Ebola - The Fallout Part 1

Tuesday 19^th August was our daughter Thea’s 5^th birthday and despite the relentless Ebola crisis and our self-imposed ‘semi-quarantine’ (no one is allowed to leave the compound unless on essential business and have to wash their hands with bleach on their return) we had to celebrate Thea’s birthday in some small way.  Luckily a friend of mine, Kayla, has an oven so I was able to bake a cake for Thea (with ingredients sent by mum – thank you xx) and we were to have said friend and a couple of others round to enjoy it after some Cassava Leaves and rice.  In the morning I had to call the MSF (Medecins sans Frontiers – or Doctors Without Borders) hospital to arrange for my latest check-up. That was where the drama began:

 Please forgive me but I must give a little pregnancy history here.  Both my daughter and son were born by emergency Caesarean Sections.  As this is my third pregnancy with two previous c sections I have no choice but to have a planned c section. Now I can tell you for nothing that doing this in Sierra Leone before the outbreak did not fill me with great joy, medical systems here have been stretched since the war and are yet to recover to anything like what we’re used to in Europe and the US.  However, MSF has a charity hospital near Bo, they have the best standard of maternity care in this region and a high percentage of women go to give birth there so I was resolved that this was our best option.  The plan was to be that I would give birth there and my mum would come to Sierra Leone for some time to help me (although at this time BA had suspended their flights so it was not clear as to whether she would get to come.) I telephoned and the Obstetrician told me that regretfully MSF had to suspend their Maternity services because of the risk of the outbreak.  I cannot describe the feeling of utter dread that came over me.  All the private clinics and hospitals in the country have been closed due to the crisis and the only hospital left open in Bo is the government hospital which had that very morning been looted by people who stole the belongings of the suspected Ebola patients awaiting their test results!  The Obstetrician said that I should go and see him for my final check-up and we could discuss what my options are.  Thankfully all was well with the baby but he said that my options with regards to the caesarean were limited to, well, the government hospital.  He said that he would talk to his manager but she was at that time in a meeting and they would call me later in that day.

I received a call later from the hospital and the lady told me that she wanted to give me some personal advice.  She said that if I can leave Sierra Leone for the birth I should, she said that in the ‘Ebola context’ there was no safe place in the country to have any kind of open surgery.  This is not advice from a Daily Mail reader but from an Infectious Disease expert working in the middle of the outbreak, she said that if she could support me in any way, she would. I relayed the conversation to Winston – we were terrified and devastated in equal measures.  Since the outbreak Winston’s work organizing sand supply to a Chinese company has been stopped because the company pulled out of the country and the nightmare that that contract has been is an entirely different story!  I resolved that we had no choice but to risk it and I give birth at the Bo Government Hospital.


The rest of Thea’s birthday was lovely, we steeled ourselves and were determined that Thea should enjoy her birthday.  Our friends came over and we had a nice meal together including the cake!  We were determined that Ebola was not going to ruin this day for our little girl and it didn’t, we listened to music, danced and enjoyed the company of good people.  It gave us a chance to be thankful for everything that we do have.


 Later that evening we spoke to my parents in London and explained what had happened.  There was no hesitation from them that we must return with their support and they told me that they wished we had done this over a month ago.  They said though when you receive advice like that you cannot ignore it.  Something clicked in me and I realized that of course they were right.  They have given us so much love and support throughout our journey here I hadn’t wanted previously, to ask them for more, despite offers of help from them and my sister I had been very stubborn about asking them for help.

I was happy though we managed to put our troubles away for one day and enjoy our Baby Bear on her birthday.