Intimate all-formats package: Malawian women forgo prenatal care
Pregnant women queue to see Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant at her home in Simika Village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, Sunday, May 23, 2021. Health officials in Malawi say fewer women are getting prenatal care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. At risk are the developing country's gains on its poor rate of maternal deaths. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)
By Thoko Chikondi, Gregory Gondwe and Kenneth Jali
AP’s all-format freelance team in Malawi — photographer Thoko Chikondi, correspondent Gregory Gondwe and video journalist Kenneth Jali — reported over several months to tell the important story of women going without prenatal care during the pandemic, undoing progress in improving maternal health in one of the world’s poorest nations.
A woman in labor walks to her delivery bed at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre ward in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 23, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Women sit in a postnatal ward at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre labor ward in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 26, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Pregnant women walk toward the home of Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant, in Simika village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, June 20, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Pregnant women eat food provided by Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant, at her home in Simika Village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 23, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant, prays in a Mosque before caring for pregnant women in Simika Village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 23, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant, tends to a pregnant woman at Mbewe’s home in Simika Village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 23, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Lucy Mbewe, a traditional birth attendant, listens to an unborn baby’s heartbeat at her home in Simika Village, Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 23, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Nursing and midwifery students attend class at St. Joseph College of Nursing and Midwifery in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 28, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
Nursing and midwifery students stand in a skills laboratory at St. Joseph College of Nursing and Midwifery in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 28, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
A midwife listens to an unborn baby’s heartbeat at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre labor ward in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 26, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
A baby boy cries soon after birth at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 26, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
A midwife cleans a newborn baby boy soon after his birth at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 26, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
A baby’s feet are shown shortly after his birth at the Malawi government’s Mauwa Health Centre labor ward in Chiradzulu, southern Malawi, May 26, 2021. – AP Photo / Thoko Chikondi
The trio’s commitment earned them access to birthing rooms, nursing colleges, and, most challengingly, to camera-averse traditional (and officially illegal) midwives to create a visually powerful, character-driven package. The story was anchored by powerful detail — bus fare to the hospital is more expensive than medical care — and brought to life by intimate photos, including a mother and her newborn minutes after giving birth. In a country where hospitals are so bare that women are expected to bring their own razor blades for cutting their babies’ umbilical cords, the AP showed how deepening poverty brought on by the pandemic is further imperiling women’s lives.
The tender, deeply reported package was initiated by Chikondi, and was produced with support from afar by all-formats AP staffers Krista Larson, Janelle Cogan, Carley Petesch, Andy Meldrum, Denis Farrell, Jerome Delay, Natalie Castañeda, Nqobile Ntshangase and Hend Kortam.
