WHEN on duty, his utmost concern and priority is the health of the mother and baby.
His is to many a peculiar situation.
Tawanda Nyamakura (31) is a registered general nurse and a male midwife.
A midwife is a trained person who assists women during childbirth. Many midwives also provide prenatal care for pregnant women, birth education for women and their partners as well as post-natal care for mothers and newborn babies.
Nyamakura is one of the few male midwives in a profession largely dominated by women.
In August 2014, UNICEF released statistics showing Zimbabwe’s maternal death rate had dropped 36 percent since 2009, to 614 per 100 000 live births from 960 and Nyamukara is among key professionals helping to reduce and eventually do away with maternal deaths.
The country with the highest estimated maternal death rate (in 2013) was Sierra Leone, with 1 100 deaths per 100 000 live births.
In this field dominated by women, in his case one to 15 per shift, Nyamakura is unfazed; his focus is on the job and delivery in a sector presently grappling with the challenge of flight of trained personnel to ‘greener pastures’.
Under difficult conditions, local midwives have rallied around the cause to get more women into clinics and to provide better care in a bid to reduce maternal deaths.
So demanding is Nyamakura’s job that interviewing him took a lot of patience.
Nyamukara is among the midwives who have heeded the call to serve his motherland and has not left the service for opportunities elsewhere, valuing more the lives of women and their babies.
The midwife, who lights up when he begins to talk about his mission to ensure that mothers and babies survive and thrive, said he was motivated to go into nursing and midwifery by his mother who is also a nurse.
“I am a registered general nurse and registered midwife,” said Nyamakura.
“I trained as a nurse in 2004-2006
“I was then attached to the male medical ward from January 2007 to September 2009 and then the male surgical ward from September 2009 to December 2011.
“During that time I applied to the School of Midwifery.”
Nyamakura was accepted and began training in 2012 from January to December and was attached in the Midwifery Neo-Natal Department at Harare Hospital.
“I was then attached to the labour ward, a very critical department where all pregnant mothers are housed,” he said.
“I dealt with various complications that included prolonged labour, fetal distress and breathing problems.
The most satisfying part of his job, he said, was ensuring a safe delivery.
“I am happy when a mother delivers safely because my major role is to ensure that both the mother and baby are safe,” he said.
A research financed by the European Union, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund and the United States Agency for International Development which researched 17 000 households in every province of the country showed that 70 percent of pregnant women in 2014 received pre-natal care (up from 57 percent), and 78 percent of mothers gained access to care after birth (up from just 27 percent).
According to findings both pre-natal and post-natal care have improved dramatically, including the number of check-ups performed and the distribution of information to mothers on how to care for themselves and their children.
Interestingly, many labouring women prefer the services of a male midwife as they are of the opinion that the ‘sekurus’ (male midwives) as they are commonly known, are more considerate than female midwives.
“Many of them are comfortable with me that they ask ‘sekuru can you please do one or two things for me?’ even when they know that I am about to knock off,” said Nyamakura.
“This makes me very busy, but I enjoy it because it is part of my job to deliver my best to all those in my care.”
Nyamakura said on every shift, he facilitates the delivery of between four to five babies.
“When I trained, we were 26 in our class with only three males and even here at the hospital we are only three males such that the distribution is one male midwife per shift to 10-15 female midwives,” he said.
“But the work environment is comfortable and we don’t have any problems as we operate as a team and I am used to being around female midwives as they respect and appreciate my contribution.”
Dealing with women anatomy on a daily basis, said Nyamakura, was not an issue.
“It is all in a day’s work,” he said.
“I deal with so many women that by the time I knock off I would have forgotten the faces of some of the people I would have attended to.
“Sometimes I am surprised when a woman approaches me in the street and says ‘sekuru this is the child you helped bring into the world; their beaming faces are priceless.
“This is the most satisfactory part of the job, at 31 I have many vazukurus.”
This year’s commemoration of the International Day of Midwives, on May 5, ran under the theme ‘Women and Newborns: The Heart of Midwifery’.
Dr Lilian Dodzo, president of Zimbabwe Confederation of Midwives (ZIMCOM), said there was need to invest more in midwives to improve service delivery.
“We ask the Government to continue to increase investments in the education of midwives and grow the midwifery workforce in the country,” said Dr Dodzo.