Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone: The Story of Mamma

Birthing Room
Forced to marry at age 14, Mamma Sessay first gave birth when she was 15. Three years later, at the age of 18, she gave birth to the first of a pair of twins near her village, but when the contractions ceased for the second child, she traveled by canoe and ambulance to the Magburaka Government Hospital, where she waits, in the photo above, to deliver.

• The Perils of Pregnancy: One Woman's Tale of Dying to Give Birth