Member Article

Westfield student delivers baby on Africa placement

A Newcastle student says the amazing chance to deliver a newborn baby on a trip to Tanzania has made her even more determined to become a midwife.

Annie Ledingham, who lives in Gosforth, has recently returned from a visit to a remote town called Iringa, nine hours from Tanzania’s capital, Dar es Salaam. She spent more than two weeks in the town’s hospital on a midwifery and nursing volunteer placement with the Gap Medics organisation.

The amazing experience for the 18-year-old, who is a pupil at Westfield School for Girls in Gosforth, came during the second week of her trip when she was placed on the obstetric and gynaecology ward.

She said: “I have wanted to be either a nurse or midwife for many years. As getting valuable work experience within the nursing profession in the NHS is extremely difficult, I thought it would be a valuable and an eye-opening experience to undertake work in a developing country. We had been observing a number of births, but never in a million years did I expect to be able to deliver a baby myself.

The midwife in charge, Sister Monica, asked if I wanted to receive the next baby that was going to be born. Of course, I jumped at the chance and got scrubbed up and rushed over to the soon-to-be mother giving birth.

Sister Monica directed me so I was not completely on my own. Suddenly the baby started to appear and I found myself actually delivering the tiny newborn. I placed the baby on the mother’s stomach and clamped and cut the cord, then once everything was cleaned up, I weighed the baby then gave her back to the mother and said ‘congratulations’ in Swahili.

Words cannot describe how moving and amazing this felt.“

She added: “It wasn’t until after I had delivered the baby and was walking out of the hospital that I actually stopped and thought ‘I’ve just delivered a baby!’ It felt unbelievable that I was able to bring a tiny baby into the world. It was an experience I will never forget.”

The mother was just 17 and had only Annie and Sister Monica present at the birth of her baby girl, whom she called Angel. Custom in Tanzania dictates that no family members are present at a birth.

“Being in Tanzania has proved to me 100 per cent that I definitely want to follow a career in midwifery,” she added. Annie has applied to do adult nursing at university, which will allow her ultimately to follow a midwifery route.

Annie, who sits her A-Level exams in Biology, Psychology and Geography in the coming at weeks at Westfield School actually helped deliver a second baby on her last day on the ward, this time receiving a baby from the doctor that was born via C-section.

Annie’s Headmistress at Westfield School, Mrs Marion Farndale, said: “Annie’s behaviour while in Tanzania has been a credit to the school. Her amazing experiences fit perfectly with our emphasis on holistic learning and a worldwide cultural understanding which is embedded in our curriculum at Westfield.

“We have no doubt Annie will fulfill her dreams of becoming a very successful midwife. We’re all very proud of her.”

The school’s pupils enjoy a rich international outlook through their membership of the Round Square organisation, which encourages cultural learning through shared experiences. They’re the sole member school from the North East of England and Westfield pupils enjoy regular exchange visits and student-led conferences with a number of schools from across the world.

Their membership has led to Westfield School annually raising money to pay for the education of children at member schools in an underprivileged area of Nairobi in Kenya.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Westfield School for Girls .