(ERGO) – Professional midwives left unemployed by aid cuts in Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya are filling a critical gap helping women during pregnancy and childbirth on a voluntary basis.
A team of 30 midwives provide free home-based health monitoring, counselling, and referrals to women in the camps and surrounding settlements, facing limited access to health facilities.
Many of the midwives held jobs at health facilities supported by humanitarian organisations until funding cuts slashed budgets in August 2024.
Fatumo Sidow, who coordinates the group, said they chose to continue serving their communities as volunteers.
The midwives frequently encounter women suffering from malnutrition and undiagnosed conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and anemia that pose severe risks to the mother and unborn child.
Fatumo told Radio Ergo that since June 2025, the volunteer midwives have assisted around 200 pregnant women.
Among them is Warsan Muse Jama, 35, who lives in Hagadera refugee camp. She was unaware she was suffering from anemia and malnutrition until Fatumo took her for tests.
“The first time she took me to hospital, my blood count was seven [dangerously low]. She advised me to eat eggs, vegetables, increase my food intake, use spinach and kale, drink more fluids, and avoid stress. She kept taking me back to the hospital. Later I was told my blood count rose to nine. She helped me very well and I delivered safely. Even when I was sick and vomiting, she came to my house. She brought her notebook and kept following up on me from that time. I received very good support,” Warsan said.
When Warsan went into labour, she called Fatumo.
“When I called, she came immediately. She was the only one who accompanied me to the hospital. As we were entering the gate, the baby came out. She delivered the baby for me inside the vehicle. She had her gloves and equipment with her. I was then taken to the hospital, where she helped settle me in the bed and arranged for my relatives to join me before leaving,” Warsan said.
During a previous delivery in 2023, she nearly died due to delayed medical care, as she had believed hospital visits were only necessary once labour pains began.
Warsan’s family has lived as refugees since 2010, after leaving a rural areas in Somalia’s Lower Juba region when drought decimated their livestock. They survive on income from a small shop run by her husband, selling charcoal and vegetables in the camp.
The midwives also reach out to women living outside the camps, where health facilities are even harder to access.
Habibo Ahmed Tajir, who lives six kilometres from Hagadera camp and is nine months pregnant, said regular hospital visits are difficult, but a midwife comes to her home to monitor her.
“Now that I am in my ninth month, I have decided to give birth in hospital, and God willing, my wish will be fulfilled. The midwife advised me to avoid stress and told me that if the ambulance delays, I should call her and she would contact the hospital. I am now confident that I will deliver in hospital,” Habibo said.
It will be her first hospital delivery as she always thought hospitals would be too expensive. Guided by a midwife, she has been registered at a health facility in readiness for the delivery due in January.
Her family is poor, living off $30 cash aid that they receive every two months.
“The food we buy runs out halfway through the month. We have no support from inside or outside. I look for loans and sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t. When I do get a loan, repaying it is another struggle. When food runs out and we cannot get loans, we go to sleep hungry,” she said.
The midwives themselves also face severe economic hardship, after losing their jobs at health facilities that were supported by International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Dahiro Malin Abdi, a senior midwife with 10 years’ experience, said the decision to continue as a volunteer was rooted in responsibility and professional commitment.
“Our purpose is that these are our people. We were trained before, and if we get an organisation to support us, that would be good. If not, we will continue serving our community. This is work we believe in and value deeply,” Dahiro told Radio Ergo.
Many maternal deaths in the camps occur at home and go unrecorded. Lack of awareness remains one of the biggest challenges.
“We discourage mothers from giving birth at home. Even when a woman insists on delivering at home, we persuade her and take her to a health facility. We provide education and awareness. Every month, we assist 10 to 15 pregnant women,” Dahiro said proudly.
