This is Marion with her daughter, Tinah. Marion is a health care worker that has been assisting in the nutrition program in Taninahun. She is also working part time in the Taiama UMC Health Center.

Marion was previously a Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) in Taiama for sixteen years. SHE HAS DELIVERED 575 BABIES!! She explained to us that she has kept a record of each child. One of the reasons Sierra Leone has the highest infant/mother mortality rate is because women in labor would prefer going to TBA's rather than hospitals to deliver their babies. TBA's are trusted women in the village who usually have had the responsibility of delivering babies passed down from generation to generation from the mother to the daughter. The problem is that there are so many TBA's, unlike Marion, that have received no training. The only training they have received is the experience their mothers were able to pass on to them through experience. While this experience is valuable, there are still many things that can go wrong in a delivery. Taiama is one of the clinics where TBA training has begun. All the TBA's in Taiama also have a cell phone. If there is a complication in delivery, then the TBA can call the Taiama Head Nurse, Christiana, for assistance. This simple development plus the training is saving countless children and mothers. Hopefully, with the training, there will be more TBA's like Marion who will be able to tell their stories of many, many successful deliveries.