Campaign Helping Overcome Childbirth Crises (CHOCC) is a charity that seeks to help women in Africa. It funds training for nurses and midwives that can help them to deliver babies where obstruction exists.

The latest campaign in Liberia and the Gambia will train midwives in how to perform a forceps delivery or caesarean section so that these people can be helped in spite of the shortage of doctors.

CHOCC would like to extend this programme to other countries and needs your support.

Please can you help women and girls like Martha?

The women in this photo are lucky. Instead of having to take a risk and have their baby in the African bush they have been brought to a maternal waiting home near the hospital so that they can deliver there more safely.

Martha was not lucky.

She had obstructed labour. She was ready to deliver her baby but the baby was too big for her pelvis. This very painful and often prolonged (sometimes up to 5 days) condition can be helped.

If you live in the developed world you will be helped by a forceps delivery or a caesarean section. But in many parts of Africa help is not available.

There are not enough trained doctors and many people live too far away from the hospitals. The outcome may therefore be death of the baby and sometimes the mother too. Another possibility is long term damage to the mother with an abnormal passage formed between the vagina and the bladder or back passage (fistula) leading to leakage of urine or faeces. Women who are affected can lead a terrible life of isolation as a result of the odour and sores this produces.

Main banner image flickr.com/usaidafrica