News/Publications

Do you have a calling?

Dorothy Day once called nursing the highest possible service a woman could offer as she administered to the sick and dying in New York. All over the world, it is men and women of the medical field who drive the mission of maternal health advocacy.

Yesterday, Nigeria's Minister of Health disclosed that "the lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy and child birth in Nigeria is 1 in 23". Continuing, he stated that these horrific rates are a direct result of the lack of skilled professionals. To become a health care professional requires vocation, a vocation that MaterCare's Dr. Robert Walley explores in his film entitled The Vocation of the Obstetrician. You can view the short 5 minute film here. In it, he calls obstetrics the "most privileged of specialties". Today, Dr. Walley still firmly believes in the ability of comprehensive obstetrics to save the lives of the many needlessly dying women and children across the globe and has developed the Project Isiolo maternity clinic in rural Kenya to deliver on this belief.

Does someone you know have a calling to be a health care professional in the developing world? Consider MaterCare International as a concrete way to fulfill that vocation. Lack of skilled attendants is a major contributor to the world’s poor maternal, newborn and child health indices. If you or someone you know is a health care professional, contact us at info@matercare.org to find out how you can help.