Mother and Baby in Tanzania

"The purpose of my dissertation research is to describe mothers’ perceptions of childbirth experience at a hospital in rural Tanzania. In rural Tanzania, half of all mothers give birth without any form of medical assistance. This condition results in one of the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rates in the world. One of the major barriers to hospital births is mothers’ negative attitudes toward quality of health care and health care workers in a hospital. The findings of the research will convey the voice of mothers so that health care services can improve in the way that mothers want. The image shows a mother who is walking toward a small clinic with her baby. The background is very dry desert without any paved road. Mothers come to a health care facility mostly by walking even though they have to walk for several hours. In this hard circumstance with high maternal and neonatal mortality, it is fortunate that a mother and her baby are healthy after birth. However, the researcher hopes that more mothers and babies could survive with proper professional assistance. This exotic image represents the ultimate goal of the research: more mothers and babies could survive and live healthily."