr SaSa has founded a charity called Health and Hope offering training to traditional birth attendants, and community health workers in more than 400 villages throughout the remote Chin province – a mountainous area of towering peaks and deep gorges, covering almost 15,000 square miles.

A population of over half a million is served by only one hospital with specialist services and a bed capacity of only 150. Throughout the province there are only nine general hospitals with 314 beds in all, and 12 clinics with a further 192 beds. Now this capacity is likely to be under even more pressure.

Most people live and die in the village where they were born. Many illnesses could be alleviated, if only medical care could be accessed. Today, it cannot.

Dr SaSa trained in Armenia. In recent years his life was transformed by his marriage to another Armenian-trained medical student. They now have a four- month-old daughter. Her name is Faith.

“It’s no good looking for a coffee shop out here. We don’t have even the most basic services. It’s not the kind of life many doctors aspire to. I’m lucky beyond belief to have found someone who shares my commitment to the villagers. They have a right to basic healthcare too,” Dr SaSa said.

Dr SaSa has to give a flavour of complicated scientific ideas in familiar terms. Birth attendants have less than four weeks to learn new skills. “I tell our team that at 12 weeks, the foetus is like a grain of rice; at 20 weeks, a betel nut; at 34 weeks, a mango,” Dr SaSa said. “We use role play to explain concepts, and cartoons and pictures to get our points across.”

Many myths require debunking. Community health workers tackle many challenges, including managing diseases such as malaria. They must convince villagers that it’s not the spirits of the rocks and trees which cause malaria, but the mosquito. Swaddling a child with malaria is the wrong way to treat the disease – taking clothing off, to allow the body to cool is the first step.

There is so much to be done; so many opportunities to make a difference.

Oxford’s links with Burma are vibrant and ongoing. Aung San Suu Kyi was a student at St Hugh’s College, and returned to Oxford last year to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the University. This summer students from Oxford travelled to Myanmar to help with English teaching.

Now Dr SaSa’s best efforts need more support.

For details see healthandhope.org

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